Wednesday, August 5, 1942. Vichy Guilt.

Today in World War II History—August 5, 1942: 80 Years Ago: Churchill appoints Lt. Gen. William Gott to replace Gen. Claude Auchinleck over British Eighth Army in North Africa.

So reports Sarah Sundin.

Churchill visited El Alamein. He'd flown into Cairo the day prior.

More ominously, she also notes:

Vichy France (not occupied by the Germans) sends its first group of Jews to Drancy in occupied France, where they will be sent to Auschwitz.

Antisemitism in France had a long history.  Tragically, during the war, it began to come out in events such as this. Vichy was still an independent state, and it was cooperating accordingly in one of hte most horrific crimes in history.

In France, the Japanese, yes Japanese, submarine I-30 arrived in Lorient with a load of mica and shellac, and blueprints for the highly successful Type 91 aerial torpedo.  The crew was met and greeted by Admirals Raeder and Donitz.  Ultimately, the crew visited Berlin and its commander, Commander Endo, met Hitler.

It would carry radar equipment for Japan on the way back, but it didn't make it, being sunk by a British mine on its return trip.

France, according to Sundin, also began to ration wine at the rate of two liters per person per week.  There are about five glasses of wine in a liter, according to the Internet, so that probably was a pretty significant restriction in a country in which wine still provided a significant number of daily calories.

Beyond that, however, as late as the 1950s French wine consumption was so large that the French government, concerned with the health impacts of excessive drinking, began a campaign to encourage the French to limit their consumption to one liter per day.

Yup, one liter per day.

Wine consumption has dropped way off in France. As late as the 1980s, more than half of all French adults drank at least one glass of wine daily.  That figure is now 17%, and 38% of the French don't drink.  This huge cultural shift is attributed to a wide variety of factors.

Dutch Queen Wihelmina visited the White House and addressed Congress.

Anthony Eden announced that the British would not feel bound by the 1938 Munich Agreement post-war, which seems rather obvious.