Thursday 1 November 1939

Polish teachers from Bromberg being taken into the "Valley of Death" (Dolina Śmierci) in Bydgoszcz, Poland on 1 November 1939. It is estimated that there are some 5-6,000 Poles buried there in mass graves.

Western Front: German long-range artillery is shelling French villages and fortifications well behind the front lines on 1 November 1939.

Battle of the Atlantic: The British detain US freighter Exminster in Gibraltar.

Convoy OB 28 departs from Liverpool.

European Air Operations: The RAF makes reconnaissance flights over northwest Germany.

The He 178 in flight.

Luftwaffe: The new jet He 178 V1, which first flew in late August, is demonstrated for top Luftwaffe chiefs at the Luftwaffe test center at Rechlin. Amazingly, despite the advances made, the Air Ministry (RLM) has not been told of the extensive progress made, so the demonstration comes as something of a surprise. Ernst Udet and Erhard Milch, who essentially control Luftwaffe purchasing decisions, attend, but Air Minister Goering does not. The demonstration is an absolute technical success, as the jet performs flawlessly. However, Milch and Udet are not sold on the design due to a weak engine that limits the He 178's speed to an unimpressive (for a supposedly revolutionary technology) 372 mph (598 km/hr) and flight endurance of only ten minutes. No orders are placed.

Ernst Heinkel, however, is certain the technology will revolutionize aviation. He decides to proceed with his own private development of a jet fighter based on the He 178, the He 280, despite the RLM's disinterest. He does not know, though, that the RLM already is backing other jet projects, though their prototypes have not flown yet.

Poland: The Reich merges the portions of West Poland that had been ceded by the Treaty of Versailles into itself.  This includes Danzig and the Polish Corridor. It creates within this territory new districts (Reichsgaue): Posen, Greater East Prussia, and Danzig West Prussia.

The Soviet Union similarly proceeds with its own annexation of eastern Poland into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. While it has not Great War claims on its territory, it bases this decision on supposed "plebiscites" held in the territory which, naturally, supported the Soviet desires.

Holland: A "state of siege" is proclaimed along the border with Germany by Dutch Royal Decree. This means martial law.

Switzerland: The country prepares for a possible invasion, issuing decrees related to that eventuality.

British Government: Physicist Hans Ferdinand Mayer submits the Oslo Report on German weapons development.

Finland: The delegation returns to Moscow after Molotov's ultimatum of the day before.

Australia: Prime Minister Robert Menzies announces that the country will increase the size of the armed forces.

China: Chiang Kai-Shek launches a Winter Offensive in several places against the Japanese.

American homefront: The International Olympics Committee meets and decides that the 1940 Olympics cannot take place in Finland as planned. This effectively cancels the Games for 1940.

Holocaust: Mass killings of undesired inhabitants pursuant to Operation Tannenberg continues in Poland with liquidations in Bromberg (Bydgoszcz) by "Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz" and the Gestapo.

Future history: Barbara Bosson is born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. She becomes famous in such 1960s films as "Bullitt" and 1980s television series as "Hill Street Blues."

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

November 1939

November 1, 1939: The Jet Flies Again
November 2, 1939: The Soviets Devour Poland
November 3, 1939: Amending the Neutrality Act
November 4, 1939: Roosevelt Signs Neutrality Laws
November 5, 1939: The Spirit of Zossen
November 6, 1939: First Dogfight
November 7, 1939: More Lies About SS Athenia
November 8, 1939: Hitler Almost Killed
November 9, 1939: The Venlo Incident
November 10, 1939: Dutch Panic
November 11, 1939: Poignant Armistice Day
November 12, 1939: Peace Efforts Made and Rejected
November 13, 1939: First Bombing of Great Britain
November 14, 1939: The Dyle Plan
November 15, 1939: Elser Confesses to the Bürgerbräukeller Bombing
November 16, 1939: Martial Law in Prague
November 17, 1939: International Students Day
November 18, 1939: Magnetic Mines
November 19, 1939: Walls Around the Warsaw Ghetto
November 20, 1939: First RN Submarine Victory
November 21, 1939: Salmon & Gluckstein on the Prowl
November 22, 1939: British Recover A Magnetic Mine
November 23, 1939: HMS Rawalpindi Sunk
November 24, 1939: Japanese Enter Nanning
November 25, 1939: The Olympics are a War Casualty
November 26, 1939: Soviets Stage an "Incident" at Mainila
November 27, 1939: German Marriage Becomes Perilous
November 28, 1939: Judenrats in Poland
November 29, 1939: The Soviets Prepare to Invade Finland
November 30, 1939: Winter War Begins

