28-Dec-39: Soviet Division Destroyed; Red Army High Command Regroups; Fritz Thyssen Protests German Actions to Hitler; Polish Deportations More Frequent; HMS Barham Hit by Torpedoes; British Start Meat Rationing; Japanese Bomb Lanchow
Today is 28-Dec-1939, the 89th day of World War II; there are 2,074 days left in the conflict.
The Soviet Red Army’s 163rd Division of the Ninth Army is destroyed by the Finns near Suomussalmi after attempts to relieve it by the 44th Division were turned back (and the 44th itself was destroyed). Training, tactics, and even cross-country skiing abilities all play a role in the Finnish successes. After successive failures to crack the Mannerheim Line throughout the Winter War, the Soviet high command orders preparations for a better-coordinated assault on the Finns.
German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, who played a key role in fundraising efforts and bankrolling the early National Socialist German Worker’s Party, as well as urging President Paul on Hindenburg to appoint appoint Adolf Hitler to the Reichskanzler post, writes a remarkable protest letter to Hitler from exile in Switzerland. Thyssen had been Prussian State Councillor for life, a member of the Reichstag for Dusseldorf East, and head of the institute for research into the corporate state, Standische Wirtschaftsordnung.
A devout Catholic, he resigned his posts and fled the country after protesting Hitler’s ongoing persecutions of religious communities, as well as the Non-Aggression Pact of 23-Aug-39 between Germany and the Soviet Union.
Thyssen was particularly upset by Reichkristallnacht, 9-10-Nov-38. The pogrom was triggered by the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by a German-born Polish Jew named Herschel Grynszpan. The assassination touched off a oordinated attack on Jews and their property; 91 were murdered, 25,000 to 30,000 were arrested, 267 synagogues were destroyed and thousands of homes and businesses were ransacked by Hitler Jugend, the Gestapo and the SS. His property was confiscated and his citizenship revoked by Hitler after Thyssen left the country.
Thyssen’s letter to Hitler states:
“My conscience is clear. I know that I have committed no crime. My sole mistake is to have believed in you, our leader, Adolf Hitler, and in the movement initiated by you — to have believed with the enthusiasm of a passionate lover of my native Germany.
“Since 1923 I have made the greatest sacrifices for the National Socialist cause, have fought with word and deed, without asking any reward for myself, merely inspired by the hope that our unfortunate German people would finally recover. The initial events after the National Socialists come to power seemed to justify this hope, at least as long as Herr von Papen was vice-chancellor.
“A sinister development followed these events. The persecution of the Christian religion, taking the form of cruel measures against the priests and insults to the Churches, led me to protest in the early days, for instance when the police president of Dusseldorf issued a protest to Marshal Goering, It was in vain.
“When, on November 9th, 1938, the Jews were despoiled and martyrized in the most cowardly and brutal manner, and their temples razed to the ground throughout Germany, I also protested. To reinforce this protest, I resigned my office as state councillor. This, too, as in vain.”
Thyssen will eventually be arrested by Vichy French authorities and sent to a concentration camp. He will be freed by the Allies in 1945, but will convicted by a German court for being a former National Socialist leader. The court will order Thyssen to hand over 15% of his property to victims of the regime; he will die in 1951.
The Germans policy of ousting Poles from critical areas and bringing in ethnic Germans to colonize the former Polish areas begins to hit its stride. The whole population of Kalisz, 70,000 people, are deported and replaced by ethnic Germans from the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.
On the high seas, the German Kriegsmarine’s unterseeboot U-30 torpedoes the British Battleship HMS Barham off the coast of northwest Scotland. The ship does not sink, but is laid up for repairs for three months.
The British government in London announces that the rationing of meat will go into effect immediately.
The Japanese Imperial Army conducts repeated bombing raids on the northwest Chinese military supply base at Lanchow.
20-Dec-39: Red Army Attacks in Finland Weaken; Graf Spee’s Commander Commits Suicide in Buenos Aires; US Seeks to Prevent Export of Technical Data
Today is 20-Dec-1939, the 81st day of World War II; there are 2,082 days left in the conflict.
The Soviet Red Army attacks on the Mannerheim Line in the Battle of Summa are beginning to weaken, while the Finns cut off the Soviet 122nd Division at Salla, near the White Sea.
Captain Hans Langsdorff, commander of the German Kriegsmarine’s Admiral Graf Spee,, scuttled in the River Plate, commits suicide in his hotel room while interned by the Argentinians in Buenos Aires. British Royal Navy experts recover radar equipment from the German ship and begin a detailed examination of it.
The United States Navy’s Tuscaloosa arrives in New York harbor with 579 survivors of another German ship which was scuttled by its crew, the Columbus. They are disembarked on Ellis Island for processing.
In a further enhancement to its policy of neutrality, the United States issues regulations preventing the export of technical data which could help the production of aviation fuel in nations at war.
19-Dec-39: Battle of Summa Continues in Finland; Germans Scuttle Ship Off US Coast; British Scientists Develop Anti-Magnetic Mine Method
Today is 19-Dec-1939, the 80th day of World War II; there are 2,083 days left in the conflict.
The Battle of Summa in Finland continues with the Soviet Red Army attacking the Mannerheim Line continuously, with little success.
The Germans successfully launch a surface raiding ship, the Atlantis, but suffer a loss when the Kriegsmarine is forced to scuttle the liner Columbus 300 miles off the United States Atlantic coast. The ship had been stalked by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Hyperion, a destroyer, and the US Navy’s USS Tuscaloosa. The American ship broadcast the position of the German liner at regular intervals during the journey, and it had been unable to shake off the Tuscaloosa. With the Hyperion moving in for a kill, the German crew decided to scuttle the ship rather than risk their capture or destruction. The Germans have a case to protest the American action, since it violates neutrality policies, but decide not to press the issue.
A group of British Admiralty scientists headed by doctors D. F. Goodeve and E. C. Bullard successfully develop the degaussing method which cancels the magnetic field of ships, eliminating the threat of Germany’s magnetic mines, which have been causing such havoc in the waters around the British Isles since the beginning of the war. The method works by producing an opposite magnetic field and requires stringing an electric cable from a generator around a ship’s hull.
