It started September 1st 1939 - WWII Day by Day Recount

September 10th 1939

Poland
Polish armies are ordered to conduct a general retreat to defensive positions in the southeast. The Luftwaffe  conducts 15 air raids on Warsaw. German forces broadcast a false news bulletin, announcing the fall of the capital on the same wavelength as Radio Warsaw.
Germany demands action from the Soviet-Union for the 2nd time following the Molotov-Ribbentroppact.



France
In reply to insistent demands by the Polish Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Smigly-Rydz, the French Chief of the General Staff, General Gamelin, announces that more than half of his active divisions are in contact with the enemy on the northeast front and that he can do no more.
The first major units of BEF begin to land. Field Marshal Lord Gort is in command. Small advance parties have been arriving since September 4th. In the first month 160,000 men, 24,000 vehicles and 140,000 tons of supplies are sent to France.

The British submarine Triton mistakenly torpedoes the British submarine Oxley.

Canada
The government of Canada declares war on Germany. The Canadians are the last of the great Dominions to declare war, however, the few days of hesitation permits the accelerated delivery from the US of large amounts of war goods which are now barred under American neutrality laws.

Royal Canadian Air Force OOB on September 10th

Eastern Air Command - HQ Halifax, Nova Scotia

    * No. 10 (B) Squadron - Halifax, Nova Scotia
          o Westland Wapiti
    * No. 116 (F) Squadron (Aux) - Halifax, Nova Scotia
          o non-assigned
    * No. 5 (GR) Squadron - Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
          o Supermarine Stranraer
    * No. 8 (GP) Squadron - Sydney, Nova Scotia
          o Northrop Delta
    * No. 2 (AC) Squadron - Saint John, New Brunswick
          o Armstrong-Whitworth Atlas
    * No. 117 (CAC) Squadron - Saint John, New Brunswick
          o non-assigned
    * No. 1 (F) Squadron - St. Hubert, Quebec
          o Hawker Huricane Mk I

Western Air Command - HQ Vancouver, British Columbia

    * No. 4 (GR) Squadron - Jericho Beach, BC
          o Supermarine Stranraer
    * No. 6 (TB) Squadron - Jericho Beach, BC
          o Blackburn Shark
    * No. 111 (CAC) Squadron (Aux) - Sea Island, BC
          o Avro 621, 626
    * No. 112 (AC) Squadron (Aux) - Winnipeg, Manitoba
          o Avro 626
    * No. 120 (B) Squadron (Aux) - Regina, Saskatchewan
          o deHavilland D.H. 82a Tiger Moth

Air Training Command - HQ Toronto, Ontario

    * No. 111 (AC) Squadron (Aux) - Toronto, Ontario
          o Avro 626
    * No. 114 (B) Squadron (Aux) - London, Ontario
          o non-assigned
    * No. 119 (B) Squadron (Aux) - Hamilton, Ontario
          o deHavilland D.H. 82A Tiger Moth

Air Force Headquarters - HQ Ottawa, Ontario

    * No. 7 (GP) Squadron - Rockcliffe, Ontario
          o Fairchild FC 71, Bellanca Pacemaker
    * No. 115 (F) Squadron (Aux) - Montreal, Quebec
          o Fleet Fawn
    * No. 118 (B) Squadron (Aux) - Montreal, Quebec
          o DH 60 Moth
    * No. 121 (B) Squadron (Aux) - Quebec City, Quebec
          o non-assigned

Squadrons Glossary
(B)    Bomber    
(F)    Fighter
(GR)    General Reconnaissance    
(GP)    General Purpose
(AC)    Army Co-operation    
(CAC)    Coast Artillery Co-operation
(TB)    Torpedo Bomber    
(Aux)    Auxillary Squadron

September 13th 1939

The German Armed Forces High Command (OKW) announces that civilian targets in Poland are being bombed because civilians are involving themselves in the fighting.

