Fall, 1939
Chapter 1
The Lights Go Out
September-December
German troops enter Poland as Hitler reviews their advance - German Federal Archives
As the dawn broke on September 1st, 1939 a flight of German JU87 Stuka dive bombers penetrated Polish airspace. Their target: the controls for the pre-placed demolition charges on the Dirschau bridge on the Vistula, to prevent its destruction by the Poles. At around the same time the battleship Schleswig-Holstein, already positioned off Danzig on the pretense of a ceremonial visit, moved into position off the Westerplatte peninsula and opened fire against the Polish ammunition depot located there, thus opening what was to be known as the Second World War.
The German battleship Schleswig-Holstein fires on Westerplatte
The German attack on Poland was commenced from three army groups, Heeresgruppe Nord under Generaloberst Fedor von Bock, which began to push south from East Prussia as well as to secure Danzig and the Polish Corridor, Heeresgruppe Sud under Generaloberst Gerd von Rundstedt, tasked with the main drive from the German border into the Polish heartland, and the Slovak Field Army Group Bernolák under Slovakian General Ferdinand Čatloš pushing from the Slovakian border in the south.
German troops destroy a Polish border checkpoint
The German drive into Poland was rapid and consisted of armored and mechanized forces advancing with support from well-coordinated air and artillery support, the Polish Air Force having been all but annihilated in the opening moves of the campaign. As the German advance into Poland continued, an ultimatum was issued to Berlin by France and Britain demanding an immediate cessation of hostilities, but this was ignored. As a result, on September 3rd, 1939 the Second World War began in earnest as the western powers declared war on Germany.
Despite this declaration of war the German advance in Poland continued, and by the 10th of September German advance units had reached the suburbs of Warsaw, which had already been under a prolonged aerial bombardment by the Luftwaffe. Despite their fierce resistance Polish forces were beginning to crumble.
A Luftwaffe HE111 medium bomber releases its payload on Warsaw
In the West the French launched an invasion over the German frontier on September 7th, advancing several miles and occupying several German towns with no opposition. The vast majority of the Wehrmacht was deployed in Poland, and thus the Germans were not able to counterattack the French incursion, although the French were not fully aware of this. Fearful of overextending themselves so early in the conflict, the French troops remained near their own border, although they pushed almost to the German Siegfried Line in some sectors.
French troops in a German village
The French advance in the west did not divert any of the German forces in Poland, a result upon which Polish strategy had depended. Without their reprieve the gallant Poles continued to be slowly overwhelmed, and the final blow came on September 17th, as the Soviet Union, in keeping with the secret pact signed shortly before the commencement of hostilities, invaded Poland from the east. Three days later the advancing Red Army met the German spearheads at Brest-Litovsk, cutting what was left of Poland in two. The end was nearing quickly now, and the Polish leadership had already begun evacuating to neutral Romania by the 18th of September.
German and Soviet forces meet
On September 27th Warsaw fell to the Germans, and the victors began to partition Poland in accordance with their prior agreement. The last bastion of Polish resistance, consisting of a partial Army Corps under General Franciszek Kleeberg, surrendered on October 6th after running out of ammunition, ending the Polish Campaign.
Even as Poland fell the first British troops were deploying to France, and the Royal Air Force had been engaged in limited operations dropping leaflets and the occasional bomb on Germany since the 4th of September. Despite this, the end of resistance in Poland prompted the French to withdraw their forces from Germany behind the Maginot Line, and the war in the west began to settle into a waiting game that would come to be known as the “Phoney War”.
A Soviet T26 tank in the snow of Finland
Poland had fallen and been partitioned between the Germans and Soviets, but the Eastern front was not entirely quiet. In accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact the Soviets had been given a free hand in the Baltic by the Germans, and they promptly moved against Finland in November, following a supposed Finnish shelling of the Soviet border village of Mainila.
Four days later, on November 30th, Soviet forces entered Finland, commencing what was to become known as the Winter War. The Finns mounted a fighting retreat from their border to stronger positions on the Mannerheim Line about 50 miles from the border, where they stopped the Soviet advance, inflicting heavy casualties. The fighting on the Mannerheim Line would continue into the new year.
