Poland: Germans rush reinforcements (including tank units) from Warsaw front to Bzura battle area (night 12-13). Poles begin fighting withdrawal from Bzura.

Sea War: US Navy begins regular neutrality patrols along entire length of Eastern Seaboard and in Caribbean in the Atlantic.

Diplomacy: First meeting of Allied Supreme War Council (British and French Premiers, with their top political and military advisers) takes place at Abbeville.
General Gamelin reveals plans to call off Saar 'Offensive'.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1939

Poland: German infantry cross river Vistula, South of Warsaw.
German High Command announces its intention to crush guerilla operations and sabotage by Polish civil population with indiscriminate bombing and shelling of towns.
Heavy air raids on Warsaw.

Picture: German He 111 bomber over Warsaw.

Sea War: French cruiser La Tour d'Auvergne sunk by accidental explosion at Casablanca.

Home Front France: War Cabinet formed with new ministries of Armaments and Blockade.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1939

Poland: Fall of Gdynia, Poland's only seaport, and the city of Brest-Litovsk, Eastern Poland. The Citadel of Brest-Litovsk stilll holds out.

Sea War Atlantic: U-39 attacks Royal Navy aircraft carrier Ark Royal Northwest of Ireland but is depth-charged by 3 destroyers and crew of 43 captured.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1939

Poland: Germans surround Warsaw and occupy Galician oilfields (Southeast Poland).

Sea War Atlantic: First British trans-Atlantic convoy sails from Kingston, Jamaica.

Diplomacy: Rumanian Government to grant asylum to Polish civilian refugees. Military personnel to be disarmed and interned.

Home Front Germany: Germans broadcast interviews with British and NZ airmen captured during Wilhelmshaven raid (see September 4).

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1939

Poland: German ultimatum to Warsaw Garrison and civil population rejected. Polish air force bombers make final sorties.

Map from the campaign in Poland from September 16 to September 20.

Diplomacy: USSR informs Poland that the Red Army will enter East Poland on September 17 'to protect the Ukrainian and White Russian minorities'.

Sea War Atlantic: First U-boat attack on North Atlantic convoy. U-31 sinks SS Aviemore.
Three major escorted convoys leave Halifax (Nova Scotia) for Britain, September 16, 17 and 23.

Neutrals: Armistice ends 'Nomonhan Incident', the protracted fighting between Japan and USSR on borders of Manchukuo (Manchuria) and Mongolia.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1939

Poland: (MAIN EVENT) SOVIET INVASION OF POLAND against negligible defences.
German Army Groups North and South link up at Wlodawa, on river Bug, Eastern Poland. Brest-Litovsk Citadel captured.
Polish Government crosses into Rumania from border town of Kuty - its fifth, and last, temporary seat in the Polish provinces. All surviving Polish air crews fly to Rumania.

Picture: a Swedish cartoon about the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Hitler and Stalin are going together to catch their prey.

Sea War Atlantic: CARRIER HMS COURAGEOUS SUNK by U-29 West of Ireland (514 of 1200 crew dead). British Fleet carriers withdrawn from anti-U-boat operations.