Saturday 7 October 1939

The Ashlea, left, as seen from the Admiral Graf Spee. The captured Newton Beach is shown to the right.

Western Front: The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) completes its crossing to France on 6 October 1939. It has suffered no losses on the crossing during the month-long operation. The crossing involved:

• 161,000 troops;
• 24,000 vehicles, including tanks;
• 140,000 tons of supplies.

Some BEF forces already are manning sections of the front.

Artillery duels take place between the Moselle and Saar rivers, along with minor skirmishes.

Battle of the Atlantic: The Admiral Graf Spee stops and boards the 4,222-ton British freighter Ashlea in the South Atlantic. After transferring its crew to its captured British freighter Beech, the Graf Spee sinks the Ashlea.

The 6,873-ton Dutch freighter Binnendijk, carrying oil and other cargo, hits a mine laid by a U-boat and sinks in the English Channel. All 42 crew survive.

The Kriegsmarine sorties toward Norway to try to lure British ships into an ambush.

The British detain US freighter Black Heron at Weymouth.

Convoys OA 16G and 17 depart from Southend.

Convoys SL 4 departs from Freetown to Liverpool.

German Government: Hitler issues an order appointing Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler as the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood. This new position is intended to:

• Arrange the return to the Reich of the Volksdeutche and Auslandsdeutsche (Reichsdeutsche who live abroad)
• Prevent "harmful influence" of Germans by populations alien to the German Volkstum;
• Create newly populated areas settled by Germans, mostly by the returning Auslandsdeutsche.

This order is a key step in Himmler's gradual accumulation of more titles and executive positions in Germany than any other Hitler crony. In practical terms, the position will involve eliminating "inferior races" before they "contaminate" the Reich.

Hitler also issues a decree ordering Poles to be evicted from western Poland or face death.

Lithuania: The Lithuanian Foreign Minister returns to Moscow for more talks with Molotov.

Spain: Official establishment of the Spanish Air Force.

US Government: The US government grants official recognition to the Polish government-in-exile, currently located at Angers, France.

American Homefront: Game three of the World Series is won by the NY Yankees, 7-3, at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

On 7 October 1939, the 48th Highlanders march from their home at the Armouries on University Avenue to in Toronto to the new army training camp on the Exhibition. Thousands line the street to watch. The Highlanders are accompanied by their full brass and pipe bands, and their mascot, Kinross, a Scottish staghound.

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

Wednesday 4 October 1939

Troops in action between the Bug and Vistula rivers, October 1939.

Battle of Poland: General von Wietersheim of the XIV Motorised Corps finally accepts on 4 October 1939 that the trapped Polish forces between the Bug and Vistula rivers will have to be subdued by force. He adds the 29th Motorised Infantry Division to the 13th Motorised Infantry Division and tells General Otto to get the job done. On the other side, General Kleeberg decides that his best tactic is to eliminate the two divisions one by one. He picks the 13th ID as his first victim.

The 13th ID attacks in the morning and advances until halted around noontime. The Poles adjust their forces to meet the German thrusts, and after much back-and-forth, the Poles hold their line.

In Berlin, Hitler issues an order to blow up the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-35 lands in Ireland the 28 Greek crewmen that it saved after torpedoing their ship and then returns to patrol.

U-21 (Kapitänleutnant Otto Kretschmer) sinks the British merchant ship Glen Farg northeast of Scotland. One crew member dies and 16 are picked up by the HMS Firedrake. It is Kretschmer's first victory in three patrols. He allows the crew to disembark before sinking it.

British authorities release the US freighter Black Hawk from detention.

The U.S. Naval Attaché in Berlin reports that Grand Admiral Erich Raeder had informed him of a brewing "false flag" situation. The U.S. passenger liner Iroquois, that had sailed from Cobh, Ireland, with 566 American passengers on October 3, would be sunk (by the British) as she neared the east coast of the United States under "Athenia circumstances" to arouse anti-German feeling.

Convoy KJ 3 departs from Kingston for the UK.

Western Front: The Germans are quietly evacuating cities directly behind the Siegfried Line and militarizing them. Karlsruhe is the latest. Perhaps as cover for this operation, the Germans launch some minor attacks.

