WWII On This Day: September 1

September 1, 1939 · 04:40 · Invasion of Poland 1939

Wieluń is bombed

Luftwaffe dive bombers struck Wieluń in the opening phase of the invasion. The IPN investigation placed Polish military units outside the town on the eve of war and documented attacks on the hospital and civilian centre. Investigators identified at least 127 deaths from records and testimony and judged the full toll likely to have reached several hundred. Their findings also traced the origins of larger commemorative figures that had circulated for decades. Wieluń places civilian urban destruction inside the campaign from its opening hours. The local investigation gives the page…

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September 1, 1939 · 04:40 · The Road to War

Germany invades Poland

German forces attack Poland before dawn along several fronts, supported by Luftwaffe strikes against military, transport and communications targets. At about 04:47 the battleship Schleswig-Holstein opens fire on the Polish position at Westerplatte. German land formations advance from East Prussia, Pomerania, Silesia and German-allied Slovakia under the plan known as Fall Weiss. The operational aim is to defeat and encircle major Polish forces before Britain and France can materially alter the war in the west. Poland's geography makes defence difficult: much of the country lies exposed between German-controlled territories, while…

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September 1, 1939 · 04:45 · Invasion of Poland 1939

Schleswig-Holstein opens fire on Westerplatte

At 04:45 the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire at close range on the Polish Military Transit Depot at Westerplatte. German marines and local formations followed with a ground assault. The garrison numbered roughly two hundred men and had prepared for a limited defence while the wider coastal command assessed the invasion. It held for seven days through repeated assaults, naval gunfire and bombing. Westerplatte forced a larger attacking force to spend time, ammunition and specialist assault effort on a small fortified position. Its military scale was local; its endurance became…

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September 1, 1939 · 05:00 · Invasion of Poland 1939

The Polish Post Office fights inside Danzig

German police, SS and local forces attacked the Polish Post Office in Danzig as the wider invasion began. Postal workers and reservists inside had prepared the building for a limited defence and resisted through much of the day. Successive assaults brought heavier weapons and fire against the building. The defenders eventually surrendered after flames spread through the structure and the position became untenable. The battle grew from Danzig's contested political status and the Polish institutions maintained inside the Free City. German authorities later tried captured defenders as illegal combatants and…

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September 1, 1939 · 08:00 · Invasion of Poland 1939

The Wołyńska Cavalry Brigade stops 4th Panzer Division at Mokra

At Mokra the Wołyńska Cavalry Brigade fought largely dismounted behind anti-tank guns, machine guns and field artillery as 4th Panzer Division tried to force the route through its position. Polish anti-tank weapons and artillery repeatedly disrupted the German attack. Armoured Train No. 53 Śmiały added mobile fire from the railway line, giving the defenders another concentrated weapon against German infantry and armour. Mokra imposed a tactical delay and inflicted losses on an armoured division during the first day of the invasion. The brigade's performance shows the cavalry formation as a…

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September 1, 1939 · 19:00 · Invasion of Poland 1939

Krojanty and the cavalry myth

Polish cavalry attacked German infantry near Krojanty and initially scattered troops caught in the open. German armoured cars arrived as the cavalrymen disengaged and opened fire on the exposed formation. The charge had been directed at infantry. German presentation of the battlefield to journalists transformed the encounter into a story of horsemen meeting tanks with sabres and lances, an image that fitted wartime propaganda and later popular retellings. Krojanty shows how one local action acquired a life far beyond its operational importance. The campaign's real imbalance lay in German concentration…

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September 1, 1941 · The Holocaust: Timeline and Evidence

The yellow star is decreed for Jews in the Reich

Reinhard Heydrich decreed that Jews aged six and over in the Reich and specified annexed territories had to wear a yellow Star of David on their outer clothing in public. Compulsory marking made legal classification immediately visible to police, employers, neighbours and transport officials. It intensified segregation at the same moment mass shooting was expanding in the occupied Soviet Union.

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September 1, 1942 · World War II Famines

A relief corridor opens

Emergency shipments had already reached Greece in the spring of 1942. By September, a regular neutral-supervised system was operating: Swedish vessels carried food to Greece under arrangements negotiated with the belligerents and supervised through Red Cross mechanisms. The programme did not undo the deaths of the first winter, but regular deliveries reduced the risk of another catastrophe on the same scale. ICRC records describe roughly 17,000 tonnes of food a month delivered by Swedish vessels from September 1942 to March 1944, with larger quantities later.

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September 1, 1943 · 12:00 · Operation PLUTO

The Conundrum is built

M. K. Purvis designed a floating drum around which long welded HAMEL pipe could be wound. The drum was towed across the water while rotating and paying out the pipe. Flexible HAIS sections were later attached at the ends to simplify the shore connections.

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September 1, 1944 · Operation Dragoon

The pursuit outruns its supplies

Seventh Army was now advancing faster than fuel could be brought forward from beaches 200 miles behind it. Units improvised with captured German vehicles and horses, and airlift was used to move petrol into forward strips. The Resistance provided guides, road information and in many places security along the flanks, which allowed columns to move without stopping to clear ground behind them.

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September 1, 1944 · 22:00 · The Warsaw Rising

The Old Town evacuation begins

On the night of 1–2 September the Home Army began evacuating the surviving Old Town force through the sewer network toward Śródmieście and Żoliborz after attempts to break out across the surface had failed. Entry points around Krasiński Square fed men into narrow underground routes already crowded with wounded soldiers and civilians. Roughly 5,000 to 5,300 fighters and civilians reached other insurgent districts through the sewers. Severely wounded people who could not be moved remained in hospitals and shelters as the organised defence of the Old Town ended.

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