18-Dec-39: Soviet Attacks Continue on Various Finnish Defenses; Germans Down Half of British Air Raid Bombers Over Heligoland; Hitler Meets Quisling Again, Offers Aid; Graf Spee Fallout Continues
Today is 18-Dec-1939, the 79th day of World War II; there are 2,084 days left in the conflict.
Attacks by the Soviet Red Army continue on the Mannerheim Line around Summa, along with bombing of Helsinki from the air and shelling of battery positions along the Finnish Baltic coast. The United States Navy in Washington D.C. announces that 40 aircraft will be sent to aid the Finns in their Winter War against the Soviet Union.
The last daylight raid of the British Royal Air Force for 1939 occurs and results in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight. 22 armed Wellingtons are sent by Bomber Command to reconnoiter Wilhelmshaven. They are intercepted by 50 German Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Me-109 and Me-110 fighters, which shoot down 12 of the Wellingtons. The 50% casualty rate induces Bomber Command to abandon daylight raids for over four months.
German Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler holds another meeting with Norway’s Vidkun Quisling in Berlin; the Norwegian fascist is promised financial support in return for any assistance he extends to the Germans during their upcoming invasion of Norway.
The aftermath of the Admiral Graf Spee continues to unfold; 1,039 German Kriegsmarine officers and sailors of the pocket battleship are interned by the Argentinians in Buenos Aires, while the British promote Commodore Henry Harwood of the HMS Ajax, considered the victor of the battle, to rear admiral.
17-Dec-39: Soviet Attacks Hammer Mannerheim Line at Summa, Are Repulsed; Finns Refine Successful Tactics, Destroy Two Red Army Divisions; First Canadian Division Lands in Liverpool; French Claim German Reconnaissance Flights Increased Over Western Front
Today is 17-Dec-1939, the 78th day of World War II; there are 2,085 days left in the conflict.
The saga of the Admiral Graf Spee German pocket battleship comes to an end in front of a large crowds lining the quays on both sides of the River Plate in South America. The ship had been in port at Montevideo, Uruguay, for several days for rest, repairs, and refueling, but British ships and diplomats moved to flush her out. The succeeded in have the Uruguayans insist that Spee leave her anchor (but not too quickly so that other Royal Navy ships have a chance to arrive) and have stationed HMS Ajax HMS Achilles at the mouth of the estuary. The drama is carried live worldwide via radio and attracts a large audience.
As the deadline for leaving port passes, the Graf Spee gets underway in the estuary, but suddenly stops; her crew is ordered to scuttle the ship rather than risk battle with heavy British forces. The battleship sinks, the crew is saved, not hostile shots are fired and the crowds on shore are treated to a rare spectacle.
The Soviet Union attacks again Finnish positions along the Mannerheim Line around Summa. A familiar pattern for the attacks emerged; tanks penetrate Finnish positions during the day; infantry support for them are head off until nightfall, then the Finns destroy the tanks during the night by emerging from deep hiding places. Finland claims two Red Army divisions have been destroyed and that they have captured 36,000 soldiers and surrounded another 20,000 troops.
The First Canadian Division lands the first troops on British soil upon their arrival in Liverpool with over 7,500 men under command of Major-General McNaughton. The force used five ocean liners to make the crossing; officers were kept in suites and the enlisted men in first class cabins.
French forces along the Western Front note that there has been an increase in German Luftwaffe reconnaissance flights over the front lines in recent days.
13-Dec-39: Finns Press Attacks on Soviet Eighth Army; River Plate Estuary Drama Unfolding Over Graf Spee; Royal Navy Sub Torpedoes German Cruisers; House of Commons Holds Secret Session
Today is 13-Dec-1939, the 74th day of World War II; there are 2,089 days left in the conflict.
A series of attacks by the Finns on the Soviet Eighth Army is the focus of action going into week two of the Winter War.
British Royal Navy Commodore Henry Harwood of the HMS Ajax is accompanied by the heavy cruiser Exeter and the light cruiser Achilles to the River Plate estuary in South America, on the border between Uruguay and Argentina in the hopes that the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee will put into port there. The battleship indeed appears at 06:16 hours and a fierce two-hour battle ensues. All three British ships suffer varying degrees of damage, as does the Graf Spee; the later ship’s captain, Hans Langsdorff, breaks off the engagement and heads for Montevideo. There, under international law, the ship is permitted temporary neutral sanctuary to make quick repairs and have wounded sailors treated. Ajax and Achilles take station at the mouth of the river ready for further action. The incident will be broadcast via radio around the world and attract millions of listeners over several days.
British Royal Navy submarine, Salmon, torpedoes two German cruisers, the Leipzig and Nurnberg. The former will remain out of service until 1941, when it will be usable only as a training ship. The latter ship is out of action until May 1940.
The British House of Commons meets in secret session for the first time since 1918 and the end of World War One. A terse statement is issued after the seven-and-a-half-hour debate, declaring that Parliament discussed “the organization of supplies for the prosecution of the war.”
6-Dec-39: Red Army Attacks Islands, Mannerheim Line; Roosevelt Sends Sympathy to Finns; Italians Send 50 Aircraft to Helsinki; Germans Decry Neutral Countries’ Behavior; HMS Jersey Torpedoed; Aktion T4 Euthanasia Program Claims Mental Patients
Today is 6-Dec-1939, the 67th day of World War II; there are 2,096 days left in the conflict.
The Finns celebrate Independence Day even as the Red Army presses its attack during the Winter War. US President Franklin Roosevelt sends a message of sympathy to Finnish President Kyösti Kallio. The Italians deliver 50 aircraft to Finland to help its defensive effort. At the same time, the Red Army lands on seven islands in the Gulf of Finland and heavily attack the Finns on the Mannerheim Line.
The Germans send a note to members of the foreign press in Berlin claiming neutral countries such as Holland are exhibiting a lack of resistance to the ongoing British blockade of the continent. The Dutch respond with a “semi-official” protest. Meanwhile, German Luftwaffe seaplanes and Kriegsmarine destroyers continue to lay mines of the eastern British coast; the destroyers torpedo the British destroyer HMS Jersey during the operation.
