O'Connor in captivity.
Symbolizing the sudden reversal of fortune in the Desert, a German patrol captured Gen. Richard O'Connor, the commander of the British forces in Egypt. On the same day the Germans took Derna, Libya.
The British had already striped British forces in North Africa to supply them to the mission to Egypt, and that was followed by German gains in Libya. O'Connor's capture somewhat symbolized the reversals the British were now seeing.
O'Connor would remain a prisoner of the Italians until their surrender, at which point he was reincorporated into the British command structure and held significant commands until the war's end. He retired in 1948, but lived a very long life after the war, dying in 1981 at age 91.
O'Connor was Anglo Irish, of a military family, and had been born in India.
On the same night, British Ireland was struck by the Luftwaffe on the first of its prolonged raids on Belfast.
Clearing rubble in Belfast.
The British government introduced a budget which dramatically increased taxes and forced savings in an application of Keynesian economics. It was an effort to address inflation. The British public took it well.
The British also broke diplomatic relations with Hungary.
No comments:
Post a Comment