2 Sep 1939

Danzig
  • Germany annexed the Free City of Danzig. Adolf Hitler advised the United Kingdom and France that he would withdraw from Poland if allowed to keep Danzig and the Polish corridor. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH, CPC]
  • The Germans began the construction of Stutthof Concentration Camp in Sztutowo (German: Stutthof) in the Free City of Danzig with labor of 65,000 Polish Christians. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
France
  • No. 1 Group, British RAF Bomber Command, relocated to France with its squadrons of single-engine Fairey Battle aircraft. ww2dbase [AC]
Italy
  • Benito Mussolini continued to urge peace between Germany, United Kingdom, and France, without any success. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
South Africa
  • In a fateful cabinet meeting South African Prime Minister Barry Hertzog declared that he was going to remain neutral and that under no circumstances would he allow the Union of South Africa to enter the war. ww2dbase [AC]
United Kingdom
  • The National Service (Armed Forces) Act was passed in Great Britain. It would be enacted on the following day upon Britain's official entry into the European War. ww2dbase [TH, AC]
  • During the day, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier issued a joint ultimatum to Germany, demanding the withdraw of troops from Poland within 12 hours. During the late hours of the night, Chamberlain attempted to convince Dalalier to carry out the threat from the earlier ultimatum by declaring war on Germany early in the next morning. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH, CPC]
  • The Times Literary Supplement reported that the copy of the Magna Carta owned by the Lincoln Cathedral of England, United Kingdom, currently on display at the 1939 New York World's Fair, would remain in the United States under the care of the Library of Congress for the duration of the war. It would be stored at Fort Knox until its return to Lincoln in 1944. ww2dbase [CPC]
Photo(s) dated 2 Sep 1939
Sailors inspected damage on Schleswig-Holstein caused by Polish coastal batteries of Hel Penninsula, Sep 1939German women living in Poland giving bread to German soldiers, Poland, 2 Sep 1939German soldiers carrying MG34 machine guns, Poland, Sep 1939

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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Japanese Type 99 light machine gun on display at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, Quantico, Virginia, United States, 15 Jan 2007




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Famous WW2 Quote
"With Germany arming at breakneck speed, England lost in a pacifist dream, France corrupt and torn by dissension, America remote and indifferent... do you not tremble for your children?"

Winston Churchill, 1935