19-Nov-39: Germans Erect Barrier Around Warsaw Jewish Quarter; Churchill Wants Mine Laying in Rhine River; Chinese Nationalists Order Winter Offensive Against Japanese
Today is 19-Nov-1939, the 50th day of World War II; there are 2,113 days left in the conflict.
German occupation authorities begin erecting a temporary barrier around the Jewish Quarter in Warsaw; it is a prelude to the later building of a permanent wall around the ghetto. Occupation authorities continue to crack down in the former Czechoslovakia; three more executions of student protesters, plus the arrests of over 50,000 people are reported.
In response to the sinking of five ships due to German Luftwaffe magnetic mining of British territorial waters and the North Sea, British First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, still livid over the loss of life and shipping, urges the government to order the Royal Air Force to mine the Rhine River between Strasbourg and the Lauter River.
In Asia, the Chinese Nationalist government in Chungking, after the recent loss of the final viable port, Pakhoi, orders the army to conduct a winter offensive against the Japanese Imperial Army.