After planning during the summer and ramping up efforts during the fall, the German Schutz Staffel euthanizes mental patients in the asylums at Stralsund and Chelm. The program, known as Aktion T4, will eventually claim an estimated 200,000 lives of disabled and other classes of people within Germany deemed “unfit.” Aktion T4 was formulated by the director of the private chancellery Philipp Bouhler and Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler’s personal physician Karl Brandt.
5-Dec-39: Finn Resistance Stiffens on Mannerheim Line, New Tactics Exploited; Soviets Claim No Longer at War; Finns Bomb Murmansk; Churchill Declares Germans Have Sunk to Lowest Form of Warfare Imaginable
Today is 5-Dec-1939, the 66th day of World War II; there are 2,097 days left in the conflict.
The Finnish Second Corps, manning the Mannerheim Line, the main defensive strongpoint on the Karelian Isthmus, encounters forward units of the Soviet Seventh Army during the sixth day of the Winter War. The Finns begin to master tactics designed to exploit the Red Army’s weaknesses, such as separating tanks from supporting infantry troops and destroying them in close combat from hidden positions. Meanwhile, Finnish Blenheim bombers raid the Soviet’s airbase at Murmansk, surprising the forces there.
A League of Nations proposal to end the Winter War is rejected by the Soviet government on the grounds that the USSR is no longer at war, since it reached a peace agreement with the Communist-led Finnish Democratic Republic alternate government, which had also requested the Red Army’s intervention on 1-Dec.
A day after the HMS Nelson, flagship of the British Royal Navy’s Home Fleet, is damaged by a magnetic mine, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill addresses the House of Commons and declares that Germany has “descended to the lowest form of warfare that can be imagined;” he says the Germans first abandoned the gun for the torpedo and have now abandoned the torpedo for the mine.
3-Dec-39: Soviets Press Forward in Finland; Swedes Call Up Reserves; British Accidentally Drop First Bomb on German Territory
Today is 3-Dec-1939, the 64th day of World War II; there are 2,099 days left in the conflict.
The Soviet Eighth Army pushes the Finnish Army backwards near Suojarvi; the Finns send reinforcements near Kuhmo, where the Soviet Ninth Army’s 54th Division is pressing forward. The Winter War is in its fourth day. To the west, the Swedes create a minefield off their east coast and call up army reserves.
The British Royal Navy’s HMS Renown, fresh from sinking the German’s Watussi off the coast of South Africa, puts in to Cape Town alongside the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.
The first British bomb to fall on German land is the result of an accidental release by one of the Royal Air Force 115th Squadron’s Wellington bombers after a bomb fails to drop over targeted shipping in the Heligoland Bight and subsequently drops off over the island of Heligoland.
2-Dec-39: Red Army Lands Near Petsamo as Advance Proceeds Slowly; League of Nations Asked to Mediate; 1940 Olympics Cancelled; Western Front Quiet; Germans, British Score High Seas Sinkings
Today is 2-Dec-1939, the 63rd day of World War II; there are 2,100 days left in the conflict.
The Red Army lands near Petsamo, Finland, in order to join up with the Fourteenth Army nearby. The Red Army advance into Finland proceeds slowly and has yet to reach Finnish defensive lines. The Finns ask the League of Nations in Geneva to mediate the dispute with the Soviet Union, while the International Olympic Committee, meeting in Lausanne, announces that the Helsinki Olympic Games planned for 1940, have been cancelled.
Pro-Finnish demonstrations are held across Italy, while Pope Pius XII in the Vatican condemns the Soviet invasion.
The French report that the Western Front is quiet and that both French and German air forces are completely inactive. The British extend conscription to all men between the ages of 19 and 41; occupational deferments will be limited.
Action continues on the high seas. The Blue Star Line steamer Doric Star, sailing towards Britain from New Zealand and Australia, is sunk by the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the South Atlantic; the British cruiser HMS Renown sinks a German ship, the Watussi off the coast of South Africa.
21-Nov-39: German Magnetic Mines Continue to Wreak Havoc on British Shipping, Chamberlain Announces Retaliatory Measures; With German Help, Slovaks Reclaim Territory Seized by Poles
Today is 21-Nov-1939, the 52nd day of World War II; there are 2,111 days left in the conflict.
German magnetic mines dropped by the Luftwaffe in British territorial waters continue to make up the bulk of the war news. A brand-new British cruiser, HMS Belfast is badly damaged by one of the mines in the Scottish Firth of Forth; the destroyer Gypsy is sunk in the North Sea; and the Japanese passenger ship Terukuni Maru is sunk in the Thames Estuary. Meanwhile, German Kriegsmarine battle cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst begin a new naval cruise aimed at sinking enemy ships.
In response to the wave of German naval successes, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain makes a public pronouncement that German merchant ships will be seized by the Royal Navy as compensation; at the same time, all goods being shipped to Germany through British ports are now confiscated, rather than just being temporarily halted.
In Bratislava, Slovakia, the Germans and Slovaks ink a treaty formally giving Slovakia 225 square miles of territory seized from the former Poland. The two allies claim that Poland had illegally seized that land from the former Czechoslovakia in the course of three annexations in 1920, 1924 and 1938.
18-Nov-39: IRA Terrorists Explode Bombs in London’s Piccadilly Circus; German Magnetic Mines Claim Five Ships, Including Dutch Ocean Liner
Today is 18-Nov-1939, the 49th day of World War II; there are 2,114 days left in the conflict.
Irish Republican Army terrorists explode four small bombs outside businesses in London’s Piccadilly Circus. No deaths or injuries are reported.
German Luftwaffe aircraft drop magnetic mines via parachute into British waters for the first time since the war began. Off the eastern coast, four merchant ships are sunk almost immediately. In the North Sea, the mines manage to sink the Dutch ocean liner Simon Bolivar; out of 400 passengers and crew members on board, 86 are killed. Outrage is recorded in the Netherlands; the Dutch claim that the liner was being operated in a major traffic lane and that international law requires notification of any mine-laying activity in the area.
15-Nov-39: Czech Student’s Funeral Turns Into Bloodbath, Neurath Closes Czech Higher Education; Ribbentrop Rejects Peace Appeal; French Add Work Hours; Last Chinese Port Falls to Japanese
Today is 15-Nov-1939, the 46th day of World War II; there are 2,117 days left in the conflict.
