Editing 1939 (section)

=== September ===
{{main|September 1939}}
[[File:Zniszczenia1939 0.jpg|160px|right|thumb|[[September 1]]: [[Wieluń]] destroyed by ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' bombing.]]
[[File:Armia Czerwona, Wehrmacht 22.09.1939 wspólna parada.jpg|160px|right|thumb|Common parade of Wehrmacht and Red Army in Brest at the end of the Invasion of Poland. At the center Major General [[Heinz Guderian]] and Brigadier [[Semyon Krivoshein]].]]
* [[September 1]] &ndash; Beginning of WWII:
** Opening shots of [[World War II]] and [[invasion of Poland]]: At 4:45 Central European Time, under cover of darkness, the German WWI-era battleship [[German battleship Schleswig-Holstein|''Schleswig-Holstein'']] quietly slips her moorings at her wharf in Danzig Harbor, drifts into the center of the channel, and commences firing on a Polish military installation on [[Westerplatte]] at the northeastern mouth of the port of the internationalized [[Free City of Danzig]], beginning the [[Battle of Westerplatte]] and [[Battle of Danzig Bay]]. Polish soldiers defended there for 7 days. Five minutes previously, the [[bombing of Wieluń]] in the western part of Poland had commenced, beginning the [[Battle of the Border]]. Shock-troops of the German [[Wehrmacht]] begin crossing the border into Poland.
** The [[Reichstag (Nazi Germany)|Reichstag]] passes a statement, stating that [[Adolf Hitler]]'s second-in-command [[Reichsmarschall]] [[Hermann Göring]] should be appointed as Hitler's successor as [[Führer]], should Hitler die during the war. [[Rudolf Hess]] is to be appointed in Göring's place, should anything befall Göring.
** Britain and France deliver ultimatums to Germany. Norway, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland declare their neutrality. U.S. President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] states that "every effort" would be made by his administration to stay out of the war.<ref>{{cite news|date=1939-09-01|title=F.D. Vows To Keep U.S. Out of War|journal=[[Brooklyn Eagle]]|pages=1, 8}}</ref> Italy is advised that Germany does not expect to need its military support at present.<ref name=Shirer/>
* [[September 2]] &ndash; WWII:
** Following the invasion of Poland, the [[Free City of Danzig]] (modern-day [[Gdańsk]], Poland) is annexed to [[Nazi Germany]].
** [[Francoist Spain|Spain]] and [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] declare their neutrality.
* [[September 3]] &ndash; WWII:
** The United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, Australia and India (by its [[Governor-General of India|Viceroy]]) declare war on Nazi Germany. [[Prime Minister of Canada]] [[Mackenzie King]], in English, and [[Minister of Justice (Canada)|Justice Minister]] [[Ernest Lapointe]], in French, give an international radio address stating the Dominion's intention to declare war also.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/09/10/|title=On This Day - September 10, 1939|publisher=[[CBC.ca]]|access-date=2011-09-15|archive-date=October 11, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011122807/http://archives.cbc.ca/on_this_day/09/10/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.junobeach.org/e/2/can-eve-eve-war-e.htm%7ctitle=War!%7cpublisher=junobeach.org%7caccessdate=2011-09-15|title=Canada in the Second World War|work=Juno Beach Centre|date=February 21, 2014|access-date=December 10, 2015|archive-date=September 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210916232657/https://i2.wp.com/www.junobeach.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/cwwii_img_people.jpg?resize=720%2C480&ssl=1|url-status=live}}</ref>
** United States President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] advocates neutrality, in a nationwide radio address.
** [[Ocean liner]] {{SS|Athenia|1922|6}} becomes the first British civilian casualty of the war, when she is [[torpedo]]ed and sunk by {{GS|U-30|1936|6}} in the eastern Atlantic. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew are killed.
** Chamberlain offers the war cabinet post of [[First Lord of the Admiralty]] to [[Winston Churchill]], who returns to government for the first time since June 4, 1929.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jenkins|first=Roy|author-link=Roy Jenkins|title=Churchill| publisher=MacMillan Press| location=London|year=2001|isbn=0330-48805-8|page=552}}</ref>
* [[September 4]] &ndash; WWII:
** The first [[bombing of Wilhelmshaven in World War II]] is carried out, by the British [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF).
** The [[Defense of Katowice]] by irregular Polish militia fails and the city is secured by German Wehrmacht forces who carry out the [[Katowice massacre]].
** [[Nepal]] declares war on [[Nazi Germany|Germany]].
* [[September 5]] &ndash; WWII: The United States declares its neutrality in the war.<ref>{{cite book|author=United States|title=United States Code: Containing the General and Permanent Laws of the United States in Force on January 3,1941|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WbxQAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA4442|year=1941|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|pages=4442|access-date=November 26, 2020|archive-date=September 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210916232655/https://books.google.com/books?id=WbxQAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA4442|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[September 6]] &ndash; WWII: South Africa declares war on [[Nazi Germany|Germany]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Marshall Cavendish Corporation|title=History of World War II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oD9Z3omHy3IC&pg=RA1-PA620|year=2004|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=978-0-7614-7482-1|pages=620|access-date=November 26, 2020|archive-date=September 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210916232655/https://books.google.com/books?id=oD9Z3omHy3IC&pg=RA1-PA620|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[September 8]]
** WWII: Forward elements of General Hoeppner's XVI Panzerkorps take up positions outside [[Warsaw]]. The world is stunned by the rapidity of the German advance, and the Polish High Command is effectively isolated, but lack of infantry support and effective civilian resistance cause Hoeppner to halt outside the city itself.
