25-Dec-39: First Christmas Passes Quietly on Western Front; Hitler Visits Troops; Soviets Launch Attacks on Finn Defenses, Cities
Today is 25-Dec-1939, the 86th day of World War II; there are 2,077 days left in the conflict.
The first Christmas of the war is celebrated quietly along the western front; German Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler meets with German Army troops during a three-day visit to the front. King George VI broadcasts a Christmas message to the British Empire and states, “A New Year is at hand. We cannot tell what it will bring. If it brings peace, how thankful we shall all be. If it brings us continued struggle, we shall remain undaunted.”
Christmas and a cold day with temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius fails to deter the Soviets from launching attacks on the northern end of the Mannerheim Line in Finland, as well as bombing Helsinki, Viipuri and 30 towns and cities, as well as railway lines. The Finns claim to have downed 20 Soviet bombers during the Winter War attack.
7-Dec-39: Scandinavian Countries Declare Neutrality; Soviets Blockade Finnish Coast, Continue Attacks; German Battleship Sinks Last Victim as British Sail to Intercept; King George VI Meets French Leaders
Today is 7-Dec-1939, the 68th day of World War II; there are 2,095 days left in the conflict.
Sweden, Denmark, and Norway decline to come to the aid of their neighbor, Finland; each declares its neutrality in the Winter War. The Soviets announce a blockade of the Finnish coast and attack positions at Kollaa north of Lake Ladoga, while entering Suomussalmi on the east side of Lake Kianta.
The ninth (and last) victim of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, the SS Streonshalh, is sunk south of Trinidad. A British cruiser squadron sails toward South America in an attempt to intercept the battleship in the River Plate estuary between Uruguay and Argentina.
Still visiting in France, British King George VI has lunch in Paris with President Albert Lebrun and Prime Minister Edouard Daladier.
11-Nov-39: Germans Say Neutrality of Low Countries Is Assured; BEF Holds Armistice Day Ceremonies on French Battlefields; In Radio Broadcast, Queen Elizabeth Exhorts British Women
Today is 11-Nov-1939, the 42nd day of World War II; there are 2,121 days left in the conflict.
In response to invasion preparations in Holland and general nervousness expressed by the three Low Countries (Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg), the German Foreign Ministry issues a statement the promises the Germans will continue to respect the neutrality of the countries in question and respect their territorial integrity. German patrols and artillery are largely quiet along the Western Front further to the south.
The British Expeditionary Force observes the anniversary of the World War I armistice (11:00 11-11-18) by holding ceremonies on the sites of some of the most intense fighting of that war. holds Armistice Day services amid the great battlefields of the First World War.
In a broadcast from Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth declares that the women of the British Empire will take a prominent role in the new struggle; she says British women “have real and vital work to do … keeping the Home Front, which will have dangers of its own, stable and strong.”
2-Nov-39: Hitler Recalls Ambassadors to Italy, USSR for Consultations; Soviets Complete Polish Annexations; King George VI Awards RAF Medals
Today is 2-Nov-1939, the 33rd day of World War II; there are 2,130 days left in the conflict.
Two German diplomats, Ambassador to the Soviet Union Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenberg and Ambassador to Italy Hans Georg von Mackensen are recalled to Berlin for consultations with Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler.
The Soviet Union continues its pattern of annexation of former Polish territory after conducting plebiscites in the conquered area as another portion of east Poland is incorporated as the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. It will be the final incorporation of territory conquered by the Red Army in September and October.
In London, British King George VI awards medals to five Royal Air Force pilots who led an air raid on Germany’s Kiel Canal in September.
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.
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.
10-Sep-39: Canada Declares War on Germany; Luftwaffe Raids Warsaw 15 Times; British Expeditionary Force Builds Up in France
In Ottawa, Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King asks a special session of Parliament to approve his request that Canada join the war against Germany. Most Canadians see the coming of war one week after the declarations of war by England and France as inevitable. A few days before, a solemn King George VI took to the airwaves in London in an address called “Canada at the side of Britain.” This also marks the first time that Canadians make their own declaration of war as a sovereign nation.
Prime Minister King vows to secure Canada’s defense, and take “all necessary measures” to curb Germany’s “lust for conquest.” Even though the Canadians are the last of the British Dominions to declare war, the few days of hesitation permits the accelerated delivery from the US of large amounts of war goods which, after the declaration of war are now barred by American neutrality laws.
Meanwhile on the front lines in Poland, Polish armies are ordered to retreat to defensive positions in the southeast of the country. The German Luftwaffe conducts 15 air raids on Warsaw. German forces also make an attempt at spreading false propaganda by broadcasting a fake news bulletin on the same wavelength as Radio Warsaw that announces the fall of Warsaw, the capital.
The Polish Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Smigly-Rydz, continues making pleas to the French to invade Germany and take pressure off the Poles. But the French Chief of the General Staff, General Maurice 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 to help the Poles.
Meanwhile, at the Channel ports, the first major units of British Expeditionary Force begin to land on French soil; small advance parties have been arriving since 4-Sept. 160,000 men, 24,000 vehicles and 140,000 tons of supplies are sent to France during September.
On the high seas, friendly fire takes its toll as the British submarine Triton mistakenly torpedoes the British submarine Oxley. The Oxley becomes the first allied naval casualty of World War II. Only three of 55 sailors on board survive.