Poland
A small German infantry force begins to cross the Vistula just south of Warsaw. The Bzura battles are now going badly for the Polish forces. The heaviest fighting will be over by September 15th but some engagements will continue until the 19th.
Although the Germans will take their largest single haul of 150,000 prisoners in this battle, by September 19th, units of two Polish brigades and elements of others will manage to escape to Warsaw.

US ambassador to Poland, Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Jr., reports that German bombers are attacking the civilian population. He says "they are releasing bombs they carry even when they are in no doubt as to the identity of their objectives.

The French Prime Minister, Edouard Daladier, forms a War Cabinet in which he is responsible for foreign affairs as well as retaining the portfolios of war and national defense. The former foreign minister, Georges Bonnet, is appointed Minister of Justice.
Raoul Dautry is appointed Minister of Armaments and Georges Pernot is appointed Minister of Blockade, both are new portfolios related to the war effort. Daladier is keen to have a war cabinet that will enable France to put recent divisions aside and fight the war with a spirit of national unity.

Algeria
The French cruiser La Tour d'Auvergne, sinks from an accidental explosion at Casablanca. It was build and put into service as the 'Pluton' on April 10th 1929, became a training cruiser and was renamed La Tour d'Auvergne. Lost after a mine exploded on 13th September 1939.

Holland

T VIII W


He-115
a Dutch T.8w ‘R5’ gets shot down by a German He 115 who took it for an English plane. Immediately the Germans land on the water to help rescuing the Dutch crew. The He115 couldn't take off and called for aid. A Do18D came to the rescue but when landing they damage their haul. To make things even more complicated a couple of Dutch Fokker D.XXI's attack the Dornier.
The crew of the Dornier abandones their plane and use a small rubber boat and float to the Dutch shore where they are captured. Leutnant zur See Horst Rust, Feldwebel Otto Radons, Funkmaat Hans Zieschang en Unteroffizier Otto Schenk were taken prisoner and transported to Britain in May 1940 when Holland entered the war.

September 15th 1939

An armistice agreement is signed between Japan and the USSR ending their four-month-old "Nomonhan Incident" (link) consisting of protracted fighting on the borders of Manchukuo (Manchuria) and Mongolia.
Both sides have been under pressure from Germany to settle the dispute since the signing of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact. Peace talks were initiated by the new Japanese cabinet, appointed two weeks ago, after Japan lost 17,000 troops in one battle.

Poland
German troops are reducing the Polish Poznan Army encircled at Kutno. Brest-Litovsk, 120 miles east of Warsaw, is surrounded. The Warsaw military commander, Polish Major General Juliusz Rommel (link), refuses to discuss a surrender proposal form the Germans.

The Romanian government grants asylum to Polish civilian refugees; military personnel are to be disarmed and interned.

German radio broadcasts interviews with British and New Zealander aircrew captured during the Wilhelmshaven raid on September 4th.

Britain
Motorists besiege petrol stations, although no date for rationing has been fixed yet.

Canada
The first British trans-Atlantic convoy sets sail from Halifax, Nova Scotia. From now on all ships carrying vital supplies of Canadian wheat and US munitions are to travel in convoys scheduled and protected by the British and Canadian navies.
The first convoy organized during the war sailed from Gibraltar on September 2nd. The vital Glasgow-Thames coastal trade is now moving in convoys as well.

September 17th 1939

In the night of September 17th the first Polish cryptographs arrive at the border between Poland and Romania.
Most of them will be installed in October in the Chateau de Vignolles near Gretz-Armainvilliers in France.

Poland
Soviet troops enter Poland. Naturally because of the German attack there is almost no defense in the east. The Soviets employ two army groups or Fronts. The Poles have only 18 battalions in the east of their country. Just before dawn, the Red Army invades along the entire 800-mile (1300 km) border.

