1933 (SUNDAY) GERMANY: Chancellor Adolf Hitler renounces war except against Bolshevism stating ". . . because the German people know that no war could take place which would gain for their country more honor than was won in the last war . . . Germany is not in need of rehabilitation on the battle-field, for there she had never lost her prestige. . . . By waging war on Bol. . is fulfilling a European mission. . . ."
1937 (FRIDAY) CHINA: Japanese forces advance rapidly through northern China, without meeting much resistance from the Chinese. The Japanese rapidly gained control of Zhangjiakou (Kalgan) today.
September 3rd, 1939 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:11.15 a.m. no reply has been received to the British ultimatum; Chamberlain broadcasts from the Cabinet room of 10 Downing Street:
I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room at Ten Downing Street. This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note, stating that, unless the British Government heard from them by eleven o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us.
I have to tell you that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.
You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed.
We have done all that any country could do to establish peace. The situation in which no word given by Germany's ruler could be trusted, and no people or country could feel themselves safe, has become intolerable....
We have resolved to finish it. It is the evil things we shall be fighting against - brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution...
...and against them I am certain that the right will prevail. (Full Speech)
Almost immediately a siren sounded in London, its sound sending people to the shelter, but it proves to be a French civilian plane near Croyden airport.
Chamberlain then goes later to address Parliament.
The mass evacuation of children from cities to the reception areas considered safe has been proceeding for three days. By tonight 1,473,391 evacuees including escorts and teachers have arrived in the reception areas. 827,000 are school children travelling with their teachers, 535,000 are women expecting babies or with children under school age. Each child is labelled with name, address and school number and carries gas mask, night clothing, toothbrush, comb, soap and towel, spare underwear, handkerchief and overcoat (if available). The children are marshalled at railway stations and issued with blank destination tickets. Parent will be informed of their children's location as soon as possible. Residents who take evacuees will be paid 10/6 for one child and 8/6 for each extra child.
Cinemas are closed throughout the country to prevent concentrations of people being caught in air raids, which never materialise. Except for those in the centre of London, cinemas re-open within the next two weeks. As a result, UK cinema admissions dip by 30 per cent during the first month of war but by November are already above average and continue to grow to record levels by 1946.
London: Parliament passes the National Service (Armed Forces) Act making all men aged between 18 and 41 other than those in reserved occupations liable for conscription.
Scapa Flow: The Royal Navy deploys to its war stations, the Home Fleet has returned to
Scapa Flow in the Orkneys and elements are preparing to escort the British Expeditionary
Force (BEF) across to France. The BEF will initially consist of four regular divisions
under General Lord Gort, VC.
The evacuation of equipment from the British radar research centre at Bawdsey Manor begins
from the nearby airfield at Martlesham Heath. Trucks are spreading a mixture of soot and
coal dust over the airfield, in a pathetic attempt at camouflage. This dust finds its way
into much of the electronic equipment, causing considerable damage. (Cris
Wetton)
The British Home Fleet deploys aircraft carriers to seek out and destroy German submarines: HMS Ark Royal (91) off the northwestern approaches to the British Isles, HMS Courageous (50) and HMS Hermes (D 95) off the southwestern approaches.
Belfast: At 3pm a territorial of the 8th (Belfast) HAA
regiment, TA is stopped by six armed men in East Bridge Street, at the corner of Turnley
Street, and divested of his uniform which was then burnt. Another member of this unit was
shot in the abdomen and seriously wounded at 3.45 pm.
The Special Constabulary are called out , and on this night by virtue of the Civil
Authorities (Special Powers) Act, the Minister of Home Affairs orders the internment of 45
members of the IRA.
The U.S. freighter SS Saccarappa, with a cargo of phosphates and cotton, is detained by British authorities. The ship is released on 8 September after British authorities seize cargo and unload them.
