Year 1939

War Diary for Tuesday, October 17, 1939: Air War Raid on Scapa Flow: Ju 88s cripple training battleship, HMS Iron Duke (World War One Fleet flagship). Sea War German destroyers […]

War Diary for Monday, October 16, 1939: Western Front Germans counter-attack in Saar region and within 48 hours expel remaining French ‘covering forces’; few casualties on either side. Air War

War Diary for Sunday, October 15, 1939: Neutrals Finland: Compulsory National Service introduced.

WW2 War Diary for Saturday, October 14, 1939: Sea War Atlantic: BATTLESHIP ROYAL OAK SUNK (833 dead) in ‘impregnable’ anchorage of Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, by U-boat U-47 from Guenther

WW2 War Diary for Friday, October 13, 1939: Western Front Skirmishes East of river Moselle. French demolish 3 Rhine bridges.

WW2 War Diary for Thursday, October 12, 1939: Western Front BEF now fully deployed along Franco-Belgian border, between Maulde and Halluin.

WW2 War Diary for Wednesday, October 11, 1939: Home Front Britain: Clackmannan and E Stirling by-election: Woodburn (Labour), 15,645 votes; Stewart (Pacifist), 1,060.

WW2 War Diary for Tuesday, October 10, 1939: Politics Soviet-Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Pact: Soviet Forces to be based in Lithuania. Vilna (in Russian Occupation Zone of Poland) to be transferred

WW2 War Diary for Monday, October 9, 1939: Western Front Hitler‘s ‘Directive No.6’: plans and preparations to be made for an early offensive against Holland, Belgium and France. Army High

WW2 War Diary for Sunday, October 8, 1939: Politics Evacuation of the Baltic Germans. 50,000 German-speaking citizens of Latvia are to be ‘repatriated’ to the Reich (first group leaves by

WW2 War Diary for Saturday, October 7, 1939: Sea War Transport of BEF to France completed – entirely without loss – under protection of British and French naval forces (161,000

WW2 War Diary for Friday, October 6, 1939: Politics Hitler‘s ‘Peace Plan’ speech to the Reichstag. Hitler claims that the total collapse and partition of Poland has removed the necessity

WW2 War Diary for Thursday, October 5, 1939: Poland End of Polish campaign. Germans ‘mopping up’ Polish troops still at large between river Vistula and river Bug. Hitler flies to

WW2 War Diary for Wednesday, October 4, 1939: Sea War Atlantic: U-boat U-35 lands 28-man crew of torpedoed Greek SS Diamantis on Kerry coast, Southwest Ireland. Occupied countries Poland: Nikita

WW2 War Diary for Tuesday, October 3, 1939: Western Front French withdrawal from advanced positions in German territory (Warndt Forest and Saarbrücken Salient) completed.