In the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, several thousand students attend the funeral for medical student Jan Opletal, shot in the stomach by German troops during anti-occupation demonstrations in Prague on 28-Oct, who died 11-Nov.
Opletal (1-Jan-1915 – 11-Nov-1939) was a student of the Medical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague. The thousands of students attending his funeral turned it into another anti-German rally and 12 are reportedly injured.
In response, Reichsprotektor Konstantin von Neurath, governor of the former Czech lands, closes all Czech universities and colleges, and sends over 1,200 students to concentration camps; nine students will be executed on 17-Nov, which will later be commemorated as International Students Day by the International Union of Students and other groups.
Opletal’s remains are transferred to his native village of Náklo in the Olomouc Region; a post-war monument will be erected in his honor, and many Czech cities will name streets after him.
German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop issues a formal rejection of the offer of neutral mediation made by Belgian King Leopold and Dutch Queen Wilhelmina. Ribbentrop gives the news to official representatives of Belgium and the Netherlands during a meeting in Berlin. He claims the rejection is prompted by what he terms the “blunt rejection” of the German peace appeal by Britain and France. The “German government considers the matter closed,” Ribbentrop concludes.
As munitions and other war-related industries rachet up in France, the government officially adds three hours to the work week; workers will now be required to work 43 hours per week.
The south China port city of Pakhoi is captured by Imperial Japanese troops. It is the final Chinese port occupied by the Japanese since their campaign began in July 1937.
In action on the high seas, British tanker SS Africa Shell is sunk in the Mozambique Channel two miles off Portuguese East Africa in the Indian Ocean by two bombs placed in her hold by an boarding party wearing British lifebelts from a 10,000-ton German raider. Africa Shell’s crew identifies the German raider as the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer.
17-Oct-39: Ju-88s Strike Scapa Flow; HMS Iron Duke Damaged, Beached; Mostly Quiet on the Western Front; Turks Break Off Soviet Talks
Today is 17-Oct-1939, the 47th day of World War II; there are 2,146 days left in the conflict.
Representatives of the Turkish government, in Moscow to negotiate a defense treaty with the Soviet Union, break off their talks without agreement. Both the Turks and the Soviets claim mutual friendliness and respect for each other, but Soviet proposals were seen as being counter to Turkish commitments to Britain and France, and were thus rejected by the Turks.
While the Germans claim that the Western Front is “absolutely quiet,” the French claim there are numerous infantry skirmishes near Saarbrucken.
The real action continues on the naval front. The British Royal Navy suffers another surprise attack as German Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-88 bombers once again attack. This time, the target is the British naval base at Scapa Flow, which has already been hit by Unterseeboot action, resulting in the sinking of HMS Royal Oak.
The damage this time is more symbolic; the bombers succeed in damaging the training battleship HMS Iron Duke. The ship has to be beached as a result. The Iron Duke is famous as the World War I flagship battleship of British Admiral John Jellicoe, who was in command of the Grand Fleet during the Battle of Jutland.
Later that night, German Kriegsmarine destroyers use the cover of darkness to mine the waters off the Humber estuary in northern England on the border of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.
16-Oct-39: Germans Announce End of Polish Campaign, Even as a Few Polish Troops Hold Out; Fighting Flares Along Western Front; Royal Navy Experiences Another Surprise Attack
Today is 16-Oct-1939, the 46th day of World War II; there are 2,147 days left in the conflict.
Germany’s Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW – High Command of the Wehrmacht/Armed Forces) issues a communique that the Polish Campaign is officially ended, although a few regular Polish troops continue to offer token resistance in remote areas. This part of the announcement is confirmed in Paris when the Polish embassy there announces that Polish troops continue to hold out against both German and Soviet invaders in Suwalki, in the Carpathian Mountains, as well as in the Pripet Marshes at Bialowieza.
The German’s focus has in the meantime turned completely towards the west. Along the Moselle River, German troops advance along a four-mile front; they are met with French artillery fire and retreat. Later in the day, German troops attack along a 20-mile front east of the Saar River. French “covering forces” retreat in what is described as a pre-planned move. Over the next two days, the German Heer will push French troops out of the territory they had gained during the French Saar offensive last month. While the Allies claim the Germans suffered 5,000 casualties in the two operations, in fact there are few losses on either side.
On top of the shocking sinking of HMS Royal Oak two days before, the British Royal Navy suffers another surprise attack, this time in the Firth of Forth at Rosyth. The German Luftwaffe sends nine of its new Ju-88 dive-bombers to attack ships at anchor. HMS Southampton is penetrated by an unexploded bomb; the crew of the destroyer HMS Mohawk experiences losses; and the HMS Edinburgh is also damaged. Eventually, British Royal Air Force Spitfire fighters arrive to chase off the Germans; the pilots are part-timers, members of Glasgow and Edinburgh Auxilliary Air Force squadrons.
In Berlin, the German Kriegsmarine issues slightly modified attack orders for its warships and Unterseeboot fleets. The new order states: “All merchant ships definitely recognized as enemy ones (British and French) can be torpedoed without warning. Passenger steamers in convoy can be torpedoed a short while after notice has been given of the intention to do so.”
14-Oct-39: HMS Royal Oak Sunk in Scapa Flow By Surprise U-Boat Attack; 800 British Sailors Dead; Protests Over Lindbergh Radio Broadcast Arise
Today is 14-Oct-1939, the 44th day of World War II; there are 2,149 days left in the conflict.
Based on German Luftwaffe aerial reconnaissance photos which reveal a 50-foot-wide gap in the Royal Navy’s antisubmarine defenses at the Kirk Sound entrance to the Home Fleet’s base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, Unterseeboot Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien scores a major success for the German Kriegsmarine.
Commanding the U-47, Kapitänleutnant Prien pilots his submarine through the gap and, at 01:30 in the morning, launches seven torpedoes at the British battleship HMS Royal Oak, which has 1,200 sailors on board. Three of the torpedoes hit the battleship and she capsizes and sinks within 13 minutes. Estimates of the dead range from 786 to 833, and are usually rounded off to 800. 414 survive. The sinking is major blow to British naval prestige, a worrying indicator of serious deficiencies in the Empire’s defenses, and a significant triumph for the Kriegsmarine and Kapitänleutnant Prien and his crew.
