80 years ago today - Britain Declares War on Germany

80 years ago today - Britain Declares War on Germany

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Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Tuesday 17th September 2019
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They had all signed the Official Secrets Act the moment they were recruited and they took that vow of silence very seriously. There was no "I say, old chap" about it. It was deadly serious.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Tuesday 17th September 2019
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Brits are good at that - unlike those across the pond.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Wednesday 18th September 2019
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I don't understand why they should feel like that. 60 to 70 years is a good innings for keeping that type of information out of the public domain.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Wednesday 18th September 2019
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Today -

One of the largest cities in Poland, Lublin, fell to the Germans.

The Polish submarine "Orzel" and its crew, which had been interned by the Estonians, managed to escape and eventually made it to Scotland 27 days later. Their navigation charts had been confiscated by the Estonian authorities but it is rumoured that replacement charts may have been smuggled to them by a British Embassy official, although that has never been confirmed. The Russians were not happy that Estonia appeared to have been so sloppy and threatened invasion.

Irishman William Joyce began broadcasting his anti-British propaganda from Berlin. He was later nicknamed "Lord Haw Haw" and broadcast throughout the war. After the war had ended, he was executed by the British as a traitor, although he had claimed that he was from a neutral country.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Saturday 21st September 2019
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Sorry for the lack of updates over the past few days. I've been a bit busy work wise.

September 19 1939

The main events of this day consisted chiefly of both German and Soviet terretorial gains as they squeezed Poland from east and west.

Adolf Hitler visited the "liberated" town of Danzig.

September 20 1939

The German submarine U-27 was sunk off the west coast of Scotland by Royal Navy destroyers.

September 21 1939

Reinhard Heydrich, who was later the architect of "The Final Solution", ordered that German Jews and Romany people be deported to newly occupied territories in Poland. Conversely, German speaking Poles began to be "repatriated" into Germany and were given the homes of those who had been kicked out of Germany. Those Nazis certainly moved fast - we're just three weeks into this war and they are already putting into effect wholesale removal of Jews and other "undesirables" from the German Reich.

The Prime Minister of Romania, Armand Calinescu, was assassinated by left wing partisans (on the instructions of Stalin, most likely).

President Roosevelt requested Congress change the US's neutrality laws to allow the sale of armaments to "democratic" countries. He was specifically thinking of Britain and France.







Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Sunday 22nd September 2019
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Another nail in the coffin for Poland.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Tuesday 24th September 2019
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23 September 1919

The Poles actually won a battle today - Krosnobrod. Just delayed the inevitable, of course. It is interesting that here and there during the Polish campaign, Germany did not have it all its own way.

On this day also, Jews living in Germany were forced to hand in their radio sets.

On a non-World War 2 note, Sigmund Freud died.

24 September 1939

Germany started its area bombing campaign against the city of Warsaw. I'm surprised to see that it was over three weeks into the campaign before systematic bombing of the Polish capital began.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Tuesday 24th September 2019
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Utterly ruthless, weren't they - right from the off.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Tuesday 24th September 2019
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Bo_apex said:
Daimler Benz played a central role in producing the tanks and guns
So? That's what you would expect from German manufacturers.

German industry was instrumental in supplying the Wermacht, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. What else would you expect?

As well as that, industrial concerns in occupied countries also produced material for the German war effort. Skoda made Panzer tanks, for example, and Amiot built Junkers 52s.

Every time I pass by Brooklands on the train and look at Mercedes Benz World, the fact that 80 years ago Daimler Benz powered aircraft were trying to flatten the same location does cross my mind as being slightly ironic.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Wednesday 25th September 2019
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25 September 1939

Hitler begins planning for the administration of Poland following its defeat (which hadn't quite happened yet).

The Royal Navy began mine laying operations in the English Channel between Dover and Calais.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Saturday 28th September 2019
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A big moment and really the end for Poland.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Monday 30th September 2019
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After a hectic week with restricted time available for updates, I'm back.

Today 80 years ago, the Polish government in exile was set up in Paris. It was obvious that the Polish government knew that there was no way they could avoid occupation - even though the Polish Army and Air Force was still trying to fight on.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Wednesday 9th October 2019
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I'm getting sloppy on this. The end was obviously very near for Poland.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Wednesday 9th October 2019
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I'm not sure we actually said we would or could do anything to help Polnad. But we did go to war as we felt that we couldn't tolewrate Hitler annexing any more terretories without some consequence.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Saturday 30th November 2019
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And the Finns gave the Russia what for as well.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Tuesday 21st January 2020
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That was discussed earlier in the thread. Best not to go off on that tangent again.

Unfortunately I've been too busy to provide daily updates but others are welcome. I'll try and get back to it when I get a chance. There are some key moments coming up over the next few months.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Tuesday 21st January 2020
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As I said months ago, I was trying to keep the discussion to what was actually going in 80 years ago to the day rather than get involved in a big discussion on which war was more important than the other. That's for another thread, if someone wants to discuss it.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Tuesday 21st January 2020
quotequote all
DoubleD said:
Eric Mc said:
As I said months ago, I was trying to keep the discussion to what was actually going in 80 years ago to the day rather than get involved in a big discussion on which war was more important than the other. That's for another thread, if someone wants to discuss it.
So no different opinions to your own are allowed then.
Do you want to start World War 3?

I'd prefer another thread for that too.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Tuesday 21st January 2020
quotequote all
It's just that this was all discussed quite well much earlier in the thread but it isn't really in the spirit off what the thread was supposed to be about - which was letting people know what happened in World War 2 as the war progressed.

I am not objecting to people discussing the importance of World War 2 vis a vis any other war, but it would be better done on its own specific thread.





Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,185 posts

266 months

Tuesday 21st January 2020
quotequote all
DoubleD said:
No, I wanted to discuss a comment of yours about World War 2.
It was a bit of a throw away line by me and I'm sorry I said it now because it's become far too much of a distraction.

If you think WW1 is more important - good, great. I'm not arguing.