Monday 2 October 1939

Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter Arthur Karl Greiser, a chief organizer of the Holocaust, in Poznań, Poland, 1939 (Haine, Federal Archive Picture 183-1998-0109-502).

Battle of Poland: The Polish garrison on the Hel Peninsula formally surrenders on 2 October 1939 and the Germans occupy the territory.

The Polish Polesie Independent Operational Group (18,000 men), led by General Franciszek Kleeberg, is the only Polish formation left in the field. It has concentrated between the Bug and Vistula Rivers in deep forests. The German XIV Motorised Corps (General Gustav Anton von Wietersheim)  and 13th Motorised Division (General Paul Otto) figure that the Poles are just waiting to surrender. Otto sends a small force that attacks several times during the day but is beaten off. He resolves to send larger forces.

Soviet/Estonian Relations: The Latvian Foreign Minister, M. Munters, arrives in Moscow for talks with Molotov. Molotov demands Soviet bases or else the USSR will occupy Latvia.

European Air Operations: RAF planes perform night reconnaissance over Berlin and drop some leaflets.

Battle of the Atlantic: Swedish steamer Gun sunk by U-Boat. U-boats are now operating without warning.

Western Front: The French report light German attacks.

British Government: The British Embassy in Washington D.C. works up a priority list of U.S. armaments that Great Britain needs most desperately in case the US ban on exports was to "be amended." Category 1 includes 'Gun liners" and "Small arms ammunition, shell bodies, cartridge cases." Further down the list is "Aircraft of all kinds."

US Government: The US Senate opens debate on the neutrality bill.

British Homefront: Tribunals are established to process the 50,000 primarily German enemy aliens registered in London.

Czech Government-in-Exile: An agreement is reached with France to raise a Czech National Army in Exile.

Latin America: There is a Declaration of a 300-mile neutrality zone at the Panama Conference.

American Homefront: Louis Armstrong performs at Carnegie Hall, leading off with "When It's Sleepy Time Down South."

Future History: Cosmonaut Yuri Glazkov is born in Moscow. He joins the cosmonaut corps in 1965 and flies (floats?) on the Soyuz 24 mission. He receives the Hero of the Soviet Union award. Glazkov passed away in 2008.

German soldiers, taken prisoner by the Polish army during the German invasion, are shown being held captive in Warsaw, on October 2, 1939. (AP).

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 23 September 1939

Polish POWs of the Germans, 23 August 1939.

Battle of Poland: At Krasnobród, the Polish cavalry of the Nowogródek Cavalry Brigade has assembled in some nearby forests. Early on the morning of 23 September 1939, they charge the town, which is located on a hill with and surrounded by anti-tank trenches. The German 8th Infantry Division is taken completely by surprise and falls back into the town. The Germans just so happen also to have cavalry at the town, and their cavalry responded but was beat back. The Poles, led by the 25th Greater Poland Uhlan Regiment under Col. Bogdan Stachlewski, take the town and capture the Germans' commanding officer, General Rudolf Koch-Erpach. Both sides take tremendous casualties, but it is a huge boost for Polish morale.

The Germans announce the fall of Lviv.

The surrounded Fortress of Modlin and nearby Warsaw continue to hold out. Morale is high even as rations dwindle.

German radio announces that Germany has taken 450,000 prisoners and destroyed 800 Polish planes.

German Propaganda: The German government issues a statement that proclaims: "The Polish Army of a million men has been defeated, captured, or routed. No single Polish active or reserve division escaped this fate." It states that organized resistance in Poland has ended, but for a few holdouts "in Warsaw, in Modlin and on the Hela Peninsula."

European Peace Efforts: Mussolini, in a speech to fellow fascists in Rome, urges a cease-fire and a peace based on current frontiers. He also somewhat ominously states that the country must "strengthen our army in preparation for any eventualities." He does, however, reiterate Italy's neutrality.

Battle of the Atlantic: Two Finnish steamers carrying cellulose, the Walma, and Martti-Ragnar, are sunk.

Western Front: German forces counter-attack to little purpose.

German/Soviet Relations: German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop tells his ambassador in Moscow, Schulenberg, that the time has come to sign a treaty for "the definitive structure of the Polish area" and that he is willing to fly to Moscow - again - to complete it.

German Navy: U-54 is commissioned.

Kapitän zur See Kurt-Caesar Hoffmann takes command of the Pocket Battleship Scharnhorst.

Holocaust: The Nazis confiscate all radios in the possession of Jews.

British Homefront: Sigmund Freud passes away from cancer of the mouth and jaw in London at age 83.

Latin American Relations: The Panama Conference (held in Panama) begins. It establishes a maritime security zone for 300 miles around the Americas, to be patrolled by a Neutrality Patrol. All hostile submarines are banned from the port.

The conference is formally titled "First Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics for Consultation Under the Inter-American Agreements of Buenos Aires and Lima.”

Japanese Government: Admiral Kichisaburō Nomura, considered a moderate, becomes a Foreign Minister in the government of General Abe.

American Homefront: Cookie Lavagetto of the Brooklyn Dodgers goes 6 for 6 as the Dodgers get 27 hits and beat the Philadelphia Phillies 22-4.

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