1932 (MONDAY)
GERMANY: President Paul von Hindenburg again dissolves the national legislature.
1938 (MONDAY)
GERMANY: German Chancellor Adolf Hitler demands in a speech in Nuremberg that the Czechoslovak government must accord Sudeten Germans the right of self-determination. These demands result in widespread political disorder in Czechoslovakia and Prime Minister Milan Hodza’s government declares martial law in an attem on 13 September. Konrad Henlein, the leader of the Sudeten German Home Front, and other Sudeten German leaders escape across the border to Germany two days later. To defuse this dangerous situation, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, with the support of the French government, calls for a personal conference with Chancellor Hitler to find a compromise.
September 12th, 1939 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The home office opens an inquiry into black-out rules.The US freighter SS Black Eagle is detained by the British at a port off the coast of Kent. She will be released on 19 September.
Destroyer HMS Jaguar commissioned.
FRANCE: Abbeville: The Anglo-French Supreme War council meets for the first time.
GERMANY: General Gamelin's forces, advancing in battalion strength have driven 5 miles into Germany on a 15 mile front in the Saarland. The French claim that their pressure has forced the Germans to transfer six divisions from Poland, a claim received with scepticism by British observers. The most likely explanation for German divisions moving to the West is the virtual collapse of Polish resistance. French talk of an offensive is also not being taken seriously. The advance into the Saar has brought the French to within half a mile of the Siegfried Line, and a frontal assault on such a formidable system of fortifications is judged to be out of the question.
POLAND: Polish troops push the Germans south of Kutno and recapture Lowicz.
The Polish attack over the Bzura fails. A task force of the German 1st Mountain Division under Colonel Ferdinand Schorner, reaches Lwow.
NEW ZEALAND: Enlistment for 2 New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2 NZEF) begins.