Tuesday 19 September 1939

Adolf Hitler (in the front of the car) enters Danzig (National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.).

Battle of Poland: German troops meet advance Soviet troops at Brest-Litovsk and at Wlodawa, on the river Bug, on 19 September 1939.

Soviet troops reach the Hungarian border.

Soviet troops take Vilnius after fierce but uncoordinated last-ditch resistance by Polish troops on the city's bridges.

Polish reinforcements from Kutno numbering about 30,000 fight through the German encirclement at the Battle of Wólka Węglowaand and reach Warsaw. It is a tactical victory but a strategic defeat, as Warsaw remains surrounded.

The Luftwaffe switches to bombing Warsaw public utilities.

The Polish Pomorze and Poznan armies (19 Polish divisions, 100,000 troops total) surrender on the Bzura River.

The Germans surround Lviv.

The week-long Battle of Kępa Oksywska in the Oksywie Heights outside the city of Gdynia concludes when pułkownik (Colonel) Stanisław Dąbek. It has been a horrendous battle for the Poles, who were compressed into 4 km² with civilian refugees, with no supplies, and subject to constant Luftwaffe and artillery attack. Polish deaths are roughly 14% of all forces, and virtually every soldier not killed is wounded. The Poles have inflicted huge losses on the Germans but are dwarfed by the Wehrmacht forces opposing them. Col. Dąbek then commits suicide.

Lithuania: Lithuanian troops cross the Lithuanian-Polish border in the direction of Vilnius.

German Propaganda: Adolf Hitler enters Danzig and gives a major speech which defends his alliance with the Soviet Union and suggests that the war could be ended with the status quo (dismemberment of Poland) intact. He makes various vows about Germany forever retaining Danzig and never surrendering.

Holocaust: The Nazis conclude their round of exterminations of Jews in Przemysl.

General Franz Halder, Chief of Staff of the OKH (Military High Command), writes in his diary about communications he has had with Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich informed him that the SS had begun to "clean house" in Poland of certain undesirable classes: Jews, intelligentsia, Catholic Clergy, and the aristocracy. This is the earliest stage of the Holocaust and Halder does nothing more than writing about it in his obscure diary for posterity. In typical fashion, though, while he actually does nothing about the "cleaning," Halder does note his doubts about the draconian "measures intended by Heinrich Himmler."

American Homefront: The first Batman comic book goes on sale.

The Allies do not take well to Hitler's Danzig speech.

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

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

Monday, 11 September 1939

Hitler and Generalmajor Erwin Rommel at an airfield of the Army Group South in the area Rawa / Tomaszow, September 11, 1939. Rommel is the commander of the Führerbegleitbrigade battalion, tasked with guarding Hitler and his field headquarters during the invasion of Poland.

Battle of Poland: The Germans occupy Łomża on 11 September 1939.

Saturday 9 September 1939

“The execution of the locals by German soldiers. Bydgoszcz. The Polish Republic. September 9, 1939.” (German town name: Bromberg).

Battle of Poland: On the evening of September 9, 1939, the Polish Army Poznań and Army Pomorze (about 10 divisions between them) under General Tadeusz Kutrzeba attack the German 8th Army (Johannes Blaskowitz). This is a grandly heroic and utterly futile attempt to turn the campaign around.

The 8th Army has been advancing east along the Bzura River toward Warsaw and is protected on its flank only by the 30th Infantry Division, which is stretched over 30 km. The attack is an immediate success, with the Germans suffering 1500 casualties and losing 3000 men as prisoners. The 8th Army is thrown back 20 km along the line, and the Poles recapture several towns (Łęczyca, Piątek, and Góra Świętej Małgorzaty). Some histories claim that the Wehrmacht was never forced to give ground before Operation Barbarossa, but this is a clear instance of German forces doing that in Poland.

Elsewhere, General Wiktor Thommée's Piotrków Group (Thommée's Group) retreats to avoid encirclement and the German Tenth Army occupies Łódź.

The XVI Panzer Corps continues attacking Warsaw from the southeast but makes no progress.

German units attack the Hel Peninsula, which is the site of a Polish naval base and effective coastal batteries. The Peninsula is defended by the soldiers of the Fortified Region Hel unit (Helski Rejon Umocniony), part of the Coastal Defence Group (Grupa Obrony Wybrzeża) under Włodzimierz Steyer,

European Air Operations: The RAF drops leaflets over Cassel and nearby locations in central Germany, its fifth propaganda mission of the war. The RAF also carries out a raid on a German airbase on the island of Sylt, off the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein.

Battle of the Atlantic: Several more British and French merchant ships are torpedoed.

German High Command: Adolf Hitler takes note of the tentative French invasion of the Saar and. He issues Directive No. 3, "Transfer of Forces from Poland to the West." He is doing in reverse what Helmuth von Moltke did during the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, weakening the main attack by transferring troops to buttress the weaker front.

Hermann Goering extends his sporadic attempts at peacemaking with an address from a Berlin armaments factory. As usual, he mixes his peaceful overtures with bluster. “No enemy bomber can reach the Ruhr,” he guarantees. “If one reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Göring. You can call me Meyer." Ordinary Germans take to calling the ubiquitous air raid sirens "Meyer's Trumpets" as a result. The absurd promise becomes an underground joke (on both sides of the conflict) that Goering himself somewhat uncharacteristically plays into occasionally.

Goering's bombastic quotes became favorites additions to Allied bombers such as this Avro Lancaster.

German/Soviet Relations: Apparently reacting to erroneous press reports and a German public radio announcement, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov somewhat prematurely congratulates the Germans on their success in Warsaw. In response to an "invitation" from Ribbentrop to advance to the Narew as agreed to under the Ribbentrop/Molotov Pact, he states that the Soviets will invade to claim their territory "within the next several days."

Western Front: The French Operation Saar continues, but few gains are made against virtually no resistance. The French have occupied about three square miles (5 km) of this key coal-producing area, but continue to seem hesitant. The area is deserted, mined and booby-trapped.

The BEF receives the last of its full complement of 13 RAF squadrons.

War Crimes: German soldiers line locals up and shoot them in Bromberg (Bydgoszcz). This appears to be in reprisal for Polish shootings of ethnic German civilians by Polish snipers in previous days. The entire incident is very confused and modern scholarship still has not established a definitive timeline. In one accepted version, some ethnic German irregulars/saboteurs/locals fired on retreating Polish troops (Army Pomorze's 9th, 15th, and 27th Infantry Divisions), who returned fire. There were casualties on both sides, but the Polish troops accounted for many more civilians (around 40–50 Poles and between 100 to 300 Germans were killed). The advancing Germans became infuriated when they found the civilian bodies and then took reprisals against Polish civilians. This entire sequence is the "Bloody Sunday" episode.

Belgium: BEF forces become the first to encroach on Belgian territory when some RAF fighters meet some Belgian fighters. Apologies are quickly offered for this diplomatic incident.

Canadian Government: in a perfunctory vote, the Canadian Parliament ratifies Prime Minister Mackenzie King's declaration of war on Germany.

American Homefront: Patricia Donnelly, Miss Michigan, is crowned Miss America 1939. The Glenn Miller Band with Ray Eberle tops the pop charts with their version of "Over the Rainbow."

Patricia Donnelly is crowned Miss America 1939 on 9 September 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

2019