12-Nov-39: King George VI Issues Negative Reply to Peace Appeal; First ENSA Entertainment Debuts; Germans Round Up Suspected Assassination Conspirators

Today is 12-Nov-1939, the 43rd day of World War II; there are 2,120 days left in the conflict.

King George VI issues a gracious reply to a joint peace appeal issued by Dutch Queen Wilhelmina and Belgian King Leopold the previous week; he states that the onus of the war, and therefore the means to end it, lie with the Germans. The reply is thus characterized as being negative. At the same time, French President Alfred Lebrun also issues a negative reply to the Low Countries monarchs. The Dutch and Belgian foreign ministers are holding their own meetings at Breda, in the Netherlands.

British First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill announces via a BBC radio broadcast that the first campaign of the war will be won if the nation makes it through the war’s first winter without serious setbacks. British and French troops stationed in France are entertained by Maurice Chevalier and Gracie Fields in the very first concert of the war given by the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), which is chartered to provide such services in order to boost fighting troop morale.

German security forces arrest hundreds of dissidents and Jews as the search for the perpetrators of the 8-Nov attempted assassination of Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler in Munich heats up. Regular German citizens receive for the first time ration cards for clothing allowances.