Thursday 5 October 1939

German soldiers parade in Pilsudski Square. Warsaw, Poland, October 5, 1939.

Battle of Poland: After some German advances near Wojcieszków, Gułów and Adamów, Polish General Kleeberg launches a bitter counter-attack on the 13th Motorised Division which regains some ground on 5 October 1939. The front has moved back and forth, but the Poles have held their ground. After the conclusion of the day's battles, Kleeberg decides to capitulate because he is out of food and ammunition with no hope of re-supply.

Hitler reviews the victory parade in Warsaw, then returns to Berlin, where he delivers a victory speech. Leni Riefenstahl films it for later use.

Western Front: The French broadcast a report of a battle in the Moselle Valley.

Soviet-Latvian Relations: The two countries conclude a Mutual Assistance Treaty whereby the Soviets gain naval and air bases.

Soviet-Finnish Relations: The Soviets request boundary talks with the Finns.

Battle of the Atlantic: British and French warships are looking for the Admiral Graf Spee in the South Atlantic. The Graf Spee sinks the British vessel Beech.

The German pocket battleship Deutschland, meanwhile, is on the loose in the North Atlantic and sinks the SS Stonegate west of Bermuda.

The French detain the US freighter Exeter and release the US freighter City of Joliet after an examination.

Germany detains the Swedish "Korsholm," Estonian "Minna" and Norwegian "Brott" at various ports on suspicion of carrying US war cargo.

Convoy OA 15 departs Scotland and OB 15 departs Liverpool.

German Propaganda: "Der Sturmer" published a "Hymn of Hate" against England.

French Government: The government arrests 26 Communist deputies in the Chamber of Deputies.

Sweden: The Swedish government announces that it will arm its cargo vessels.

China: The First Battle of Changsha continues, with the Chinese 9th War Area attacking Chiuhsientang and withdrawing elsewhere across the Hsiu River.

Adolf Hitler (lower right) gives a salute - later known as a Hitler salute - as he reviews German troops. Warsaw, Poland, October 5, 1939. Wide World Photo

October 1939

October 1, 1939: Occupation of Warsaw
October 2, 1939: Hel Peninsula Falls
October 3, 1939: The Diamantis Incident
October 4, 1939: Otto Kretschmer Gets Rolling
October 5, 1939: Polish Resistance Ends
October 6, 1939: Hitler Peace Effort
October 7, 1939: The British Have Arrived
October 8, 1939: First RAF Kill from UK
October 9, 1939: "City of Flint" Incident
October 10, 1939: Lithuania Under Pressure
October 11, 1939: The Atomic Age Begins
October 12, 1939: England Rejects Hitler's Peace Offer
October 13, 1939: Charles Lindbergh Speaks Out
October 14 1939: Royal Oak Sunk
October 15, 1939: Cuban Rockets
October 16, 1939: First Aircraft Shot Down Over UK
October 17, 1939: Marshall Mannerheim Returns
October 18, 1939: Prien Receives His Award
October 19, 1939: Preliminary Plan for Fall Gelb
October 20, 1939: Hitler Grapples with the Jews
October 21, 1939: Hurricanes to the Rescue!
October 22, 1939: Goebbels Lies Through His Teeth
October 23, 1939: Norway the Center of Attention
October 24, 1939: German "Justice" Gets Rolling
October 25, 1939: Handley Page Halifax Bomber First Flies
October 26, 1939: Jozef Tiso Takes Slovakia
October 27, 1939: King Leopold Stands Firm
October 28, 1939 - First Luftwaffe Raid on Great Britain
October 29, 1939: Tinkering with Fall Gelb
October 30, 1939: Defective Torpedoes
October 31, 1939: Molotov Issues an Ultimatum

2019

Tuesday 12 September 1939

Hitler continues his tour of the front, 12 September 1939.

Battle of Poland: The German 1st Mountain Division under Colonel Ferdinand Schörner arrives near Lwów on 12 September 1939, capturing Sambor. He orders an immediate assault on the fly. His advance troops bypass the Polish defenders but are pushed back by garrison troops when they try to take the city.

