1 October 1939
All British men between the
ages of 20 and 22 years were to report of Army registration on
21st October. |
2 October 1939
In Poland, the Battle of
Hel ended with German victory and the Battle of Kock began which
was the final battle in the invasion of Poland. |
3 October 1939
In the House of Commons it
was stated that members of the Army Cadets would be encouraged
to undertake voluntary work as messengers and clerks etc as long
as it did not interfere with their hours of school or work. |
4 October 1939
Adolf Hitler issued a
secret decree granting an amnesty to all German military and
police personnel in Poland between 1st September and 4th
October. |
5 October 1939
Adolf Hitler flew to Warsaw
and reviewed a victory parade. |
6 October 1939
Adolf Hitler addressed the
Reichstag and spoke at great length about the victory in Poland
and hinted at a desire for an armistice. Both Britain and
France rejected these overtures for peace. |
7 October 1939
The British Expeditionary
Force completed its crossing of the English Channel to France.
HMS Emerald sailed from Plymouth in convoy for Halifax, Nova
Scotia, carrying £2 million in gold bar for the purchase of war
materials in North America. |
8 October 1939
German submarine U-12 was
lost to a mine in the Straits of Dover. |
9 October 1939
Adolf Hitler issued
Directive number 6, operations in the west were to start on 12th
November but protests by his service chiefs, and very cold
weather would cause the date to be postponed many times. |
10 October 1939
Admiral Erich Raeder urged
Adolf Hitler to invade Norway to protect Germay's vital ore
traffic from Sweden. |
11 October 1939
In the House of Commons
the Secretary of State for War, Mr Hore-Belisha gave an update
on the War. Within five weeks of the outbreak 158 000 men
had been transferred to France with the British Expeditionary
Force. 25 000 vehicles of more than 50 types had been
sent. At home more than 50 000 men had volunteered for war
service. At the same time pressure from industry saw the
temporary release of 10 000 Regular Reserves and 12 000
Territorials back to their jobs. |
12 October 1939
In the House of Commons,
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain rejected Adolf Hitler's peace
offer. |
13 October 1939
Two German submarines were
sunk today: U-40 was sunk by a mine in the English Channel and
U-42 was sunk south west of Ireland by depth charges from HMS
Imogen and Ilex. |
14 October 1939
German submarine U-47 sunk
HMS Royal Oak at Scapa Flow, with 833 men killed.
U-45 was
sunk south west of Ireland by depth charges from HMS Inglefield,
Ivanhoe and Intrepid. |
15 October 1939
In the first six weeks of
the war, the Blockade of Germany had intercepted and detained
338 000 tons of good destined for Germany. This included
76 500 tons of petroleum products; 65 000 tons of iron ore; 38
500 tons of manganese ore; 24 500 tons of phosphate; 21 500 tons
of aluminium; 16 500 tons of haematite ore; 13 000 tons of copra
and 10 000 tons of oil seed. |
16 October 1939
Nine planes of the
Luftwaffe conducted an air raid on the Firth of Forth, damaging
three British ships and killing 16 Royal Navy crew. Three
of the enemy were shot down by Spitfires. |
17 October 1939
HMS Iron Duke was attacked
by four Junker Ju88s at Scapa Flow, and twenty five crew were
killed. |
18 October 1939
The Soviet Union began its
occupation of Estonia.
Adolf Hitler
issued Directive Number 7, preparations for attack in the West. |
19 October 1939
A German organisation was
established to confiscate Jewish and Polish assets in Nazi
occupied Poland. |
20 October 1939
Some 2000 Jews were
deported from Nazi controlled Vienna to Poland. |
21 October 1939
Germany and Italy made the
South Tryol Option Agreement. Ethnic Germans in the region
would be allowed to emigrate to the Reich of remain to be
Italianized. |
22 October 1939
BBC Radio featured Bing
Crosby Album, Mozart, the Fairey Aviation Works band, 'Knitting
for men' and in the evening the Annual National Service for
Seafarers. |
23 October 1939
With the German Western
Offensive increasingly unlikely the French announced that
soldiers would have 8 to 10 days leave every four months.
Blackout regulations in many French cities were eased. |
24 October 1939
The German submarine U-37
sinks three cargo ships in the same day, 100 miles west of
Gibraltar. The 'Ledbury', 'Menin Ridge' and 'Tafna' were
all lost. |
25 October 1939
The German submarine U-16
was lost in the Straits of Dover when it ran aground to avoid
depth charges. U-boats were subsequently ordered to stop
using the Straits of Dover as a deployment route. |
26 October 1939
In Nazi occupied Poland,
Jewish males between the ages of 14 and 60 were drafted to
perform forced labour. |
27 October 1939
In the Mediterranean all
Italian ships were to call at Malta or Haifa, Palestine, for
contraband control. Limits may also be place on their
transit of the Suez Canal. |
28 October 1939
BBC Radio featured "Bee
keeping in wartime" to help both the experienced bee keeper and
novice. There was also commentary on the second half of the
Portsmouth - Brentford football match from Fratton Park.
|
29 October 1939
In France at Beroit Plage,
Calais, the body of Captain Lieutenant Von Der Ropp, Captain of
German submarine U-12, with respirator apparatus marked 'U-12'
was found. The body had been in the sea for about three
weeks. |
30 October 1939
West of the Orkney
Islands, German submarine U-56 encountered the battleship HMS
Nelson, with the First Lord of Admiralty, Winston Churchill, on
board. All three torpedoes failed to explode. |
31 October 1939
The Soviet foreign
minister, Molotov, sent a Soviet ultimatum to Finland, making
various demands including Hanko to be handed over for use as a
Soviet naval base. |