European Air Operations: No. 219 Squadron, a World War I unit, is re-formed at Catterick with Blenheim fighters to protect shipping.

Soviet Propaganda: Nikita Kruschev, the Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party, announces the "Communization" of Soviet-occupied Poland.

German/Soviet Diplomacy: There is back and forth between Ribbentrop and Molotov about the "Lithuania strip of territory." Ribbentrop is against the Soviet decision to cede this territory to Lithuania without his authorization.

German Government: Hitler issues a secret decree absolving all German military and police personnel of criminal liability for the period 1 September through 4 October. Any crimes committed, he explains, were compelled by "atrocities committed by the Poles."

Hitler orders the Reichstag to meet on that Friday, 6 October.

United States Government: The Department of the Interior issues a press release from the "Bureau of Biological Survey." It states that foreign supplies of furs are in grave danger of being cut off by the war and that this might cause certain American fur-producing animals to be "exterminated." It urges more effective "fur-animal conservation."

American Homefront: The NY Yankees beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1, at Yankee Stadium in Game 1 of the 1939 World Series.

Kapitänleutnant Otto Kretschmer ('Silent Otto") and his U-boat.

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

Saturday 16 September 1939

Steel-helmeted, uniformed Polish women march through the streets of Warsaw to aid in defense of their capital on September 16, 1939. They are not, however, armed. (AP Photo).

Battle of Poland: Polish forces break through German lines on 16 September 1939 in the forests north and west of the town of Janów. Six battalions get through to Janów despite determined defense by the German "Pemsel" combat group formed from the 1st Mountain Division. The Poles repel a counter-attack at Dobrostany. This concludes the Battle of Jaworów, which has been a tactical Polish victory.

The Luftwaffe bombs the Jewish quarter of Warsaw. The Poles in Warsaw are successfully repelling determined German ground attacks but are largely defenseless to air attack. General List's army is both investing Warsaw and heading north to link up with the rapidly approaching XIX of General Guderian.

European Air Operations: The Polish Air Force launches its final bombing raid.

Soviet Government: Moscow broadcasts that it will invade Poland the next day "to protect the Ukrainian and Belorussian minorities."

Western Front: French forces make some tentative movements in the Saar and are 12 miles east of Saarbrücken.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-27 (Kapitänleutnant Johannes Franz) torpedoes and sinks the trawler Rudyard Kipling. He stops to pick up the crew and keeps them for eight hours, giving them food and clothing, before releasing them in their lifeboats for the long row (9.3 km; 5.8 mi) to Ireland. U-27 so far has eluded destroyers HMS Fortune and HMS Faulknor, which know there is a U-boat in the vicinity and have been hunting it.

U-31 (Kptlt. Johannes Habekost) sinks an independent, the Aviemore, which is near convoy OB-4. Of the crew, 23 are lost and 11 are picked up by HMS Warwick. This marks the first successful attack on a ship within the convoy's sphere of protection, though technically the Aviemore is not a member of the convoy.

Belgian steamer Alex van Opstal is sunk by Luftwaffe mine or torpedo off Weymouth.

Other Allied losses for the day are Fanad Head, Davara, and Cheyenne. Some vessels are accounted for on other days for various reasons.

A large escorted convoy leaves Halifax, the first of three over the next week.

British Government: The Duke of Windsor, newly returned from France, is appointed a liaison to the French government.

Japanese/Soviet Relations: Pursuant to the agreement of the previous day, the battle of Khalkhin Gol formally ends.

War Crimes: Mass executions commence in Przemysl on the eve of the Jewish New Year. The liquidations occur at several places in the city outskirts: Lipowica, Pralkowce, Pikulice, at Przekopana, near the Wiar river and near the Jewish cemetery at Slowackiego Street. According to some estimates as many as 600 Jews in total are killed over the next few days.

American Homefront: The NY Yankees clinch their fourth straight American League Pennant, beating the Detroit Tigers 8-5. Their opponent in the World Series is yet to be determined.

On September 16, 1939, residents of London carrying gas mask containers (white boxes) walk along curbs widened and marked with stripes for civil defense purposes (AP Photo).