Off the coast of ÉIRE, the German submarine U-30 (Oberleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp) attacks (without warning) and sinks what he thought is an armed merchant cruiser but is really the 13,500 ton passenger liner SS Athenia carrying 1,103 civilians including over 300 U.S. citizens attempting to return to the U.S. The German Navy had sent three radio messages to their submarines in the afternoon stating that Germany was at war and the subs could begin hostilities in accordance with the Prize Rules without waiting for provocation. Captain Lemp spotted the Athenia which was blacked out and zigzagging and appeared to be carrying deck guns and was therefore a legitimate target. The Prize Rules called for the sub to fire a shot across the Athenia's bow but instead, Lemp fired two torpedoes, one of which hit the ship. The second malfunctioned and the sub submerged to avoid being hit. After a period of time, the sub surfaced and seeing that it was not sinking, the captain ordered a third torpedo fired but this also missed.
The sub was now close enough to see its silhouette and the captain compared it with his Lloyd's Register and discovered his mistake. Soon afterwards, U-30 intercepted a plain-language radio transmission from the stricken ship identifying itself as the Athenia. The captain neither reported this incident to naval headquarters nor did he aid the survivors. On the Athenia, 118 crewmen and passengers, including 28 U.S. citizens, are killed in the initial explosion or die later as a result of the sinking. Three merchant ships and three RN destroyers rescue the survivors. U-30 returned to Germany on 27 September and Lemp admitted his mistake.
The Germans learned of the sinking from British news broadcasts and were appalled because of the memory of unrestricted submarine of World War I, especially the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, was brought up on the first day of World War II. After looking at the submarine deployment charts, it was evident that U-30 was responsible but Hitler decreed that accusations would be confronted with categorical denial. To throw the British off the track still further, the Propaganda Ministry under Göbbels spread the story that the British had torpedoed the liner themselves in a scurrilous attempt to bring the United States into the war. This story was published in Volkischer Beobachter on 23 October, fully a month after Lemp had confirmed the truth. The Germans denied any involvement with the sinking of the Athenia for the rest of the war.
FRANCE: 5.00 p.m. the French ultimatum expires and France too is at war with Germany.
The first Cannes Film Festival is due to start but is cancelled due to the declaration of war. The French government had agreed to underwrite costs, selecting Cannes in preference to Biarritz. Also promised was a Palais des Festivals, finally constructed in 1949.
BELGIUM: While the Belgian government mobilized the kingdom's armed forces, Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot declares the country's neutrality in the event of a European war.
NETHERLANDS: Submarine O-27 laid down.
GERMANY:
9.00 a.m. In Berlin, Sir Nevile Henderson enters the German Foreign Office. Neither Hitler, nor von Ribbentrop was prepared to receive him: the task is delegated to Paul Schmidt, Hitler's interpreter. This morning, of all morning's he oversleeps, and as the British Ambassador enters by the front door, Schmidt races through a side door and into von Ribbentrop's office. Henderson present's Britain's ultimatum:
More than twenty-four hours have elapsed since an immediate reply was requested to the warning of September 1st, and since then the attacks on Poland have intensified. If His Majesty's Government has not received satisfactory assurances of the cessation of all aggressive action against Poland, and the withdrawal of German troops from that country, by eleven o'clock British Summer Time, from that time a state of war will exist between Great Britain and Germany.
Schmidt brings the ultimatum to Hitler and reads it slowly and carefully in German and English. 'What now?" exclaims Hitler to Ribbentrop. His plans had been made in the belief, encouraged by Ribbentrop, that neither Britain nor France would fight. Ribbentrop replies that a French ultimatum will follow soon.
Hitler addresses the German people.
OKW issues Führer Directive #2 for the Conduct of the War.
(i) Confirmation of declarations of war by England and France.
(ii) Re-iteration of German primary aim: to rapidly and victoriously
conclude operations in Poland.
(iii) Confirmation of basic principles for war in the West as laid down in
Directive #1. Kriegsmarine authorised to begin offensive actions. In war
against merchant shipping, prize regulations are to be observed (U-boats
included). The entrance to the Baltic will be mined without infringing
neutral waters. Offensive and defensive blockade measures will be carried
out in the North Sea. Luftwaffe attacks against English Naval forces
(including ships in port and positively identified troopships) will only be
made in the event of similar English air attacks. Air attacks on the English
homeland and merchant shipping must await a Führer order.