After the heroic Polish counterattack at Kałuszyn near Mińsk Mazowiecki, the Germans retake the town.

The Polish Army of Poznan advances to the rear and takes the German 8th Army in its flank. Thus begins the Battle of the Bzura River.

Polish troops recapture Lowicz. They evacuate Gdynia.

The Luftwaffe inexplicably bombs Krzemieniec (Kremenets), which has been declared an open village for the temporary housing of evacuated Warsaw diplomats.

German radio announces that German troops have wiped out Polish troop concentrations west of the Vistula and captured their equipment. The German forces are consolidating at Modlin on the north bank of the Vistula, 15 miles from Warsaw.

Western Front: Operation Saar reaches its maximum penetration into German territory, occupying roughly 45 square miles. The French continue to maintain that the operation has drawn off six German divisions from Poland. The French never make contact with the Siegfried Line and contact with the Wehrmacht is minimal despite their overwhelming firepower. General Gamelin declares victory and ends the operation, content to occupy useless territory pursuant to the wishes of the Supreme War Council (see below).

Battle of the Atlantic: Four British cargo vessels - Inverliffey, Firby, Blairlogie, and Gartavon - are reported sunk. The Finnish merchant ship Olivebank sinks after hitting a mine.

In a very touchy maneuver, a German U-boat stops and searches the American freighter Wacosta near Ireland.

Anglo-French War Council: The Council has its first meeting at Abbeville, France. British Prime Minister Chamberlain and Lord Chatfield meet with their French counterparts. They agree to postpone military operations for the time being as they beef up their forces.

British Government: The Duke and Duchess of Windsor return to England after an extended stay in France.

Germany: The government confiscates all rubber tires in the country and restricts the sale of gasoline to those holding special permits.

Foreign Minister Ribbentrop issues an ultimatum to the Romanian Government not to offer asylum to Poles crossing the border: if they do, Germany will consider it an act of war.

Canada:  Minister of National Revenue James Lorimer Ilsley announced a new 20% surtax on personal income, including tax increases on alcohol, tea, coffee, and cigarettes.

Czech Exile Government: The Czechs form an army-in-exile.

British Homefront: Due to reports of numerous violations of the blackout rules, the home office opens an inquiry.

US Navy: Neutrality patrols begin along the Eastern seaboard of the United States and in the Caribbean.

War Crimes: Wehrmacht soldiers massacred the Jewish population of the Polish town of Konskie on September 12, 1939.

Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl with the 14th Army Corps in Poland. Her crew was known as "Special Film Troop Riefenstahl" [Sonderfilmtrupp Riefenstahl]. Her stay on the Polish front only became publicly known at the end of the 1940s, with the discovery of photographs that showed her standing by as Wehrmacht soldiers massacred the Jewish population of the Polish town of Konskie on September 12, 1939.

September 1939

September 1, 1939: Invasion of Poland
September 2, 1939: Danzig Annexed
September 3, 1939: France, Great Britain Declare War
September 4, 1939: First RAF Raid
September 5, 1939: The US Stays Out
September 6, 1939: Battle of Barking Creek
September 7, 1939: Polish HQ Bugs Out
September 8, 1939: War Crimes in Poland
September 9, 1939: The Empire Strikes Back
September 10, 1939: The Germans Break Out
September 11, 1939: Battle of Kałuszyn
September 12, 1939: The French Chicken Out
September 13, 1939: The Battle of Modlin
September 14, 1939: Germany Captures Gdynia
September 15, 1939: Warsaw Surrounded
September 16, 1939: Battle of Jaworów
September 17, 1939: Soviets Invade Poland
September 18, 1939: Lublin Falls
September 19, 1939: Germans, Soviets Hook Up
September 20, 1939: the Kraków Army Surrenders
September 21, 1939: Romania Convulses
September 22, 1939: Joint Soviet-German Military Parade
September 23, 1939: The Panama Conference
September 24, 1939: The Luftwaffe Bombs Warsaw
September 25, 1939: Black Monday for Warsaw
September 26, 1939: Warsaw on the Ropes
September 27, 1939: Hitler Decides to Invade France
September 28, 1939: Warsaw Capitulates
September 29, 1939: Modlin Fortress Falls
September 30, 1939: Graf Spee on the Loose

2020

Saturday 1 August 1936

This photograph shows an Olympic torch bearer running through Berlin, passing by the Brandenburg Gate, shortly before the opening ceremony on 1 August 1936. (US National Archives).