** WWII: [[Battle of Westerplatte]] ends when Polish troops on the [[Westerplatte]] are forced by lack of food and ammunition to surrender. The garrison of about two hundred had held out against thousands of German forces (many of them naval officer cadets from the [[German battleship Schleswig-Holstein|''Schleswig-Holstein'']]) for seven days.<ref>{{cite book|author=Iwo Pogonowski|title=Poland, a Historical Atlas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Iw8oAQAAMAAJ|year=1989|publisher=Dorset Press|isbn=978-0-88029-394-5|page=30|access-date=November 26, 2020|archive-date=January 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126074426/https://books.google.com/books?id=Iw8oAQAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>
** The [[Little Sisters of Jesus]] is founded in [[Algeria]], by [[Little Sister Magdeleine]].
[[File:Polish kid in the ruins of Warsaw September 1939.jpg|thumb|160px|September: [[Siege of Warsaw (1939)|Siege of Warsaw]].]]
* [[September 9]] &ndash; WWII: Troops of the Polish [[Poznań Army]] under the command of [[Tadeusz Kutrzeba|General Kutrzeba]] open the [[Battle of the Bzura]], the largest and best organized counter-attack mounted by the Polish forces in the [[Invasion of Poland|campaign of 1939.]] For the first few days all goes well, and the Germans are forced to retreat; but quick reaction by mechanized units and the ''Luftwaffe'' soon take their toll, and the operation bogs down.
* [[September 10]] &ndash; WWII: Canada declares war on [[Nazi Germany|Germany]], the only declaration of war by Canada.
* [[September 13]]&ndash;[[September 14|14]] &ndash; WWII: [[Zambrów massacre]] &ndash; German [[Wehrmacht]] soldiers shoot more than 200 Polish prisoners of war.
* [[September 15]] &ndash; WWII: Diverse elements of the German Wehrmacht surround [[Warsaw]], and demand its surrender. The Poles refuse, and the [[Siege of Warsaw (1939)|siege]] begins in earnest.
* [[September 16]] &ndash; A ceasefire ends the [[Battles of Khalkhin Gol]], the undeclared border war between the [[Soviet Union]] (and [[Mongolia]]n allies) and Japan.
* [[September 17]] &ndash; WWII:
** The [[Soviet Union]] [[Soviet invasion of Poland|invades Poland]], and then [[Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union|occupies eastern Polish territories]].
** [[Royal Navy]] [[aircraft carrier]] {{HMS|Courageous|50|6}} is torpedoed and sunk by {{GS|U-29|1936|6}} in the [[Western Approaches]] with the loss of 519 crew (the first British warship loss of the war).
* [[September 18]] &ndash; WWII: [[Orzeł incident|''Orzeł'' incident]]: Polish submarine ORP ''Orzeł'' escapes internment from [[Tallinn]] Harbour, [[Estonia]], leading both the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Germany]] to question Estonia's neutrality.
* [[September 19]] &ndash; WWII: The Poznan pocket collapses, and the Germans capture, according to many sources, over 150,000 men. Many elements of General [[Tadeusz Kutrzeba]]'s forces work their way into Warsaw, under extreme difficulty.
* [[September 21]]
**[[Reinhard Heydrich]], chief of the Security Police, sends a directive, the Schnellbrief, explaining that Jews living in towns and villages in the Polish occupation zones are to be transferred to ghettos, and Jewish councils, ''[[Judenräte]]'', will be established to carry out the German authorities' orders.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/about/02/occupation.asp?WT.mc_id=wiki|title=The Conquest of Poland and the Beginnings of Jewish Persecution|work=The Holocaust|publisher=[[Yad Vashem]]|access-date=2013-03-03|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108072837/http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/about/02/occupation.asp?WT.mc_id=wiki|archive-date=2012-11-08}}</ref>
**[[Assassination of Armand Călinescu]]: [[Prime Minister of Romania]] [[Armand Călinescu]] is shot in [[Bucharest]] by members of the fascist [[Iron Guard]].
* [[September 22]] &ndash; WWII: A joint [[victory parade]] is staged by the [[Wehrmacht]] and [[Red Army]] in [[Brest-Litovsk]], at the end of the [[Invasion of Poland]].
* [[September 24]] &ndash; WWII: The [[Soviet Union]] issues an ultimatum to [[Estonia]] to allow Soviet military bases on its territory, which Estonia accepts on September 28. Similar ultimatums are issued to [[Latvia]] on October 5 and to [[Lithuania]] on October 10, who are forced to accept them as well.
* [[September 28]] &ndash; WWII:
** [[Nazi Germany]] and the [[Soviet Union]] agree on a division of Poland, after their invasion.
** [[Warsaw]] surrenders to [[Nazi Germany|Germany]]; [[Modlin (Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki)|Modlin]] surrenders a day later; the last Polish large operational unit surrenders near [[Kock]] 8 days later.
* [[September 30]] &ndash; General [[Władysław Sikorski]] becomes [[Prime Minister of Poland|Prime Minister]] of the [[Polish government-in-exile]].