1931 (THURSDAY)
SWITZERLAND: China asks the League of Nations Council members to send observers to Manchuria, "to collect information on evacuation and relevant circumstances."
1933 (SUNDAY)
GERMANY: Nine high-ranking Army generals critical of Hitler are forced to retire.
1934 (MONDAY)
GERMANY: The Germans begin building up their air force, the Luftwaffe, in violation of the Versailles Treaty.
1936 (THURSDAY)
JAPAN: The Japanese government issues a series of secret demands to the Chinese Nationalist government and threaten immediate invasion of north and central China. The demands include the integration of Japanese troops in Chinese forces to fight Communists anywhere in China (a demand which would allow the Japanese to send military units across the country); the employment of Japanese advisors in all branches of the Chinese government; autonomy for the five northern Chinese provinces; and a reduction of Chinese tariffs to the 1928 level. The Japanese dispatched troops to Shanghai, but the Nationalist government refuses to acquiesce to these terms.
SPAIN: General Francisco Franco is made Commander in Chief of the Nationalist Army and Chief of the Spanish State.
U.S.S.R.: The Soviet government joins the French, U.K. and U.S. governments in signing the London Naval Convention of 1936.
1937 (FRIDAY)
PALESTINE: In response to the assassination of the British Commissioner for Galilee, the British government arrests the members of the Arab High Commission and deports most of them to the Seychelle Islands. By expelling the Arab leadership, the British hope to restore order in the mandate.
1938 (SATURDAY)
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: The Czech government yields to the Poles and grants them the southern part of the Teschen region. This region had been divided about equally between Czechoslovakia and Poland after World War I, the larger northern part to Poland and the southern part to the Czechs.
SUDETENLAND: German troops occupy this area of Czechoslovakia.
UNITED KINGDOM: The First Lord of the Admiralty, Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, resigns today. Cooper, the most public critic of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy inside the Cabinet, famously resigns over the Munich Agreement with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler in an act that Member of Parliament (MP) Vyvyan Adams described as "the first step in the road back to national sanity." Cooper is suceeded by James Richard Stanhope, 7th Earl of Stanhope.
October 1st, 1939 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Winston Churchill makes his first broadcast of the war, saying Russia will stop Hitler's plans for the east.RAF: Leaflets detailing Nazi leader's overseas fortune's are dropped over Berlin and Potsdam. This was mission was accomplished by 4 Whitley's of No. 10 Sqn., and was the first occasion in which RAF aircraft flew over Berlin during W.W.II. The raid was led by Wing Commander W.E. Staton. One aircraft (K9018) failed to return, believed ditched in the North Sea after its fuel ran out. 6 crew are lost.
Another 250,000 men are conscripted (drafted).
U-16 encountered an enemy submarine in the North Sea, but neither sub attacked.
Submarine HMS Trident commissioned. U-35 sank SS Suzon.
FRANCE: Paris: Polish cryptologists arrive with a cargo of two Enigma machines.
3rd Div., BEF equipped only with what they carry, take over the billets recently vacated by 1st Div., at Everon.
GERMANY: Berlin: Germans are facing restrictions on the home front. Food ration cards, issued on 28th August, now cover meat (16 ounces a week), dairy products, bread, cereals and fruit. There are multi-coloured cards for the different types of food. Farmers are exempt from rationing, while miners are allowed extra amounts as "extra heavy workers". Petrol has been rationed since the beginning of the war, reflecting Germany's concern about its vulnerability to an Allied naval blockade of its trade routes.
The SS-Polizei-Division is formed with mainly middle-aged Ordnungspolizei (national police) members from across the Reich which are bolstered by previously trained Heer cadres that are organized and designated into units of division 300. (Russell Folsom)(210)
POLAND: Rear Admiral J. Unrug surrenders the fortified peninsula of Hel in the Baltic along with 5,000 of his men.
German troops enter devastated Warsaw and Adolf Hitler arrives and attends an impromptu victory parade.
JAPAN: Senior officers of the Kwantung army have been dismissed in the wake of the agreement signed in Moscow settling the border war with Russia. The failure of the anti-Soviet offensive has bolstered those in Japan who favour confrontation with US interests in the Pacific rather than those of Russia.
U.S.A.: As of this date, the USN has 396 commissioned ships.
A Chance-Vought XF4U-1 (Corsair) makes a test hop flight in Connecticut averaging 405mph, being the first single-engined U.S. fighter to fly faster than 400 mph. (Ron Babuka)