German Propaganda: On August 1, 1936, Hitler opens the XIth Olympiad. Musical fanfares directed by the famous composer Richard Strauss announce Hitler's arrival to the largely German (and pre-television) crowd. Hundreds of athletes in opening day regalia march into the stadium, team by team in alphabetical order. Inaugurating a new Olympic ritual, a lone runner arrives bearing a torch carried by relay from the site of the ancient Games in Olympia, Greece.

Forty-nine athletic teams from around the world compete in the Berlin Olympics, more than in any previous Olympics. Germany fields the largest team with 348 athletes. The US team is the second largest, with 312 members, including 18 African-Americans such as Jesse Owens. American Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage leads the US delegation, which is the only participating country to not dip its flag to the Fuhrer and, along with the British, not salute him. The Soviet Union does not participate in the Berlin Games.

Quote from Jesse Owens regarding the 1936 Olympics in Berlin: "Hitler didn't snub me – it was FDR who snubbed me. The President didn't even send me a telegram." On the other hand, Hitler sent Owens a commemorative inscribed cabinet photograph of himself.

The Games become a propaganda masterstroke for the Germans. Director Leni Riefenstahl choreographs the event and films numerous competitions for posterity. In 1938, she releases two documentaries - "Olympia, Festival of Beauty" and "Olympia: Festival of the Nations" - which both introduce and perfect such classic techniques as slow-motion photography of sports events. The highly stylized films are still considered classics of the documentary genre and in some respects anticipate the entire film noir genre.

There are some who consider these still, to this day, to be among the greatest, most artistic and most influential documentaries of all time, and without the blatant political connotations of Riefenstahl's other classic documentary, "Triumph of the Will." Others, though, fault the films for various sins, such as racism, a political agenda, and elements of filmmaking that take them out of the realm of documentaries altogether.

The use of the lone runner to light the Olympic torch, together with the journey of the flame from Greece, is one of the few relics of the Third Reich era still in active use today.

Future History: Yves Saint Laurent is born in Oran, Algeria, then a French possession. He becomes a top fashion designer and passes away in 2008.

Adolf Hitler and Leni Riefenstahl at the time of the 1936 Olympic Games.

Those unfamiliar with Leni Riefenstahl's "Olympia" may find the below video interesting. It incorporates snippets from the film with a performance by German band Rammstein in 1998.

Pre-War

8-9 November 1923: Beer Hall Putsch

December 20, 1924: Hitler Leaves Prison

September 18, 1931: Geli Raubal Commits Suicide

November 8, 1932: Roosevelt is Elected

30 January 1933: Hitler Takes Office
February 27, 1933: Reichstag Fire
March 23, 1933: The Enabling Act

June 20, 1934: Hitler Plans the Night of the Long Knives
June 30, 1934: Night of the Long Knives

August 1, 1936: Opening of the Berlin Olympics

September 30, 1938: The Munich Agreement
November 9, 1938: Kristallnacht

August 1939

August 1, 1939: Flight Tests of B-17 Flying Fortress
August 2, 1939: Einstein and the Atom Bomb
August 7, 1939: Goering Tries to Broker Peace
August 14, 1939: Hitler Decides To Attack Poland
August 15, 1939: U-Boats Put To Sea
August 16, 1939: Incident at Danzig
August 20, 1939: Battle of Khalkhin Gol
August 22, 1939: Hitler Tips His Hand
August 23, 1939: Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact
August 25, 1939: Hitler Postpones Invasion of Poland
August 27, 1939: First Jet Flight
August 31, 1939: The Gleiwitz Operation

2019