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• General Wilhelm List was named the commanding officer of the German 12th Army. ww2dbase [Wilhelm List | CPC]
• With the offer for peace rejected by the French on 7 Oct and by the British on 12 Oct, Germany announced that the western powers desired war, and Germany could not be blamed for military action on the German-French border. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | CPC]

• German pocket battleship Deutschland sank Norwegian freighter Lorentz W. Hansen 420 miles east of Newfoundland. ww2dbase [Start of the Battle of the Atlantic | CPC]
• U-40 struck a mine in the Strait of Dover and sank. 39 were killed. 9 survived the sinking, but 6 would die before being rescued. ww2dbase [Start of the Battle of the Atlantic | U-40 | Strait of Dover | CPC]

• The 1,819-ton neutral Norwegian merchant steamer Kvernaas, captured by the Germans in Sep 1939, was released from Kiel, Germany along with its cargo of 2,585 tons of cellulose. ww2dbase [Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein | HM]

13 Oct 1939 Interactive Map