The Royal Oak was a Revenge-class battleship which had been launched at the outset of World War I in 1914; it was completed in 1916 and first saw action at the Battle of Jutland. In the intervening years, attempts to modernise her could not address weaknesses of her age, including a fundamental lack of speed, so she was no longer considered as suitable for front-line duty in the new war. In spite of this fact and that its loss means little in terms of the numerical superiority enjoyed by the British navy and its allies and thus the naval balance of power, the sinking has a tremendous impact on British wartime morale. The raid demonstrates that the Germans are capable of bringing the naval war to their home waters, and security in harbors and dock areas is greatly tightened.
In Germany, the raid makes an immediate celebrity and war hero of Kapitänleutnant Prien, who becomes the first Kriegsmarine submarine officer to be awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross.
In other news, French Commander-in-Chief General Maurice Gamelin issues an Order of the Day predicting a massive German offensive “at any moment.” He is premature by eight months. At the same time, in Paris, escaped Polish intelligence team members resume their efforts to break German military codes with their replica of the legendary Enigma machine which they had smuggled out of Poland after the invasion and successfully brought to France.
In Moscow, representatives of the Soviet and Finnish governments wrap up their discussions of border revisions with very little change in either country’s terms. Soviet negotiators have refused Finnish counterproposals for a land exchange on their mutual border and are sticking to their original sweeping demands.
In North America, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Key Pittman, D-Nevada, joins with the New York Herald Tribune and many Canadian voices in protest of the previous night’s nationwide radio broadcast by Col. Charles Lindbergh which championed strict neutrality, criticized the Canadian declaration of war and urged rejection of proposed revisions to the Neutrality Act pending in the Senate. Americans are still split on the war, a political divide that will last for almost two more years.
5-Oct-39: Victorious HItler Visits Conquered Warsaw, Reviews Troops; Diplomatic Activity Heats Up Over Lithuania; British, French Navies Begin Hunt for Graf Spee
Today is 5-Oct-1939, the 35th day of World War II; there are 2,158 days left in the conflict.
German Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler conducts a triumphal tour and review of his victorious troops in the conquered Polish capital of Warsaw, even as the German Heer continues mopping-up operations against Polish troops still at large in the region between the Vistula and Bug rivers. After a victory parade, Hitler returns to Berlin for a scheduled meeting of the Reichstag.
German Kriegsmarine successes continue in the North Atlantic; the pocket battleship Deutschland sinks the British steamer SS Stonegate. But the Deutschland and its sister ship, the Graf Spee are now attracting much attention; the British and French navies form eight groups of attack ships to track down and sink the Graf Spee.
National Socialist Gauleiter of Franconia Julius Sturmer, one of the most notorious antisemitic propagandists of the party, publishes a “Hymn of Hate” in his weekly magazine Der Sturmer. The piece is targeted at England, which is called the “curse of the world.”
Meanwhile in Moscow, Soviet officials continue a full-press diplomatic push to consolidate their position in the Baltic region. They sign a pact with the Latvians, giving them the use of sea and air bases in that country.
The Germans are well aware of all the activity and a flurry of diplomatic telegrams between the Foreign Office on the Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin and German Ambassador to the Soviet Union Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenberg regarding the Soviet’s political moves regarding Lithuania.
The first of the telegrams is sent in the early hours of the morning from Schulenberg back to German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop; it notes that the Lithuanians have the wind up:
“Reference my telegram No. 463 of October 3.
“Immediately after Under State Secretary Gaus’ first telephone call I transmitted to Molotov this morning the request not to divulge to the Lithuanian Foreign Minister anything regarding the German-Soviet understanding concerning Lithuania. Molotov asked me to see him at 5 p. m. and told me, that, unfortunately, he had been obliged yesterday to inform the Lithuanian Foreign Minister of this understanding, since he could not, out of loyalty to us, act otherwise. The Lithuanian delegation had been extremely dismayed and sad; they had declared that the loss of this area in particular would be especially hard to bear, since many prominent leaders of the Lithuanian people came from that part of Lithuania. This morning at 8 a. m. the Lithuanian Foreign Minister had flown back to Kowno, intending to return to Moscow in one or two days.
“I said that I would immediately notify my Government by telephone, whereupon I called Herr Gaus. An hour later Molotov informed me that Stalin personally requested the German Government not to insist for the moment upon the cession of the strip of Lithuanian territory.
“SCHULENBURG”
Ribbentrop responds with some specific instructions, as well as some crucial background information for his ambassador:
“Referring to today’s telephonic communication from the Ambassador.
“Legation in Kowno is being instructed as follows:
“1) Solely for your personal information, I am apprising you of the following: At the time of the signing of the German-Russian Non-aggression Pact on August 23, a strictly secret delimitation of the respective spheres of influence in Eastern Europe was also undertaken. In accordance therewith, Lithuania was to belong to the German sphere of influence, while in the territory of the former Polish state, the so-called Four-River Line, Pissa-Narew-Vistula-San, was to constitute the border. Even then I demanded that the district of Vilna go to Lithuania, to which the Soviet Government consented. At the negotiations concerning the Boundary and Friendship Treaty on September 28, the settlement was amended to the extent that Lithuania, including the Vilna area, was included in the Russian sphere of influence, for which in turn, in the Polish area, the province of Lublin and large portions of the province of Warsaw, including the pocket of territory of Suwalki, fell within the German sphere of influence. Since, by the inclusion of the Suwalki tract in the German sphere of influence, a difficulty in drawing the border line resulted, we agreed that in case the Soviets should take special measures in Lithuania, a small strip of territory in the southwest of Lithuania, accurately marked on the map, should fall to Germany.
