23 Nov 1939 | World War II Database

23 Nov 1939

RAF claimed seven Luftwaffe aircraft over France. ww2dbase [TH]
Rawalpindi stumbled upon German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. When asked to abandon ship, Captain Edward Kennedy turned toward the German ships in an attempt to get into range of her 6-inch guns. She was to be sunk by the German 11-inch guns before she could get close enough. ww2dbase [Rawalpindi | AC]
Adolf Hitler gathered the top German leaders and lectured them on his vision for the future of Germany, which involved an invasion of France. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | CPC]
In an aerial battle over the French border, Leutnant Werner Methfessel became the Luftwaffe's first Bf 110 fighter pilot ace (although the veracity of his claim remained in some doubt). ww2dbase [Bf 110 | AC]

Poland

All Jews above the age of 10 in the General Government in German-occupied Poland were required to wear the Star of David. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]

United Kingdom

Britain recovered a magnetic mine from muddy fields near River Thames in southern England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Start of the Battle of the Atlantic | England | CPC]

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis

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