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1935   (MONDAY) 

ETHIOPIA: The Government denounces the Hoare-Laval plan stating, ". . . our willingness to facilitate any pacific solution on the basis of the Franco-British proposals would not only be cowardice toward our people, but a betrayal of the League of Nations and of all states that have thought up to now they could have confidence in the system of collective security. Those proposals are . . . a negation and abandonment of the principles upon which the League of Nations was founded. They would consecrate the amputation of Ethiopia's territory and the disappearance of her independence for the benefit of a state that has attacked her. . . .A settlement on the basis of these proposals would place a premium upon aggression and upon violation of international engagements. . . ." The Hoare-Laval Pact concocted by the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Hoare and the French Prime Minister, Pierre Laval for the partitioning of Ethiopia, as a means of ending the Italo-Et  hiopian War. It aimed to satisfy the demands of Italy's Dictator Benito Mussolini to make the independent nation of Ethiopia an Italian colony. According to the Pact, the old kingdom of Ethiopia is to remain independent but most of the country would belong to Italy.

 

1938   (FRIDAY) 

BULGARIA: The Prime Minister, Georgi Kyoseivanov, states that Poland is more threatened by Germany than southeastern Europe. He does not consider as impossible an understanding between the U.S.S.R. and Germany, especially if the Soviet Comintern agrees to tone down its propaganda. Such had always been the dream of a section of the German General Staff. In that event, a fourth partition of Poland would allow Germany to proceed with her forceful drive eastwards.  

UNITED STATES: The nonrigid K-2 airship is delivered to Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, for trials. This is the prototype for the World War II K Class patrol airships, of which 135 are procured.

December 16th, 1939 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:  RAF Bomber Command: Daylight anti-shipping sweep over North Sea. 102 Sqn. Three aircraft. Nothing sighted. Security Patrols over Hornum and Borkum. 77 Sqn. Three aircraft. Four Flak ships bombed without result. Much searchlight activity over Norderney.

ASW trawler HMS Sedgefly mined off Tynemouth.

GERMANY:

U-64 commissioned.

U-332 laid down.

ITALY: Rome: Count Ciano attacks Russia in a speech to the Fascist assembly.

FINLAND: Helsinki: The Finns have stopped the Russian "steamroller". Fighting skilfully on skis and camouflaged in white, they are inflicting heavy losses on the Russians who expected an easy victory and had not even been issued with winter clothing. Many Russians have frozen to death, they call the Finns 'Bielaja Smert' [the White Death]. The Russians know that if they are wounded death is almost inevitable from frostbite. The Finns have developed a tactic they call 'motti' [A stack of wood ready for chopping]. They move around the Russian columns strung out along the forest roads, sniping, then disappearing on their skis. They lay mines on the tracks booby-trap farm animals, burn down their own farms to deny the invaders shelter, and have become expert at using "Molotov cocktails" to knock out the Red Army's tanks. Sometimes they attack in force at several points, chopping the Russian columns into several disorganised pieces, then surrounding the pieces and wiping them out.

The Finnish border with Russia is 800 miles long. In the south, along the Gulf of Finland, a number of amphibious attacks have been repulsed and the Mannerheim line is holding the main thrust of the Red Army along both banks of Lake Ladoga. North of Lake Ladoga, the Russians have made better progress because the Finns do not have enough men to guard the long frontier, but the Russians are not mobile enough to exploit their advantage and have been thrown out of Suomussalmi, which they took on the 9th. In the far north the Russians have captured the port of Petsamo but moving south-west down the Arctic Highway are held up at Nautsi.

CARIBBEAN SEA: USN destroyers USS Schenck (DD-159) and USS Philip (DD-76), soon joined by USS Lea (DD-118), relieve destroyers USS Jouett (DD-396) and USS Lang (DD-399) in trailing the German passenger liner SS Columbus off Key West, Florida. USS Jouett and USS Lang steam to join destroyer USS Davis (DD-395) in attempting to locate the German freighter SS Arauca. Schenck soon proceeds on other assigned duties.

U.S.S.R.: Soviet submarine SC-405 launched.

Soviet submarine K-1 commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-59 sank SS Glitrefjell and Lister.

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