“2) Today Count von der Schulenburg reports that Molotov, contrary to our own intentions, notified the Lithuanian Foreign Minister last night of the confidential arrangement. Please now, on your part, inform the Lithuanian Government, orally and in strict confidence, of the matter, as follows:
“As early as at the signing of the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact of August 23, in order to avoid complications in Eastern Europe, conversations were held between ourselves and the Soviet Government concerning the delimitation of German and Soviet spheres of influence. In these conversations I had recommended restoring the Vilna district to Lithuania, to which the Soviet Government gave me its consent. In the negotiations concerning the Boundary and Friendship Treaty of September 28, as is apparent from the German-Soviet boundary demarcation which was published, the pocket of territory of Suwalki jutting out between Germany and Lithuania had fallen to Germany. As this created an intricate and impractical boundary, I had reserved for Germany a border correction in this area, whereby a small strip of Lithuanian territory would fall to Germany. The reward of Vilna to Lithuania was maintained in these negotiations also. You are now authorized to make it known to the Lithuanian Government that the Reich Government does not consider the question of this border revision timely at this moment. We make the proviso, however, that the Lithuanian Government treat this matter as strictly confidential. End of instruction for Kowno.
“I request you to inform Herr Molotov of our communication to the Lithuanian Government. Further, please request of him, as already indicated in the preceding telegram, that the border strip of Lithuanian territory involved be left free in the event of a possible posting of Soviet troops in Lithuania and also that it be left to Germany to determine the date of the implementing of the agreement concerning the cession to Germany of the territory involved. Both of these points at issue should be set forth in a secret exchange of letters between yourself and Molotov.
“RIBBENTROP”
Germany’s Secretary of State in the Foreign Office, Ernst Freiherr von Weizsäcker (who’s son Richard is the future eight president of the German Federal Republic) sends his own message on the situation to Ribbentrop that evening:
“The Lithuanian Minister called on me this evening in order, as was expected, to inquire about German claims to a strip of land in southwestern Lithuania. Herr Skirpa, however, even when he entered, had a friendlier appearance than was to be expected. For Minister Zechlin [German Minister in Lithuania] had in the meantime delivered information in Kowno as instructed, so that I did not need to go any further into the questions that Herr Skirpa put. I restricted myself to a brief mention of today’s telegraphic instructions to Herr Zechlin. Since Herr Skirpa expressed to me the satisfaction of his Government that we had withdrawn our claim, I stressed that the announcement of our need was “not at the moment pressing.” (It is noteworthy that Herr Skirpa knew and traced exactly on the map of Poland that happened to be spread out before us the line agreed upon by us in our secret protocol with the Russians.)
“The Minister then gave the further information that the Russians expected to get an assistance pact with Lithuania as well as permission to station Russian garrisons, at the same time agreeing in principle to the joining [Anschluss] of Vilna and environs to Lithuania. Herr Skirpa asked me if I had any ideas or suggestions to give in this regard. I stated that I was not informed and added that in connection with our negotiations in Moscow German interests had not been claimed beyond the Russo-German line in the east known to Herr Skirpa.
“In conclusion the Minister asked to be given any possible suggestions. Herr Urbsys [Lithuanian Foreign Minister] was still remaining in Kowno today and tomorrow; he himself — Skirpa — was at the disposal of the Reich Foreign Minister at any time.
“Weizsäcker”
With the final capitulations in Poland, the fate of eastern Europe is being finalized.
30-Sep-39: Pope Pius Hopes Polish Occupation Will Be Temporary; German Kriegsmarine Piles Up More Successes; Neutrality Act Debate Heats Up in U.S. Senate
Today is 30-Sept-1939, the 30th day of World War II; there are 2,163 days left in the conflict.
The German Heer’s withdrawal from Polish areas assigned to the Soviet Union in their partition agreements continues; occupation of Warsaw is deferred until 2-Oct to give the capital’s former defenders time to evacuate.
In Rome, Pope Pius XII addresses a group of noted Poles and expresses hope that the military occupation of Polish-inhabited areas will prove only temporary. At the same time, in Paris, the Poles form a government-in-exile. Władysław Raczkiewicz is named the First President in Exile and General Wladyslaw Sikorski is named Prime Minister and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.
In London, the cabinet authorizes the army to send poison gas shells to France in order to be prepared if the Germans begin using chemical weapons.
In naval action, the Germans claim that armed British merchant vessels have been attacking German U-Boots, so they notify the British Admiralty that any merchant ships on the high seas which are found to be armed will be sunk without warning. The London Daily Herald reports that German radio was broadcasting claims that the British aircraft carrier Glorious has been sunk by aerial bombs; the paper notes, however, that the Glorious is “afloat and unscathed.” The report adds that it believes the object of the German broadcast was actually to learn the location of the ship if the Admiralty, in denying the broadcast, could be tricked into mentioning the ship’s location.
Meanwhile, the Kriegsmarine and its U-Boats continue to take a toll on both the Royal Navy and neutral merchant shipping; two Norwegian ships are torpedoed in the North Sea and a third is sunk by a German mine. And in the South Atlantic, off Pernambuco, Brazil, the pocket battleship Graf Spee scores its first kill: the British steamship Clement. The Graf Spee herself will meet a similar fate in just two months; it will in the meantime sink eight more vessels, totaling 50,000 tons of shipping.
On the home front, German Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick partly rescinded a decree prohibiting all public dancing, which had been published at the beginning of the Polish invasion. Dancing is now permitted between 19:00 and 01:00 each evening. The Germans further announced that food ration cards will be required in restaurants after 2-Oct.
British King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and members of the royal household fill in registration forms; eventually food ration cards will be issued to them. During World War I, King George V and Queen Mary also filled out the cards and conformed to ration regulations.
In Washington, the debate over the Neutrality Act continues to generate heat in the U.S. Senate. Senator Key Pittman, D-Nevada, claims that the proposed “cash and carry” substitute for the arms embargo will, to a certain extent, modify the Johnson Act, which bans loans to nations in default on their World War I debts.
The Pan-American Neutrality Conference completes plans for an economic cushion to protect the Americas from wartime dislocations.
25-Sep-39: Germans Issue Second Ultimatum to Warsaw; Hitler Urges Speed; British Carrier Ark Royal Avoids Sinking
Today is 25-Sept-1939, the 25th day of World War II; there are 2,168 days left in the conflict.
While the German Wehrmacht issues a second ultimatum to the Warsaw capital garrison to cease its resistance and surrender, the Germans also increase their bombardment of the city, including heavy air attacks. Over 400 Luftwaffe planes (bombers and Ju-88 Stuka dive bombers) repeatedly pound the city, starting large fires.
German Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler is pushing the Wehrmacht to complete the conquest as soon as possible, but the Warsaw garrison is still fairly strong and resistant. The Germans therefore resort to the increased attacks, which also terrorize the civilians left in the city. The Germans keep the bombing going until the city finally surrenders.
In the German capital city, things are not as bleak as in Warsaw, but the civilian population begins to feel the first strains of the war as distribution of food ration cards is completed across the nation and bread and flour are now formally included in the rationing.
Hitler’s fourth war directive, in addition to the aforementioned swift conclusion to the conquest of Poland, also includes orders to the Kriegsmarine increasing assaults on Allied shipping in the North Atlantic and elsewhere. The Kriegsmarine’s U-Boats have already been successful in the beginning of this effort.
Meanwhile on those high seas, German newspapers and the Propaganda Ministry claim that the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal has been sunk during an attack by the Luftwaffe, which unveils the Ju-88 bomber during the action. In fact, the attack is just a near miss, and the false propaganda claims will be repeated several times before the ship is actually sunk in 1941.
18-Sep-39: U-Boat Sinks SS Kensington; Scandinavian Countries Say Trade Will Go On Unimpeded; Battle of Wilno (Vilnius) Begins Between Poles and Red Army
Today is 18-Sept-1939, the 18th day of World War II; there are 2,175 days left in the conflict.
Seventy miles from the Sicily Islands in the North Atlantic, a German U-Boat shells the British merchant ship SS Kensington Court. The 4,863-ton ship was laden with wheat form Argentina and was bound for Birkenhead. The ship is hit with five shells, but sinks slowly, allowing the crew to send out an S.O.S. and take to the lifeboats.
The S.O.S. is picked up two Royal Air Force Sunderland flying boats (from numbers 228 and 204 Squadrons) on patrol in the area; they arrive on the scene, land and subsequently rescue all 34 of the sailors on board. The Sunderland will later, after several losses on rough seas, be supplanted by the PBY Catalina, which has a thicker hull more suitable for exposed water landings.
Meanwhile, the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland decide that, in order to “protect their economic existence,” they will continue to trade with both sides in the quickly broadening European conflict. The coordinated announcement is made simultaneously in the national capitals, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm and Reykjavik. Three of the five will soon discover that their neutrality is illusory.
In Poland, Warsaw’s defiant resistance continues, so the German Third and Tenth armies begin attacking the capital city. Polish President Ignacy Mościcki and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces General Edward Rydz-Śmigły, escape Poland and flee to Romania, where they are disarmed and interned as the Romanians had previously announced would happen to fleeing Polish nationals fleeing the fighting onto Romanian soil. The two Polish leaders leave behind messages urging the remaining Polish forces to continue to fight both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army.
In a crucial development for the future of the war, members of Poland’s Cipher Bureau, charged with intercepting enemy communications and breaking their codes, escape Poland to the south and begin a long and arduous journey to France, and then on to Britain. They carry crucial information about the German Wehrmacht’s “Enigma” code, which will be vital to the later successful breaking of the code, a famous episode of the war.
On the second day of the Soviet invasion in the east of Poland, the Red Army continues to meet very little resistance and successfully advances 100km into Poland.
However, at Wilno (present day Vilnius, Lithuania), later in the day (at 17:00 hours), Polish Colonel Jarosław Okulicz-Kozaryn, in command of the garrison there, receives reports of Red Army armored scouts approaching from Oszmiana (present day Ashmyany). These scouts are engaging Polish infantry units as they advance. Col. Okulicz-Kozaryn orders all units to fall back on the Lithuanian border, with the most experienced units of the Polish Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza screening the retreat.
Col. Okulicz-Kozaryn sends a Lt. Col. Podwysocki under a flag of truce to tell the Red Army that the Poles will not defend Wilno; however, he is shot at and forced to retreat behind Polish lines. Col. Okulicz-Kozaryn evacuates the city with most of the Polish forces, but Lt. Col. Podwysocki decides to defend the city anyway, even with few troops.
The Poles actual succeed in repulsing the first Soviet attack on the city in the evening hours, but the Red Army continues its push and rapidly encircles the city. By nightfall, they have captured the airfield and the Rasos Cemetery, and entered the city at several points. The battle will continue the next day.
On the propaganda front, a momentous occasion in Berlin happens which will propel an obscure American to infamy. The American, named William Joyce, had moved to Ireland and then Britain after his birth in Brooklyn in 1906. He subsequently became a member of the British Union of Fascists (led by Oswald Moseley and referred to as the Blackshirts), then fled to Germany in August, 1939, with his wife as war became imminent.
Having served in propaganda capacities for the British Union of Fascists, the Germans decided Joyce might be of some use in the same guise in Berlin. A week previously, the Germans had allowed Joyce to make a radio broadcast to the British; it so impressed the Germans that they give him a long-term radio contract. He will go on to broadcast throughout most of the war under an assumed (and now famous) pseudonym, Lord Haw-Haw (which had previously been used by three other German radio personalities for similar purposes). He would be known for his now famous opening salutation of his broadcasts: “Germany calling! Germany calling!”
17-Sep-39: Soviets Invade Eastern Poland in Order to “Protect Ukrainian and Belorussian Minorities;” British Aircraft Carrier HMS Courageous is Sunk by U-29
Today is 17-Sept-1939, the 17th day of World War II; there are 2,176 days left in the conflict.
At 02:15 a.m. local time, Polish Ambassador to the Soviet Union Waclaw Grzybowski is summoned to the Soviet Foreign Office in Moscow. He is received there by the Deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vladimir Potemkin. Potemkin reads a note to Grzybowski from the USSR government that the Soviets regard the Polish government as completely disintegrated, and therefore the Polish state has “ceased to exist.” Therefore, all agreements between the Soviet Union and Poland have also “ceased to be in effect.”
The note goes on to state that, without leadership or government, Poland is now a threat to the Soviet Union. In addition, because of the anarchy in Poland, ethnic Ukrainians, Belorussians and White Russians were in danger and defenseless. The Polish ambassador is then given the coup de grace:
“Accordingly, the Soviet Government has ordered its troops to cross the Polish border and take under their protection the life and property of the population of Western Ukraine and Western White Russia. At the same time, the Soviet Government proposes to extricate the Polish people from the unfortunate war into which they were dragged by their unwise leaders, and enable them to live a peaceful life.”
