1932 (SUNDAY)
SWITZERLAND: Victor Lytton, chairman of the League of Nations mission to Manchuria, produces the so-called Lytton Report on the conflict between China and Japan and accuses Japan of being the aggressor. Japanese special interests are acknowledged and it proposes to make Manchuko a autonomous part of China under Japanese control.
1935 (WEDNESDAY)
SWITZERLAND: The League of Nations meets to discuss Italian aggrsinia (Ethiopia).
September 4th, 1939 (MONDAY)
NETHERLANDS: Antiaircraft batteries fire on several unidentified planes over Amsterdam.
DENMARK: An unidentified plane drops four bombs on Esbjerg killing two civilians.
GERMANY: Kiel Canal: 14 Wellingtons of 3 Group and 15 Blenheims of 2 Group fly in the first of a series of raids on the German Navy in its bases. The Wellington's, from Nos. 9 and 149 Squadrons, attack two unidentified warships at Brunsbuttel, but bad weather and fierce anti-aircraft fire shield the targets. Two of the Wellingtons are shot down by Bf 109s. The Blenheims, from Nos.107, 110 and 139 Squadrons, are tasked to attack the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer in the Schillig Roads, off Wilhelmshaven. No. 139 Squadron fail to find the target, but Nos.107 and 110, armed with 500 pound General Purpose bombs with 11-second delay fuses, press home the attack from 500 ft. Of the 27 bombers, 7 failed to return. The only damage to the German Navy was caused by one of the missing Blenheims which crashed onto the forecastle of the cruiser Emden. The 4 bombs which hit the Admiral Scheer simply bounced overboard, the bombs has been dropped from too low an altitude for the delayed action fuses to detonate the bombs on the armoured target.The RAF crews had been warned that no bombs should fall on shore and no merchant ships should be hit. Seven of the 29 attacking aircraft did not return.
Pilot Officer S.R. Henderson, a Canadian serving in No.206 Squadron, Royal Air Force, becomes the first Canadian to participate in an operational sortie during the WWII when he serves as the lead navigator in a bomber force attacking German war ships at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. (Canada has not declared war on Germany yet and will not do so until 10 September.)
Ten Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk IIIs of Nos. 51 and 58 Squadrons dropped leaflets on the Ruhr, Hamburg and Breman.
Polish troops cross into Germany north of Breslau.
POLAND: The German 3.Armee (von Kuechler) and 4.Armee (von Kluge) join in the Corridor at Bydgoszcz and re-establish the land connection between East Prussia and the Reich that was severed in 1919 as a result of the Versailles Treaty.
ITALY: Abandons attempts at mediation among the warring countries.
JAPAN: The new Prime Minister, Nobuyuki Abe, promises to keep out of the war in Europe.
INDIA: Lord Linlithgow, Viceroy of India declares that India is at war with Germany.
AUSTRALIA: In Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, the Chiefs of Staff Committee, comprising the chiefs of staff of the three military, is formed to provide advice to the government on operational matters and strategic considerations. A larger body, the Defence Committee, which comprises the chiefs of staff, an officer of the secretariat of the Department of Defence and, on occasions, the Controller-General of Munitions, the Controller of Civil Aviation and the Chairman of the Principal Supply Officer’s Committee, advised the government on overall defence policy.
NEWFOUNDLAND: The nation declares war on Germany.
U.S.A.: The Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OpNav) orders Commander Atlantic Squadron to establish, as soon as possible, a combined air and ship patrol to observe and report, in cipher, the movements of warships of warring nations, east from Boston, Massachusetts, along a line to 42°30'N, 65°00'W then south to 19°N then around the seaward outline of the Windward and Leeward Islands, to the British island of Trinidad.
A
thunderstorm deluges Washington D.C. with 4.4 inches (11,2 centimeters) of
rain in two hours. September of this year is very dry across much of the nation,
and Washington D.C. receives more rain in that two hour period than most other
places in the country that entire month.
BRAZIL: The RN light cruiser HMS
Ajax intercepts the German freighter SS Carl Fritzen 200 miles (322 km)
east-southeast of Rio Grande do Sul. The cruiser sinks the merchantman with
gunfire.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: 112 passengers and crew of the liner SS Athenia perished last night, the first victims of German submarine warfare. The 13, 581-ton liner was sailing from Glasgow to Montreal. She was hit by a torpedo at 7.45 p.m. last night, but thanks to a massive rescue operation during the night most of the 1,418 people on board were saved.
Captain James Cook said: "The torpedo went right through the ship to the engine room. It completely wrecked the galley." One Czech passenger said: "There was a bang, and then I saw men on the submarine turn a gun and fire it."
They were firing at the radio mast, but they missed. At 8.59 p.m. the SOS call was heard by Malin Head radio station in Ireland. A Norwegian ship, 'Knut Nelson', was first on the scene, soon joined by a Swedish Yacht, the 'Southern Cross'. They picked up about 500 survivors and three destroyers then raced up and rescued the rest.
It is unlikely that the German High Command wanted to sink a liner, especially one with 300 Americans aboard.
Tonight desperate efforts are being made by the Germans to reduce the propaganda value of an attack on a civilian liner. Hitler himself has sent out a signal that in future passenger ships are not to be attacked.
The British light cruiser HMS Ajax (22) intercepts the German freighter SS Carl Fritzen about 235 nautical miles (435 kilometers) south-southeast of Porto Alegre, Brazil The cruiser sinks the merchantman with gunfire.