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

Thursday 28 September 1939

German troops goosestep through Warsaw after the capitulation.

Battle of Poland: On 28 September 1939, Warsaw capitulates following a cease-fire arranged the previous day. There are 140,000 Polish soldiers sent into captivity. Polish forces elsewhere continue to fight, but Warsaw was the anchor of the defense.

The Poles may have surrendered in Warsaw, but elsewhere large troop formations continued to operate. One of them is a motley group of Polish Border Defence Corps (KOP) forces in the East under the command of General Wilhelm Orlik-Rueckemann. They are headed through forests near Włodawa and Kamień Koszyrski, in between the encroaching German and Soviet forces. The Soviet forces are nearby and prepare to engage the Poles.

Forming a defensive line between the villages of Mielniki and Szack (Shatsk), the Poles wait for the Soviets to attack. At 8:00 a.m., a Soviet tank/infantry formation from the Soviet 52nd Rifle Division approaches head-on without adequate support; the Poles wait until the targets are almost upon their positions before opening fire. The Soviets, who have weak T-26 tanks, are overwhelmed and their staff headquarters captured. The Poles then withdraw toward the Bug River.

While a minor action, the Battle of Szack demonstrates the enduring weakness of Soviet tactics. Just as in the Winter War later, the local Soviet commands show tactical ineptitude and lose strong forces through elementary tactical blunders. Incidents such as this no doubt reinforce Hitler's already low opinion of the Soviet military.

Soviet War Crimes: Some of the KOP forces ("Polesie" Brigade) near Szack are captured. All officers and NCOs are shot immediately by the Soviet 4th Army under Vassili Chuikov (later hero of Stalingrad).

Soviet Diplomacy: The USSR and Estonia sign a pact that gives the Soviets bases in Estonia in exchange for Vilnius and other territories in defeated Poland.

British Homefront: Vera Lynn records "We'll Meet Again" with Arthur Young on the Novachord. Written by Hughie Charles and Ross Parker, the song becomes quite closely associated with World War II in Great Britain and leads to a film based on it, "We'll Meet Again," that is released on 18 January 1943. The first release did not do particularly well in terms of sales, but the song gained popularity as time went on, and Lynn recorded many subsequent versions of it, some of them quite different than the original.

Vera Lynn - "We'll Meet Again" (1939 Version)

Sunday 8 October 1939

A Lockheed Hudson.

Air Operations, England: On Sunday, 8 October 1939, the air war over the United Kingdom begins when a Lockheed Hudson shoots down a Dornier Do18 flying boat. Hudsons were hasty patch-ups of civilian Model 14 Super Electra airliners to meet immediate RAF needs, but they served admirably throughout the war, first in front-line units for RAF Coastal Command, and later for training and transport. Due to their derivation, Hudsons were luxurious and roomy by military standards and had an automatic pilot ("George" to RAF crew) to reduce the tedium.

German Diplomacy: Following the lightning victory over Poland, Hitler issues a decree annexing large areas of the country to the German Reich. A subsequent decree amplifying on the first follows on 12 October. Hitler includes the territories which Germany had lost under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, such as the Polish Corridor, West Prussia and Upper Silesia, and also territory to the east that Germany had never previously possessed, including the city of Łódź. This is a harbinger of Hitler's extensive ambitions in the East.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-37 sinks Swedish merchant "Vistula."

Convoy HX 4 departs Halifax for London.

Convoy OB 16 departs Liverpool.

Holocaust: The Germans establish a ghetto in Piotrków Trybunalski in the Lódz district, Poland.

Switzerland: Orders deportation of all refugees who entered after 6 September 1939.

China: The Chinese 9th War area captures Chiuhsientang. Japanese 11th Army withdraws north across the Hsinchiang River.

America, Home Front: The NY Yankees defeat the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field, 7-4, and close out the World Series title. Joe Dimaggio goes 2-5 and gets an RBI, while relief man Johnny Murphy takes the win in the 10th inning.

Future History: Australian actor Paul Hogan is born on 8 October 1939. He will achieve worldwide fame in the "Crocodile Dundee" series of films over forty years later.

Judy Garland on the cover of Danish Uge Magasinet, 8 October 1939.

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