The Red Army then pours across the border along an 800-mile line; the attack is organized into two army groups — what the Soviets call Fronts, a term which will be used for the duration of the war. Because of the fighting against the German Wehrmacht in the west, the Poles have only 18 battalions in the east, so there is virtually no resistance to the Soviet invasion.
Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov makes the official announcement of the invasion, reiterating the claim that it is to ensure the protection of the Ukrainian and Belorussian minorities in the region. Soviet newspapers continue to note claims of “brutal treatment” of those minorities, Molotov says. He adds that the Soviet government promises to respect the neutrality of Finland. In a move that will further please the Germans, he also announces that the government is formally recognizing Slovakia as an independent state.
The invasion is a complete surprise to Poland’s civil and military leaders, as well as its population. In certain places, there was confusion among civilians who initially believed the Red Army was marching in order to save Poland from the Germans. They quickly discover the truth, and some Polish military forces in the region swing to the east, beginning three weeks of war against the Red Army between the Carpathian Mountains and the Dvina River.
The remains of the Polish government flee towards the Romanian border, evacuating Kuty, the fifth and final temporary seat of government since the abandonment of the capital, Warsaw. Government officials flee into Romania; all surviving Polish Air Force flight crews fly the remaining aircraft to Romanian airfields. Under the terms of Romania’s declaration of two days previously, they are disarmed and interned in Romanian camps.
As the eastern invasion is unfolding, the German Wehrmacht continues to pound away at Polish forces elsewhere. The Luftwaffe bombs Warsaw, hitting St. John’s Cathedral while Mass is being performed. Dead parishioners are buried in public parks since the city’s cemeteries are now full of victims of the German invasion.
The German Heer continues to close a tighter ring around Warsaw; it captures over 40,000 Polish prisoners at Kutno and succeeds after three days of fighting in finally capturing Brest-Litovsk. Army groups North and South join up in eastern Poland at Siedlce, but are ordered to halt their invasion along a pre-determined line in order to avoid accidental clashes with the oncoming Red Army.
The naval war continues to heat up on the Atlantic; the German Kriegsmarine’s Untersee Boot U-29 succeeds in torpedoing and sinking the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous off the southwest coast of Ireland, killing 514 of the 1200 sailors on board.
Courageous is performing anti-submarine patrol duties when it is hit, much like the carrier Ark Royal several days previously. While the Courageous has been highly effective in this work, and the Ark Royal did successfully escape being sunk, the sinking of the Courageous prods the Royal Navy to decree that its carriers will not be used in such work in the future.
Finally, an eventful day ends with signs that the Italians will not long remain out of the conflict. Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, Fascist de facto dictator of the country, has the Italian government send a message to Athens assuring the Greek government that Italy will take no military action against Greece even if Italy enters the war. It is a promise that will only last a little over a year; the Italians will invade Greece in October 1940 with disastrous results.
16-Sep-39: Soviets Inform Poles of Imminent Invasion of Eastern Poland; Warsaw Fights On; U-31 Sinks British Ship SS Aviemore
Today is 16-Sept-1939. It is the 16th day of the war; there are 2,177 days left in the war.
The command of Polish units defending Warsaw is given to General Walerian Czuma. The capital city is now completely surrounded by German forces, which now issue an ultimatum demanding the capital’s complete, unconditional surrender.
However, given that they have already repulsed a German advance on the city, inflicting many casulaties, the Polish garrison, with the support of the city’s civil population, decide to reject the Wehrmacht’s ultimatum. In response, the German Luftwaffe bomb the city’s Jewish quarter; today is also the day before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which is given as one of the reasons for the special attack. The last of Poland’s air force planes make their final, limited bombing runs.
The Germans are fighting west of Lvov, and some units are driving north in order to link with others fighting along the Bug River. The invasion is approaching its final phase, exceeding Wehrmacht expectations.
The Soviet government finally makes official what the Germans have been urging them to do since the beginning of the invasion; it informs Polish representatives in Moscow that, on the next day, 17-Sept, the Red Army will deploy into eastern Poland in order to, quote, “protect the Ukrainian and Belorussian minorities.”
On the high seas, the German Kriegsmarine’s U-Boats score another sinking when the U-31 attacks and sinks the SS Aviemore, a British steamer. The U-31 will go on to sink 10 more ships during its wartime career.
23 crewmen of the Aviemore die in the attack. The Aviemore is a British merchant steamer built in 1920 and owned by Johnston Warren Lines. She had been en route from Swansea, Wales, to South America — Montevideo, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was carrying a cargo of 5,165 tons of tinplates and black sheets.
In London, the British Army appoints the former King Edward VIII, now known as the Duke of Windsor after he abdicated the throne in order to marry an American divorcee in 1936, as a liaison officer to the French army.
14-Sep-39: Germans Enter Gdynia, Poland’s Only Seaport; Soviets Launch Anti-Polish Propaganda Campaign; HMS Ark Royal Has Narrow Escape.
Today is 14-Sept-1939. It is the 14th day of the war; there are 2,179 days left in the war.
German troops enter the only Polish outlet to the sea, Gdynia, on the Baltic west of Danzig. German forces launched from East Prussia cross the Narew River near Modlin and start the encirclement of Warsaw. General Heinz Guderian’s Nineteenth Panzer Corps reaches the city of Brest-Litovsk. German attacks cut off the city of Lwow; ethnic Ukrainians begin an uprising there and in Stanislawow, attacking any Polish forces in those areas.
The Hungarian government in Budapest declares its neutrality; it claims there is no grounds for action since Hungary is not threatened by Hitler.
Northwest of Ireland, the British aircraft carrier, HMS Ark Royal luckily escapes the German submarine U-39 during an anti-submarine patrol. Three British destroyers near the carrier sink the U-39 and capture 43 of its crew.
In Moscow, Pravda, the official newspaper of the Soviet Communist Party, starts an anti-Polish propaganda campaign with a front-page article denouncing the Poles treatment of ethnic minorities within that country. The Soviets are preparing their public for the launch of their own invasion of Poland, three days hence.