17-Nov-39: SS Troops Occupy Czech Universities, Execute, Imprison Students; Czech National Committee Formed in Paris; Allies Officially Adopt “Plan D;” German Battleship Arrives in Gdynia
Today is 17-Nov-1939, the 48th day of World War II; there are 2,115 days left in the conflict.
With violence continuing in Prague after a medical student’s funeral on 15-Nov, German SS troops occupy all universities after Reichsprotektor Konstantin von Neurath ordered them shut down. The SS executes nine student “leaders” and sends 1,200 other student participants to concentration camps. These events will become the basis for observing every 17-Nov as International Students Day.
In response to the events in Prague, a Czechoslovakian National Committee is established in Paris. Former President of Czechoslovakia Eduard Benes is appointed its leader. Britain and France officially recognize the committee a month later.
The third meeting of the Allied Supreme War Council in London endorses the Dyle (River) Plan, commonly referred to as “Plan D.” Proposed by French General Maurice Gamelin, the plan calls for defending against a German attack through Belgium by conducting defensive operations along a line from the Meuse River to Antwerp.
In the former Poland, the pocket battleship Deutschland arrives in the port of Gdynia after an Atlantic raiding cruise that resulted in her successfully sinking two merchant ships.