(iv) The opening of hostilities in the West is to be left to the enemy.
Naval action against France will only be permitted if the enemy has opened
hostilities. Air attacks against France will only follow air attacks by
France against Germany. Germany must not provoke the initiation of aerial
warfare. Air strength must be conserved for expected future decisive
action.
(v) ‘Order X’ (partial mobilization) is extended to the entire armed
forces. The conversion of the German economy to a wartime basis is decreed.
(Marc Roberts)
Berlin: Robert Coulondre, French Ambassador to Germany telephones the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, Georges Bonnet.
During the day, Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command dispatches 28 aircraft, one Blenheim, 18 Hampdens and nine Wellingtons, to locate German warships. The Blenheim, of No 139 Squadron, was the first RAF aircraft to cross the German coast in WWII. On the night of 3/4 September, ten Whitleys from Nos 51 and 58 Squadrons dropped 13.5 tons of leaflets over Hamburg, Bremen and The Ruhr. The leaflets tell Germans that Adolf Hitler's promises are worthless, that Germany was near bankruptcy, and weak compared to Allied forces. This was the start of Operation NICKEL.
DENMARK: The Danish government promises to observe strict neutrality.
POLAND: In the town of Bydgoszcz the population flees in panic early in the morning, as guns start firing "burst after burst" in the city streets. Military baggage wagons are driven off "as fast as the horses could gallop", cars and lorries all crowding to get over the bridge over the Brda.
But the firing was coming not from the German Panzers, but from "diversionists", German-Poles with Nazi sympathies, or Germans who had infiltrated into Poland to act as a Fifth Column in the days immediately preceding the war..
The Poles of Bydgoszcz forgot their panic and turned against the "diversionists" and in sharp street fighting, won back the town, administering the firing squad to any captured "diversionists".
The 3rd (East Prussia) and 4th (Pomerania) Armies of Army Group North link up eliminating all Polish resistance in the Corridor except for Mlawa forts in the north.
Czestochowa falls.
In the face of Luftwaffe air superiority at Nowy Targ light bombers of the 31st Squadron attack and destroy a German motor transport column.
German Stuka divebombers sink Polish minelayer Gryf, destroyer Wicher and several other small craft at Hela.
Submarine ORP Rys set a mine barrier (20 mines) 10 miles east from the tip of Hel Peninsula.
U-14 probably attacked the first warship in World War Two when she attacks the Polish submarine Sep (Cdr. Wladyslaw Salamon) at 2022 hrs. The torpedo exploded prematurely about 200m from the Polish sub. The German commander (Kptlt. Horst Wellner) found wreckage (from the torpedo) and some oil from Sep's damaged oil tank. Believing he had sunk the boat, he radioed his claim in.
SWEDEN: Declares its neutrality.
YUGOSLAVIA: The first and only Yugoslavian Grand Prix automobile race is held at Kalemagdan Park in Belgrade. This race, the last Grand Prix event before World War II, is won by the great Italian champion Tazio Nuvolari.
SPAIN: The Spanish government declared its intension of remaining neutral in a European war over the future of Danzig.
EGYPT: The Egyptian government proclaims martial law, in order to deport Germans, impose censorship, and arrest persons suspected of espionage.
AUSTRALIA: Australia declares war on Germany. Prime Minister Robert G. Menzies speaks on a national radio broadcast stating, "It is my melancholy duty to inform you officially that, in consequences of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her and that, as a result, Australia was also at war."
NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand declares war on Germany.
NEWFOUNDLAND: Newfoundland enters World War II by virtue of Britain's declaration of war. The Newfoundland Constabulary seizes the SS Christopher V. Doornum, a German freighter anchored at Botwood, as a prize of war.
U.S.A.: President Roosevelt forecast "official" neutrality for the United States.
URUGUAY: The RN light cruiser HMS Ajax intercepts German freighter SS Olinda, outward bound from Montevideo, off the River Plate. Not having a prize crew available to seize the enemy merchantman, HMS Ajax shells and sinks her.