Poles are surprised and Soviet forces advance virtually unopposed. Meanwhile, the Polish government is fleeing towards the Romanian border, evacuating from the border town of Kuty -- the fifth and last temporary seat in the Polish provinces. All surviving Polish aircrew fly to Romania.
In Warsaw, St. John's Cathedral is bombed during mass; the dead are buried in public parks because the cemeteries are full. Warsaw is now completely isolated as converging German forces of German Army Group North and Army Group South meet at Siedlce, in eastern Poland.
Some 40,000 Polish prisoners have been captured by the Germans at Kutno and Brest-Litovsk is taken after a bitter 3-day battle. German are given a stop line because of the Soviet invasion in the east.

Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Molotov, announces that the USSR is invading to protect Ukrainian and Belorussian minorities in Poland.
Soviet newspapers have been making claims of "brutal treatment" of national minorities in Poland, especially Ukrainians and Belorussians.
The Soviet government promises to respect Finnish neutrality and recognizes Slovakia as an independent state.

The Italian government assures the Greek government that it will take no military action against Greece even if Italy enters the war.

The British aircraft carrier, HMS Courageous, is sunk by U-29 (link) while on anti-submarine patrol off the southwest coast of Ireland. More than 500 men are killed (514 of 1200 crew members).

After this second incident, carriers are withdrawn from such work. 'Courageous' has been one of the most effective of the British carriers.

September 19th 1939

Danzig
Hitler makes a triumphal entry into the formerly free city and makes a foreign policy speech that seems to offer conciliation with France and Britain, suggesting that the war could be concluded on the basis of the German territorial gains already achieved.
He also swears that Danzig will be German forever and that Germany will fight to the bitter end, if necessary.

Poland
The Soviet advance reaches the Hungarian frontier. In the north Vilna (Wilno) is taken. The Soviets link up with the Germans at Brest Litovsk, which is given up to the Soviets according to the provisions of the secret agreement of August 23, 1939.

Meanwhile, about 30,000 Polish troops reach Warsaw after fighting their way out of Kutno.

German bombers being a continuing assault on Warsaw, initially striking utilities and other essential public facilities.
Also, the battle of Bzura ends with the surrender of 100,000 officers and men of the defeated Polish Pomorze and Poznan armies (consisting of 19 Polish divisions). In eastern Poland, German forces surround Lvov.

The first British army corps (BEF) lands in France.

September 21st 1939

Bucharest
The Romanian Prime Minister, Armand Calinescu, is murdered by members of the Iron Guard, a fascist organization (link). Assassins blocked the path of his car with a wooden cart and fired pistol shots into him and his bodyguards.

Iron Guard

The assailants then forcibly enter a radio station and broadcast that "the death sentence on Calinescu has been executed." They are later overpowered and shot to death at the location of their murder of the prime minister. A large crowd is present.
Their bodies are left to lie there for the next 24 hours. The assassination is in apparent retaliation for the tolerant, even sympathetic, attitude of the Romanian government toward Poland, exemplified by the acceptance of Polish military and civilian refugees.

Poland
German forces intensify the artillery bombardment of key points in Warsaw.
Nazi occupation authorities initiate "The Heydrich Plan" which involves the deportation of 600,000 Jews from Danzig and western Poland to central Poland to be concentrated in urban ghettoes.

Radio Luxemburg closes down.

London
The British government publishes its Blue Book of prewar diplomatic documents.

Washington
President Roosevelt addresses a special joint session of Congress and urges the repeal of the Neutrality Act provisions embargoing arms sales to belligerent countries.
"Our acts must be guided by one single hard-headed thought -- keeping America out of this war," the president said.
Allowing arms to be sold on a cash-and-carry basis would be "better calculated than any other means to keep us out of war."
In the United States... Newspapers allege that senior Nazis, including Goebbels and Hess, have foreign investments worth over $12 million.

September 22nd 1939

Poland
Rapidly advancing Soviet troops capture Lvov and Bialystok. In Brest-Litovsk Soviet and German forces conduct a joint victory parade.