View of the officers of a German U-Boat on a war patrol
The war at sea had also begun on September 1st, with the German Kriegsmarine supporting operations against Poland, but also acting in the Atlantic. Most of the existing U-boat fleet was deployed into the North Sea and the Atlantic, as well as two of the fast “pocket battleships”; the Deutschland and the Admiral Graf Spee. The two battleships had already been in the open ocean since late August, and began to move into the South Atlantic after the opening of hostilities.
The U-boats quickly engaged enemy ships, primarily in the North Sea, where on September 17th the British carrier HMS Courageous was sunk by U-29 while it patrolled the Atlantic west of Ireland. This loss caused the British to withdraw their carriers from such patrols, but was soon to be followed by an even greater success for the Kriegsmarine.
On October 14th, 1939 the U-47 managed to slip into the major British naval base at Scapa Flow under cover of a moonless night, targeting the anchored battleship HMS Royal Oak. The first torpedo hit was mistaken for an accident on the battleship and did not raise an alarm, allowing the U-47 time to reload and hit the ship with three more, detonating the magazines and destroying the warship. The submarine was subsequently able to escape the harbor and return to Germany, where her crew was hailed as heroes.
The German battleship Admiral Graf Spee enters Montevideo harbor in Uraguay
As for the two German battleships, the Deutschland sank a British merchantman on October 5th before capturing the American freighter SS City of Flint on the 23rd. She would continue for some time in the Atlantic before returning to Germany in November.
The Admiral Graf Spee made her first kill on September 26th, having already evaded a British warship pursuing her, prompting a large force of British and French warships to be dispatched to eliminate the German ship. After capturing or sinking eight enemy merchantmen, the Graf Spee engaged a British battlegroup off of the River Plate in Uruguay on December 13th, consisting of one heavy and two light cruisers. The resulting battle left both the German battleship and the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter damaged, with the Germans retreating into Montevideo Harbor and the cover of the neutral nation, while the British took up position to block any escape attempts.
Persuaded that the British were massing forces to destroy him if he attempted to break out into the Atlantic, and that the Uruguayan Government would allow the British to access the ship if he allowed them to intern it as international law mandated, Captain Hans Langsdorff ordered the Graf Spee to be scuttled on December 17, ending the threat to Allied shipping in the South Atlantic as 1939 came to a close.
Timeline
9-1-1939
German forces invade Poland
9-3-1939
Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand issue declarations of war on Germany
SS Athenia becomes the first ship lost to a U-Boat in this war
9-4-1939
RAF makes first British attack of the war, bombing the U-boat base at Wilhemshaven
9-5-1939
United States declares official neutrality
9-6-1939
South Africa issues declaration of war on Germany
9-9-1939
German panzer spearheads reach the outskirts of Warsaw
9-10-1939
Canada issues declaration of war on Germany
9-12-1939
Czech Exile Army is formed in France to fight alongside the Allies
9-15-1939
Warsaw is surrounded by the Germans, and subjected to heavy air attacks
French troops invade Germany
9-16-1939
French forces withdraw from Germany, retreating behind the Maginot Line despite encountering almost no resistance
9-17-1939
Soviet forces invade eastern Poland
9-20-1939
Soviet and German forces meet in Brest-Litovsk
9-27-1939
Warsaw falls to German forces
9-29-1939
Germany and the Soviet Union partition Poland in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
9-30-1939
Polish Government in Exile is formed in London
10-1-1940
The first troops of the British Expeditionary Force arrive at their assigned positions in France
10-6-1939
Organized resistance in Poland comes to an end as the Germans destroy the Polish Army at Kock
10-12-1939
The Soviet Union makes territorial demands of Finland
10-14-1939
German U-boat U-47 enters the British naval base at Scapa Flow and sinks the battleship HMS Royal Oak before escaping back to Germany
10-23-1939
American freighter SS City of Flint is seized by German raiders at sea
11-4-1939
SS City of Flint is turned over into neutral Norwegian custody by the Kriegsmarine
11-8-1939
During the annual commemoration of the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich a bomb explodes under Hitler’s podium, but the Fuhrer had left the stage early, escaping unharmed
11-30-1939
After an incident along their border, the Soviet Union invades Finland. The Allies begin to contemplate sending aid to the Finns
12-13-1939
The German battleship Admiral Graf Spee is engaged by British warships off the coast of South America. She is damaged and puts in to Montevideo Harbor. Fearing British reinforcements, her captain scuttles her four days later.