Poland 1939

"Polish Collapse" map of Poland, from Time 1939/09/25

Soviet Foreign Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov signs the German-Soviet nonaggression pact; Joachim von Ribbentrop and Josef Stalin stand behind him. Moscow, August 23, 1939, from Patch-NA

German troops parade through Warsaw, Poland. PK Hugo Jaeger, September, 1939 from Patch-NA

Sep. 1, 1939 - Poland invaded by "Blitzkrieg"

• Guderian's Panzers, Goering's Luftwaffe, Goebbel's propaganda
  
• myth of Polish cavalry, but many German horses
  
• map and corridor from ILN 1939/05/06
• "The fire that had begun in Manchuria . . . would now blaze around the world" - The Nazis Strike

Sep. 3 - England and France declared war on Germany

• "Athenia" torpedoed - 112 killed, incl. 28 Americans
• cartoon from Current History 1939/09/03

Sep. 5 - FDR declared neutrality and national emergency.

Sep. 15 - Hearst newsreel "War Comes Home to the New World" included Athenia survivors, German U-boats, Congress debate of arms embargo, Squalus raised.

Sep. 17 - Russia invaded Poland, Baltics, Finland Nov. 30.

• cartoon from Current History 1939/11

Sep. 22 - Hearst newsreel "The War in Europe!" showed official German films of the invasion of Poland.

Sep. 27 - fall of Warsaw after 20 days bombardment; Wladyslaw Szpilman played Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor in the Polish state radio station until cut off by German bombs Sep. 23, as told in the 2002 film The Pianist based on his 1946 autobiography.

Sep. 29 - German-Russian treaty partitioned Poland

Oct. 2 - Declaration of Panama - 300 mile "safety belt" - map

Oct. 17 - Hearst newsreel "War Special! First Films of Warsaw Surrender!" included official German films, war at sea, U-boats, air attack on British carrier Ark Royal.

Nov. 4 - FDR signed Neutrality Act of 1939

1. arms embargo repealed, but trade must be cash-and-carry
   
2. no U.S. ships in war zone around British Isles - map
   
3. no loans to belligerents
   
4. no travel on belligerent ships
   
5. no armed merchant ships

Dec. 13 - British sank German pocket battleship Graf Spee and recovered prisoners from Altmark Feb. 16, 1940

March 19, 1940 - Hitler & Mussolini met in armored train for 1st time since Munich - image1 & image2 from ILN 3/23/40

March 1940 - Alfred Hitchcock began filming Foreign Correspondent

• bought Walter Wanger screenplay Sep. 21 based on Vincent Sheehan memoirs
• Ben Hecht wrote new ending after Hitchcock's June trip to England
• Johnny Jones became Huntley Haverstock
• premiered August 27, 1940

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