2019

Sunday 27 August 1939

The first jet airplane that flies, the He 178.

Luftwaffe: A private project pursued for several years by Heinkel Flugzeugwerke at its own expense pays off when, on 27 August 1939, it stages the first flight ever of a jet aircraft.

In March 1936, Professor Fields at the University of Gottingen had written to Ernst Heinkel regarding one of his students. Hans-Joachim Pabst von Ohain had been working on a novel concept, a gas turbine using its exhaust as a means of propulsion. Pabst had even gotten a patent on the idea. Heinkel himself had been the same age as Pabst when he had gotten his own big break in the aircraft field, so he was open to the idea of a breakthrough by someone that was only 24 years old.

Heinkel gave the young inventor his own hangar to work in. Other manufacturers such as Junkers and BMW heard about the project, studied the patent and also became interested in the jet concept. The burst in interest ultimately led to the Jumo 003 engine which was the first practical jet for use in military aircraft. The British also had begun working on their own jet design, but Frank Whittle remains far behind and his prototype "Gloucester" jet would not fly until 15 May 1941.

Pabst von Ohain continued working, and by September 1937 he had his first jet engine, the  HeS1 (S from Strahi = jet). Flight tests under a He-118 commenced in May 1939, by now with a HeS3 engine. The RLM (Reichsluftfahrtministerium), which directed Luftwaffe development, though, exhibits only mildly interest.

Erich Warsitz, who previously had flown the first rocket-powered plane in June 1939, performs the test flight at Heinkel's "Marienehe" factory airfield, in today's Rostock-Schmarl district. The test is a complete success and the experimental plane more than meets expectations. The RLM, though, remains unimpressed because the plane can stay in the air for no longer than ten minutes and with a top speed of "only" 378 mph (598 km/hour), which still beats any conventional aircraft of the day. The RLM chooses not to finance development (it secretly has other jet projects in the works with the other manufacturers), so Heinkel continues developing jet aircraft using its own funds. His project turns into the He 280, a solid jet aircraft ready years before the Me 262 but which never enters combat.

Only one He 178 prototype was built. It later was put on display in Berlin but destroyed in a 1943 air raid. After the war, Ernst Heinkel considers the RLM's tepid interest in jet technology to have been a classic blunder that helped cost Germany the war. After the war, Pabst von Ohain was brought to the US in Operation Paperclip and spent decades teaching and developing his ideas, primarily at Wright-Patterson in Dayton, Ohio.

German diplomacy: Birger Dahlerus returns from London with a polite but fairly neutral letter from Lord Halifax. He gives it to Goering, who immediately takes it to Hitler about 20 minutes past midnight on 27 August 1939. Hitler, who keeps late hours, reads the letter and sends for Dahlerus. The latter recalls later that Hitler was virtually incoherent and kept repeating the same phrases over and over, as if in a dream or on drugs, about annihilating England with U-boats and airplanes. Hitler eventually calms down and gives Dahlerus a new set of proposals for peace, which Dahlerus immediately flies back to London. Dahlerus returns to Berlin later in the day. The British position throughout is interesting, but not at all accommodating of Hitler's demands for peace, which include the return to Germany of Danzig and the Polish Corridor and other specific concessions.

Poland: In a football (soccer) game later memorialized as "The Last Game," Poland beats Hungary 4-2.

Another view of the first jet aircraft.

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 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