1933 (FRIDAY)
GERMANY: The German cabinet passes a law "to ensure the unity of Party and State." Chancellor Adolf Hitler declares that the German state and the Nazi Party are one by law.
The German National Socialist party is constituted a statutory corporation "because of the overwhelming mandate of 12 November."
1934 (SATURDAY)
U.S.S.R.: Sergey Kirov, a leader of the Russian Revolution and a high-ranking member of the Politburo, is shot to death at his Leningrad office by Communist Party member Leonid Nikolayev, likely at the instigation of Soviet leader Josef Stalin. Whatever Stalin's precise role in the assassination of his political rival Kirov, he uses the murder as a pretext for eliminating many of his opponents in the Communist Party, the government, the armed forces, and the intelligentsia. Kirov's assassination serves as the basis for seven separate trials and the arrest and execution of hundreds of notable figures in Soviet political, military, and cultural life. Each trial contradicts the others in fundamental details, and different individuals are found guilty of organizing the murder of Kirov by different means and for varying political motives. The Kirov assassination trials mark the beginning of Stalin's massive four-year purge of Soviet society, in which millions of people are imprisoned, exiled, or killed.
1935 (SUNDAY)
CHINA: Chiang Kai-shek is elected President of the Chinese Executive Committee.
1936 (TUESDAY)
GERMANY: Die Hitlerjugend, The Hitler Youth, are made an official agency of the state.
1937 (WEDNESDAY)
FRANCE: A French diplomatic mission begins a 17-day tour of eastern Europe in hopes of strengthening France's anti-Germany alliance system.
1938 (THURSDAY)
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: The unity of Czechoslovak Republic is destroyed by a grant of autonomy to Slovaks, who form a separate government under Joseph Tiso, and a grant of autonomy to Ruthenia.
UNITED KINGDOM: The British government takes major steps in addressing the country's woeful state of military preparedness, by introducing a "national register" for war service. This program is voluntary, but the British government, in light of the Munich Crisis, begins a major effort to modernize the kingdom's military forces. This included the purchase of large numbers of American aircraft.
December 1st, 1939 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The British government advises neutral shippers to obtain a "navicert," a certificate from British consular officials. These certificates permit neutral cargo ships to pass through Royal Navy and allied patrols. The Belgian, Dutch, Italian and Japanese governments issue formal protests against the British government for these blockade measures.
Anti-Aircraft cruiser HMS Black Prince laid down.
GERMANY: U-552, U-554 laid down.
POLAND: Trainloads of deportees begin rolling into the newly created Government General in eastern Poland. The administration, which already has 1.4 million Jews under its jurisdiction, is overwhelmed by the numbers, an average of more than 3,000 per day. (These mass movements are designed to make room in the annexed area of Poland for ethnic Germans who are moving westward under special agreement with the Soviets, from the Baltic States and other regions now under Soviet control.)
FINLAND: Russia sets up the puppet "Democratic Republic of Finland", under Otto Wille Kuusinen as the prime and foreign minister, at Terijoki.Of course, both Kuusinen's government and its Army were both carefully planned in advance by Stalin and his cronies to act as the fig-leaf of the Soviet aggression.
A government has to have a military force. Thus was born the curious and short- lived footnote to the history of world's armed forces, the People's Army of Finland. On 1 Dec 1939 was founded what was called the '1st Finnish Army Corps', which was directly under the People's Commissar of Defence, Marshal of Soviet Union Kliment Voroshilov. Its mission was to "bring the flag of Democratic Republic of Finland [as the Kuusinen's government was to rename Finland] to the Finnish capital, for the joy of all workers and dread of all people's enemies".
The puppet regime also sets up the "1st Finnish Army Corps", which is directly under the People's Commissar of Defence, Marshal of Soviet Union Kliment Voroshilov. Its mission is to "bring the flag of Democratic Republic of Finland [as the Kuusinen's government was to rename Finland] to the Finnish capital, for the joy of all workers and dread of all people's enemies."
The commander of this corps was another emigrant Finn, kombrig (a rank used in the Red Army before the introduction of general-ranks in 1940, equivalent to brigadier) Akseli Anttila, who was also the Minister of Defence in the Kuusinen's government. It had 22 594 men in two divisions, tank regiment and a fighter squadron. However, this corps was not used in fighting in the early stages of the Winter War.
