November 26th, 1940 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Yes, we will have no bananas after Christmas. After present stocks run out the government will allow no further imports, to save shipping space for essentials. Lemons and onions are also very scarce. People are asking why, as soon as unrationed foods are price-controlled, they disappear from the shops. The reason is that supplies are diverted to the Black Market for people who are prepared to pay more. Lord Woolton promises a little extra tea and sugar for Christmas.Westminster: Churchill telegrams to Wavell:
Re:- Operation Compass... am having a Staff study made of possibilities open to us, if all goes well, for moving troops and also reserve forward by sea in long hops along the coast, and setting up new supply bases to which pursuing armoured vehicles and units might resort.
POLAND: Warsaw:
Work began today on sealing Warsaw's Jewish ghetto, the aim being to cut off its 400,000 inhabitants, living six to a room, from the outside world. Jewish workmen are being forced to build a nine-foot high wall around the streets that have become their prison. They are whipped and beaten if they slow down.
Last month, the Nazis deported the 113,000 Poles who used to live in this dilapidated part of the city in order to make room for the 138,000 Jews from other parts of the city. Then, the ghetto was sealed: there are just 28 exit points, all guarded by German and Polish militia assisted by the ghetto's own Jewish police force. only 53,000 people have permits to leave the ghetto: the rest must stay inside on pain of death.
Over 150,000 people, unable to leave the ghetto's confines in order to work, roam the streets begging for a new job. All wireless sets have been confiscated; telephones have been cut.
The Nazis have appointed a Judenrat [Jewish Council] to run the ghetto's affairs, including supervising its economy and providing a Jewish Police force. Its leader, Adam Czerniakow, tries to cushion his people from the constant German demands for enormous bribes and slave labour, but finds himself in the role of collaborator and hated by his people.
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Stalin informs the German ambassador that Russia is prepared to join the four-power pact provided that:
1. German troops are immediately withdrawn from Finland.
2. That within the next few months the security of the Soviet Union in the Straits is assured by the conclusion of a mutual-assistance pact with Bulgaria, ... and by the establishment of a base for land and naval forces by the Soviet Union within range of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles.
3. That the area south of Batum and Baku in the general direction of the Persian Gulf is recognised as the centre of the aspirations of the Soviet Union.
4. That Japan renounce her rights to concessions for coal and oil in northern Sakhalin.
ALBANIA: Elements of the Greek Army's III Corps, including Steve Sttatharos's grandfathers unit, have been fighting their way North toward Lake Ohrida since the capture of Koritsa on the 22nd. The snow and freezing weather hamper the effectiveness of both sides but the Greek advance continues steadily. (Steven Sttatharos)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: A fast convoy under the codename Operation 'Collar' sails from Gibraltar with ships for Malta and Alexandria. Cover as usual is provided by Force H with HMS Renown, HMS Ark Royal, cruisers HMS Despatch and HMS Sheffield.
Meanwhile, units of the Mediterranean Fleet including HMS Ramillies and cruisers HMS Newcastle, HMS Berwick and HMS Coventry head for a position south of Sardinia to meet them. Others accompany the two Mediterranean Fleet carriers in separate attacks on Italian targets - Eagle on Tripoli, Libya and Illustrious on Rhodes.
BELGIAN CONGO: Governor-General Pierre Marie Joseph Ryckmans declares a state of war with Italy "to continue closest collaboration with Britain and her allies."
CANADA:
The sixth and last group of USN ships involved in the destroyers-for-bases agreement are decommissioned and turned over to Royal Navy crews at Halifax, Nova Scotia. USS Bailey (DD-269), commissioned as HMS Reading (G-71), USS Meade (DD-274), commissioned as HMS Ramsey (G-60), USS Shubriak (DD-268), commissioned as HMS Ripley (G-79), USS Swasey (DD-273), commissioned as HMS Rockingham (G-58), and USS Fairfax (D-93), commissioned as HMS Richmond (G-88), as part of the destroyers-for-bases deal. (Ron Babuka)
Corvettes HMS Eyebright and Snowberry commissioned with Canadian crews. Later transferred to RCN.
BERMUDA: Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere, dies aged 72, in Bermuda. Rothermere was a newspaper publisher who as early as 1935 had called attention of the British government to the building of the German air force. In the 1930s Rothermere had supported Oswald Mosley and the National Union of Fascists. He also had several meetings with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler and argued that the Nazi leader desired peace. In one article written in March, 1934 he called for Hitler to be given back land in Africa that had been taken as a result of the Versailles Treaty. Rothermere and his newspapers supported British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his policy of appeasement and was devastated when World War II began.