Battle of Lvov (1939): On September 22, 1939, the act of surrender was signed in the suburb of Winniki. The Red Army accepted all conditions proposed by general W?adys?aw Langner. The privates and NCOs were to leave the city, register themselves at the Soviet authorities and be allowed to go home. The officers were to be allowed to keep their belongings and leave Poland for whichever country accepted them. The same day the Soviet forces entered the city and a period of Soviet occupation started. The act of surrender signed in the morning was broken by the Soviets shortly after noon, when the NKVD started arresting Polish officers. They were escorted to Tarnopol, from where they were sent to various Gulags in Russia, mostly to the infamous camp in Starobielsk. Most of them, including general Stanis?aw Sikorski himself, were murdered in what became known as the Katyn Massacre in 1940.


Meanwhile, Colonel General von Fritsch (link), former German Army Commander in Chief and an outspoken opponent of the Nazis government, is killed by a Polish sniper outside Warsaw.
Hitler visits the front, observing the shelling of the Warsaw suburb of Praga.

UK
The second meeting of the Allied Supreme War Council takes place. Although the meeting is supposed to be secret, a large crowd gathers outside the building in which the Allied leaders meet.
British Prime Minister Chamberlain, with Lord Halifax, the foreign secretary, and Lord Chatfield, the minister for coordination of defense meet French Primier Daladier, with General Gamelin, the Commander in Chief on the Western Front, Admiral Darlan, the Chief of the French Naval Staff, and M Dautry.
A communique issued later states that the Allied leaders discussed supplies of munitions.

Britain
Gasoline is rationed. Meanwhile, a report by the Metropolitan Police Commission in London indicates that road accidents have tripled in the three weeks since the blackout began. Also, courts are packed with cases of blackout violations.

I guess they realised very quickly they were on an island AND that U-boats already sunk some vessels.

September 24 1939

Poland
German forces isolate Modlin Fortress, north of Warsaw; reports from Warsaw suggest heavy casualties among those in the city including wounded in hospitals. Meanwhile, Soviet forces enter the Galician oilfields.

AVIAÇÃO - Junkers JU-87 - STUKA - Bombardeiro de mergulho.

1150 German airplanes attack Warschau, amongst them the terryfying StuKa

The Battle of Grodno comes to an end: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grodno_(1939)

North Atlantic
German U-boats sink a Swedish steamer carrying timber and a British cargo ship.

Freighter Hazleside* 4,646 tons sunk by Submarine torpedoes coordinates: 51.17N 09.22W

1940 HMS Spearfish returns home

United States
The American Farmer arrives in New York harbor with 29 survivors of the crew of the British steamer Kafristan, sunk by a German U-boat. Passengers and the master of the American Farmer said that while the survivors were still in their boats a British airplane swooped down on the German submarine, spraying its deck with machine gun fire and dropping bombs, one of which fell on the conning tower.

Germany
French bombers strike the German Zeppelin base at Friedrichshafen.

Western Front
French artillery fires on the German border.

September 26 1939

Near Helgoland (NL) a Dutch KLM (official Dutch civilian airline company) airplane gets shot down by a Luftwaffe fighter.

Poland
*The Soviet-Union starts reforming East-Poland to Russian model
*The German 8th Army, under the command of the German Army Commander in Chief, von Brauchitsch, joins the attack on Warsaw. There is a massive artillery bombardment of Warsaw, followed by a major German infantry assault, leaving the city center in flames. Poles recapture Mokotow Airport and 6 hastily rebuilt aircraft fly out during the night (September 26-27)

Western Front
French artillery fires on the forward defenses of the German Siegfried Line.

France
The Communist Party is dissolved by a presidential decree. It is now also illegal to propagandize themes of the Third International. (French communists at this time are leaders of the antiwar movement.) Some of the communist leaders are interned.

London
In the House of Commons, First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, claims that Britain is winning the U-boat war. He says that one tenth of the German submarine fleet was destroyed in the first two weeks of the war and that the losses are probably a quarter and perhaps a third by now.

Luftwaffe attacks the British Fleet in Scapa Flow (Scapa Flow)