World War 2 Timeline – Highlights of September 1939

Sep 1st: The Invastion of Poland begins with the German Luftwaffe attacking several targets in Poland. The Luftwaffe launcher air attacks against Krakow, Lodz and Warsaw.

Sep 1st: Norway, Switzerland and Finland declare their neutrality.

Sep 2nd: The United Kingdom and France issue a join ultimatum to Germany, requiring German troops to evacuate Polish territory; Mussolini decleares Italian neutrality; Ireland also declares neutrality; the Swiss goverment oders a general mobilization of its forces.

Sep 2nd: The Free City of Danzig is annexed by Germany.

Sep 3rd: Within hours of the British declaretion of War, SS Atenia, a British cruise ship en-route from Glasgow to Montreal is torpedoed by U-30 250 miles Northwest of Ireland. 112 passengers and crew are killed.

Sep 4th: Japan announces its neutrality in the European situation. The United States makes a similar declaration the next day. Sep 6th: South Africa declares war on Germany.

Sep 6th:  Battle of Barking Creek (a friendly fire incident resulting in the first RAF fighter pilot fatalities of the War) Sep 7th: France begins a token offensive, moving into German territory near Saarbrücken.Sep 8th: The British Government announce the re-introduction of the convoy system for merchant ships and a full-scale blockade on German shipping.Sep 10th: Canada declares war on Germany.Sep 17th: The Soviet Union invades Poland from the east, occupying the territory east of the Curzon line as well as Białystok and Eastern Galicia. Sep 18th: Polish President Ignacy Moscicki and Commander-in-Chief Edward Rydz-Smigly leave Poland for Romania, where they are both interned; Russian forces reach Vilna and Brest-Litovsk. Polish submarine escapes from Tallinn – Estonia’s neutrality is questioned by the Soviet Union and Germany.

Sep 19th: The German and Soviet armies link up near Brest Litovsk.Sep

24th: Soviet air force violating Estonian airspace. The Estonians negotiate with Molotov in Moscow. Molotov warns the Estonians that if the Soviet Union doesn’t get military bases in Estonia, it is forced to use “more radical actions”.

Sep 25th: German home front measures begin with food rationing.

Sep 25th: Soviet air activity in Estonia. Soviet troops along the Estonian border include 600 tanks and 600 airplanes and 160 000 men.

Sep 26th: Following a massive artillery bombardment, the Germans launch a major infantry assault on the centre of Warsaw.

Sep 27th: In the first offensive operations by the German Army in Western Europe, guns on the Siegfried Line open up on villages behind French Maginot line.

Sep 28th: The remaining army and militia in the centre of Warsaw capitulate to the Germans.

Sep 28th: Soviet troops by the Latvian border. Latvian air space violated.Big thanks to

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