World War 2 History and events that happened in September
1939 Prime Minister Chamberlain claims that at least 6 U-boats have been sunk in first fortnight of the war. German troops in eastern Poland withdraw to the line agreed upon in the German-Soviet treaty. The Red Army moves in behind them to occupy the formerly Russian territory. Polish troops at Grodno manage to kill 800 …
1939 First British casualty list published. The conclusion of the battle of the Vistula bend, with the Wehrmacht taking 170,000 prisoners. Germans suppress a Czech rebellion. Lavrenti Beria, chief of the Soviet NKVD, sets up a Directorate for Prisoners of War and establishes camps for the 240,000 Polish POWs in Soviet custody; about 37,000 will …
1939 German and Soviet troops link at Brest-Litovsk, Poland. Polish cryptographers flee to Paris with vital information on German Enigma codes. 1941 Russians conscript all men aged 16 – 50. Units of Army Group South capture Poltava in the Ukraine. The Russians evacuate Kiev, but the ‘fight to the death’ continues in the area for …
Today is the anniversary of the first day of Operation Market Garden (A Bridge Too Far), the ill-fated Allied attempt to cut through the Netherlands to Germany and finish the war by the end of 1944. The operation has always been a contentious topic. Some people say it was doomed from the start due to …
The Road to a Bridge Too Far: Operation Market Garden Read More »
1939 American aviation hero Charles A. Lindbergh makes his first anti-intervention radio speech. The U.S. non-intervention movement is supported not just by Lindbergh, but by former president Herbert Hoover, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., Henry Ford and a number of senators and congressmen as well. The Aircraft Carrier HMS Courageous is torpedoed by U29 (Kapitanleutnant Schuhart) south-west …
1939 Convoy OB-4, sailing from Liverpool to North America, is attacked by U-31 (Johannes Habekost), becoming the first “clear” convoy contact in British waters of the war. U-31 sinks 1 ship, the 4,060-ton British freighter Aviemore. Germans take Brest-Litovsk and surround Warsaw. 1940 President Roosevelt signs the Selective Service Training and Service Act: men aged …
1935 In Berlin, the Reich under Adolf Hitler adopts the swastika as the national flag. 1937 Prime Minister of England Neville Chamberlain flies to Germany to discuss the future of Czechoslovakia with Adolf Hitler. 1939 The Polish submarine Orzel arrives in Tallinn, Estonia, after escaping the German invasion of Poland. Gdynia is captured by German forces. …
1939 U39 attacks a battle group led by the Aircraft Carrier, HMS Ark Royal. She fires torpedo’s at the carrier, but these miss. 3 Destroyer’s of the Ark Royal’s escort, launch an immediate counter-attack against U39 and sink her with depth charges. U39 gains the dubious honour of becoming the first U-boat to be sunk …
1939 HMAS Hobart and five RAN destroyers leave Australia, bound for Britain. 60,000 Polish troops who are trapped in the Radom pocket surrender. Germans resume offensive on Warsaw, Poland. Stained glass in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is removed for safekeeping. 1940 Buckingham Palace again bombed; Royal Chapel wrecked. 5 Italian divisions and 200 tanks …
1939 First Anglo-French Supreme War Council convenes under Chamberlain and Daladier and agrees to postpone military operations. In response to the invasion of Poland, the French Army advances into Germany. On this day they reach their furthest penetration-five miles. The battle of the Vistula bend flares up near Kutno, the last major engagement of the …
