1938 (TUESDAY)
POLAND: The Polish government sends a plan to Czechoslovakia for the cession of the duchy of Teschen occupied half by Poland and half by Czechoslovakia.
SWITZERLAND: The League of Nations declares Japan an aggressor nation and invites members of the organization to extend support to the Chinese government.
UNITED KINGDOM: Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain repudiates the British Foreign Office announcement of 26 September stating, ". . . we cannot in all circumstances undertake to involve the whole British Empire in war simply on her [Czechoslovakia's] account."
The Britsh Home Fleet mobilizes in response to the Czechoslovakian crisis.
UNITED STATES: President Franklin D. Roosevelt again cables German Chancellor Adolf Hitler stating that, "The conscience and the impelling desire of the people of my country demand that the voice of their government be raised again and yet again to avert and avoid war."
September 27th, 1939 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Income tax is up to 7/6 [seven shillings and six-pence] in the pound - the highest level in the nation's history at 37.5%. Sir John Simon, the chancellor of the exchequer, announced this and other huge tax increases in his special wartime budget presented to parliament this afternoon. Surtax rates will range from 1/3 on incomes of 2000 (pounds) to 9/6 for incomes over 30,000 (pounds). Duties on tobacco, beer and spirits are also raised. The price of a bottle of whisky will be 13/9 in future. The chancellor said: "I am confident the taxpayers will want to fight hard to win the war."Six Whitley's of 51 Sqn. execute a leaflet raid on north-west Germany. One aircraft returns early, five are successful and land at Rheims. Searchlight and AA opposition encountered.
GERMANY: Hitler tells his commanders that he intends to attack France in November. (2, p.26) The opposition of the Army to his plans is extremely great and Hitler has had no assistance with his planning.
Hitler formally establishes the 'Reichssicherheitshauptant' [Reich Chief Security Office] (RHSA) under Reinhardt Heydrich, who now heads the Gestapo, the Criminal Police (Kripo) and the Security Service (SD).
POLAND: At 14:00 General Juliuscz Rommel, former commander of the Lodz Army, senior officer in Warsaw, surrendered 140,000 troops. The city had endured 27 days of bombing, 19 of shellfire. Some 16,000 of the garrison had been wounded, there are estimated 40,000 civilian dead and injured, the city's water supply had been cut off for 5 days and an epidemic of typhoid "appeared imminent". The once beautiful city is a burning wreck with not one building intact. So complete is German command of the air that they have been using 30 Ju52 transports to tip incendiary bombs on the city. The crews throw them out of the side doors using coal shovels. Unfortunately this creates enough fires and smoke to mask the targets that the artillery were previously aiming at, causing fury amongst German Army generals.
The German communiqués have insisted that their bombardments have been directed at military targets, these include the Church of the Saviour and the Ujazden Red Cross Hospital, with the red cross clearly marked on its roof. There is a shortage of water, food, medicine and bandages. Many are buried under the rubble.
Right to the end the Germans have had little success penetrating the city. Their tanks have been effectively stopped by the permanent fortifications and anti-tank traps dug by the citizens, and the Polish soldiers have kept the infantry at bay. The Germans would have suffered many casualties if it had come to street fighting, hence the decision to bomb and shell the city into submission.
General von Blaskowitz, who received the Polish surrender has allowed the Polish officers to keep their swords and has promised that their men would go into captivity for only as long as it takes to "dispose of the necessary formalities". The terms of the capitulation provide for the immediate succour of the civilians and treatment of the wounded.
Fighting continues at the fortress of Modlin, some 20 miles from Warsaw.
U.S.S.R.: Soviet Union announces the sinking of the freighter METALLIST by 'an unknown submarine' off Narva, Estonia. According to Estonian intelligence, the ship was still afloat hours after the claimed sinking. This incident is a Soviet provocation to put pressure on the Estonians to succumb to all the Soviet demands in the ongoing negotiations at Moscow.
FRENCH MOROCCO: The US freighter SS Executive is detained by the French at Casablanca.
U.S.A.: The Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians play the first "day-night" doubleheader in Comisky Park, Chicago; the fans are charged separate admissions for each game. The White Sox lose both games, 5-2 and 7-5.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-36 captured SS Algeria.