November 20th 1939

Monday November 20th

The offensive against Holland and Belgium seems to have been indefinitely postponed, but this has been a black week-end for all sea-faring folk: 8 ships mined, four of them neutrals including the Dutch liner “Simon Bolivar”* sunk on Saturday with a loss of 126 lives**.

Survivors’ stories are so unbearable as to be absolutely unreadable**. The whole world is outraged by this German atrocity.

O God will they never learn!

* Further details at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_in_November_1939#18_November
** Later records give the figure of 84
** *Read some survivors' stories at https://www.cruiselinehistory.com/i-was-there-we-were-on-the-s-s-simon-bolivar-when-it-struck-a-mine-in-ww-2/