Diary November 17, 1939

War Diary, 11-1939, Diary WW2, Year 1939 / 1 minute of reading

^Pocket battleship 'Deutschland' — Pocket battleship ‘Deutschland’ will be renamed to ‘Lützow’ and classified as a Heavy Cruiser in February 1940.

War Diary for Friday, November 17, 1939:

Sea War

Atlantic: Pocket battleship Deutschland (Germany) arrives at Gdynia (Baltic) after her Atlantic raiding cruise (2 ships sunk).
Renamed Lützow by Hitler in February 1940 to save face if she is sunk.

Air War

German reconnaissance aircraft flies over North West England.
Germans drop propaganda booklets over Central and South East France.
RAF photographs Wilhelmshaven naval base.

Politics

Third meeting of Allied Supreme War Council in London. ‘Plan D’ adopted (‘Dyle Plan‘, see November 14). British and French economies to be closely integrated.

Occupied countries

Czechoslovakia: SS occupy all universities (night 16-17), nine student leaders are executed and 1,200 sent to concentration camp. Universities closed until 1945.
Czech National Committee formed by ex-President Benes in Paris.

About The Author

Kretaner

My name is Norman 'Kretaner' and since my childhood I am interested in history and strategy games. Later, I have learned programming and the development of computer games, and finally with the Internet, also web design. I'm in the fortunate position to combine all my interests with my work and to live on a place of my choice, on Crete. All information, figures, specifications and statistics used here had been compiled from a variety of sources and the large, over decades collected, library of the author about military history, WW2 and weapons.