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

Wednesday 6 September 1939

German troops advancing on Krakow (Falk, Federal Archive).

International Relations: On 6 September 1939, South Africa, part of the British Commonwealth, declares war on Germany. Spain declares neutrality. Australia begins calling up troops, 10,000 so far.

European Air Operations: The first RAF pilot (Pilot Officer Montague Hulton-Harrop) dies during the conflict. Tragically, it is a friendly fire incident along the east coast and becomes known as the Battle of Barking Creek. This involves the mistaken interception and shooting down of two British Hurricanes by 74 Squadron operating out of Hornchurch Airfield. Only one of the pilots dies. The Luftwaffe, in fact, does make a reconnaissance flight along the coast and then turns back, but that is not the cause of the mistaken alarm.

The disastrous incident is the result of inexperience. There were almost 200 RAF fighters in the air and no enemy. The two British victims were operating together away from the main formation. There was a court-martial and the papers remain sealed to this day, but the 74 Squadron pilots who shot down the British planes were exonerated. The commander of 56 Squadron operating out of North Weald Airfield in Essex, who had over-reacted to the report of an enemy sighting and was the commander of the dead man, however, was replaced.

There also are unconfirmed reports of a Luftwaffe raid towards Paris that is turned back by French fighters.

Western Front: French troops make s small advance toward Saarbrücken. There is contact all along a 125-mile span heading south from Luxembourg.

Battle of Poland: The Germans under General Wilhelm von List's 14th Army take Krakow. Other German forces take Różan. Elsewhere, after several days of fighting, the German SVI Army Corps takes Góry Borowskie and Rozprza. Col. Ludwik Czyżewski of the Polish 2nd Legions' Infantry Regiment, who has been reinforced by some light tanks, orders a retreat toward Dłutów. Fighting is fierce because the axis of the German attack is toward the key cities of Radomsko, Piotrków Trybunalski and Bełchatów. The XVI Panzer Corps (1st and 4th Panzer Divisions) of the German 10th Army resumes its advance after taking Piotrkow.

The Germans are pushing the Poles back in most places. The Polish high command issues an order for a general retreat to the Narew-Vistula-Sun rivers.

Battle of the Atlantic: Norddeutscher Lloyd cargo ship SS Minden, 4301 tons, is loaded in Brazil and leaves port for a journey back to Germany. This is a mysterious departure with questions that still linger. There is a theory - unproven but assumed by many to be true - that the Minden is loaded with up to four tons of gold. The story is that officials from Banco Germanico, a subsidiary of German Dresdner Bank, assist with loading special crates on the ship that contain this German gold. The ship's route is planned to take it just south of Iceland and then around Great Britain, then down through Norwegian coastal waters, to avoid the Royal Navy (see 24 September 1939).

Polish Government: The Polish government leaves Warsaw for Lublin.

British Government: The Armed Forces Act combines all British military forces into the British Army.

Future History: The Battle of Barking Creek (the name given to the 6 September 1939 air battle because that was used generically by British comics as a kind of synonym for military blunders) involved Adolph "Sailor" Malan, a South African. He was the leader of 'A' Flight of 74 Squadron. Malan allegedly gave the order to engage the British victims. One of the men who opened fire was Flying Officer Vincent 'Paddy' Byrne, the other was Pilot Officer John Freeborn,. Helping to defend the pilots at the court-martial was Roger Bushell. Everyone was exonerated.

Bushell and Byrne later wound up incarcerated together at Stalag Luft III and helped to mastermind "The Great Escape." Bushell, portrayed as the mastermind of the entire operation in the 1963 film, was murdered during that escape. Byrne, however, was repatriated in 1944 and subsequently given a ground position.

Malan became an excellent pilot, getting 27 kills and rising to be a Group Captain. He received the Distinguished Service Order and bar and the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war, he worked against the Apartheid regime.

Freeborn, who was found to have mistakenly killed the British pilot, rose to become a Wing Commander. He ultimately flew more operational hours than any other British pilot during the Battle of Britain and received the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar. Freeborn passed away on 28 August 2010, regretting the incident to his dying day.

Sailor Malan.

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