Sunday 15 October 1939

Cuban mail rockets.

Western Front: Paris radio reports on 15 October 1939 that German troops are massing behind the lines. It also reports that French reconnaissance planes are watching the front, as are German reconnaissance planes.

Battle of the Atlantic: The Admiralty publishes a list of the 414 survivors of the HMS Royal Oak.

U-37 (Korvettenkapitän Werner Hartmann) sinks the French 5,186-ton merchant freighter Vermont by gunfire. Two crew perish.

The Admiral Graf Spee refuels from the tanker Altmark.

Convoy OA 20G departs from Scotland.

Convoy SL 5 departs from Freetown for Liverpool.

European Air Operations: Having previously lost both legs in an inter-war flying accident, Douglas Bader seeks to regain full flight status in the RAF.

Finland: The military imposes compulsory national service.

Estonia: The Estonian government signs an agreement with the German government for the transfer of ethnic Germans to Germany.

Lithuania: The Polish minister in Kaunas protests to Lithuania that the Soviets had no right to deed the Polish city of Vilnius to Lithuania on 10 October 1939. The Lithuanians, however, had little choice in the matter, as the Soviets wanted to help enhance the reputation of the local communist party and threatened consequences if the territory was not accepted.

Poland: there is an outbreak of typhoid and cholera.

China: The 11th Japanese Army is now back to its starting point in the Battle of Changsha.

Official Post Office cachet for Cuban rocket mail.

Cuba: The Cuban post office tests the use of rockets to deliver mail between cities. The test is unsuccessful.

Prisoner swaps: Germany and England exchange their detained consular officials.

Holocaust: German puppet state Slovakia orders that Jews serve in forced labor.

American Homefront: The airport in Queens that eventually becomes LaGuardia Airport (now New York Municipal Airport) is dedicated before 100,000 people. There are air force fly-bys.

October 1939

October 1, 1939: Occupation of Warsaw
October 2, 1939: Hel Peninsula Falls
October 3, 1939: The Diamantis Incident
October 4, 1939: Otto Kretschmer Gets Rolling
October 5, 1939: Polish Resistance Ends
October 6, 1939: Hitler Peace Effort
October 7, 1939: The British Have Arrived
October 8, 1939: First RAF Kill from UK
October 9, 1939: "City of Flint" Incident
October 10, 1939: Lithuania Under Pressure
October 11, 1939: The Atomic Age Begins
October 12, 1939: England Rejects Hitler's Peace Offer
October 13, 1939: Charles Lindbergh Speaks Out
October 14 1939: Royal Oak Sunk
October 15, 1939: Cuban Rockets
October 16, 1939: First Aircraft Shot Down Over UK
October 17, 1939: Marshall Mannerheim Returns
October 18, 1939: Prien Receives His Award
October 19, 1939: Preliminary Plan for Fall Gelb
October 20, 1939: Hitler Grapples with the Jews
October 21, 1939: Hurricanes to the Rescue!
October 22, 1939: Goebbels Lies Through His Teeth
October 23, 1939: Norway the Center of Attention
October 24, 1939: German "Justice" Gets Rolling
October 25, 1939: Handley Page Halifax Bomber First Flies
October 26, 1939: Jozef Tiso Takes Slovakia
October 27, 1939: King Leopold Stands Firm
October 28, 1939 - First Luftwaffe Raid on Great Britain
October 29, 1939: Tinkering with Fall Gelb
October 30, 1939: Defective Torpedoes
October 31, 1939: Molotov Issues an Ultimatum

2019