Anttila's corps was spared to be used in the expected victory parade at Helsinki, and it was strictly forbidden to use it in the front.
After the start of war further People's Army divisions were founded, but they didn't belong to the Anttila's corps. The 3rd Division was formed in northern Karelia, but it was and remained under-strength.
In far north was founded the 4th Division, but it never reached operational status.
It was originally intended that the People's Army of Finland would field some 80 000 men, but it never came even near. It was supposed to get its men from the Finns and Finnish-speaking peoples living in Soviet Union, and once the war started, it was expected that tens of thousands of Finnish soldiers would desert to join its ranks. But after the Stalinist purges of late 1930s there weren't that many Finnish-speakers left, and even the exile Finnish Communist Party was purged almost to extinction. Thus many purely Russian, Ukrainian and Byelorussian men found themselves impressed into the People's Army. Finally about half of the Army's manpower was non-Finnish, and it didn't help that in an ironic reversal of Stalin's national policy many of the non-Finns in the Army had their names changed into Finnish ones. And the Finnish deserters never materialized. It was especially hard to find Finnish officers for the Army, and the Gulags were scraped clean of any men that could pass themselves as Finnish officers. The CO of the 1st Division was a Russian Aleksei Gretshkin, as was the CO of the 2nd Division, Georgij Zverev. The CO of the under-strength 3rd Division was Finnish Toivo Tommola, as was the CO of the 4th Division Albert Saviranta (aka. Väinö Alanne), but this latter formation existed only on paper.
People's Army's uniforms were different from the Red Army ones.
They consisted mostly of items that came from the captured Polish Army stocks, but the badges of rank and other insignia was the same as in the Red Army. Its other equipment, like weapons, was wholly of Soviet origin. People's Army units had also heavy weapons, like artillery and tanks.
The first aerial victory of the Winter War (and history of the Finnish Air Force) happened when Senior Sergeant Toivo Uuttu of Flying Squadron 26, flying a Bristol Bulldog fighter code BU-64, he downed an I-16 fighter from the Soviet 7th Fighter Aviation Regiment between 11:45 and 11:55 am. Above the Karelian Isthmus. Uuttu's aircraft was also hit, and he crash-landed on the ice of Lake Muolaanjärvi. (More here). Lieutenant Eino Luukkanen of the Finnish Air Force received the order to take off at 5.30 am and keep up a continuous fighter patrol over Vuoksenlaakso. Shortly after Captain Luukkanen sighted a formation of Soviet bombers and made the fourth air kill of the Winter War when he shot down a Tupolev SB-2.
On this day also the legal Finnish government at Helsinki experiences changes. Yesterday Cajander's cabinet resigned after a symbolic vote of confidence from the Parliament (which then departed for Kauhajoki in west-central Finland for the duration of the war), and today Director of the Bank of Finland Risto Ryti forms the new cabinet. Väinö Tanner is the new Foreign Minister, and Juho Paasikivi is included as Minister without portfolio.
Several Finnish cities are bombed again today, and Finns claim ten Soviet planes shot down over Karelian Isthmus. The Finnish navy also has a successful day. The Soviet cruiser KIROV together with destroyers SMETLINYI and STREMITELNYI bombard the coast artillery battery at Russarö on the southern Finnish coast. After a brief exchange of fire, Russarö's 234 mm guns score a hit on KIROV, and the Soviets withdraw. KIROV loses 17 KIA and some 30 WIA, while the Finns suffer no losses.
CANADA: The first Canadian troop convoy, TC1, sails from Halifax for Britain, heavily escorted and accompanied part of the way by Canadian destroyers. The 7,500 troops are aboard the transports SS Aquitania, SS Duchess of Bedford, SS Empress of Australia, SS Empress of Britain and SS Monarch of Bermuda. Escorting these ships are three Canadian destroyers, HMCS Ottawa (H 60), Restigouche (H 00) and St. Laurent (H 83).
U.S.A.: Submarine USS Seawolf commissioned.
PANAMA: The airfield at Fort Bruja is opened and named Howard Field.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: