20-Nov-39: Luftwaffe Drops Magnetic Mines into Thames Estuary, British Minesweeper Subsequently Sunk; Dutch Air Force Shoots Down German Plane; SS Re-Establishes German Control Over Prague
Today is 20-Nov-1939, the 51st day of World War II; there are 2,112 days left in the conflict.
After experiencing successes by mining British territorial waters and North Sea shipping lanes, the German Luftwaffe begins dropping the magnetic mines into the Thames estuary itself. The British minesweeper HMS Mastiff explodes and sinks after attempting to recover a German magnetic mine using a fishing net.
Over the Netherlands, the Dutch Air Force successfully shoots down a German Luftwaffe aircraft which had strayed over neutral territory. Meanwhile in Berlin, Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler issues a revised directive for the attack on France through the Netherlands and Belgium, along with a revised date. Many other such revisions will be issued in the next six months.
In the Reichsprotektorate die Böhmen und Mähren (the former Czechoslovakia), German SS troops have re-established complete control over the city of Prague after days of student demonstrations, violence, executions and deportations.