MAPS OF HISTORY · ON THIS DAY · September 1 · 1939
ON THIS DAY · 1 SEPTEMBER 1939
4:47 a.m.: an old battleship opens fire on a Polish depot at Danzig.…
4:47 a.m.: an old battleship opens fire on a Polish depot at Danzig. The Second World War in Europe has begun.
THE MOMENT IN CONTEXT
On 23 August 1939 the century’s two loudest enemies stun the world: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact. Its secret protocol draws a line through Eastern Europe — the dashed line on your map — assigning spheres: western Poland to Hitler, eastern Poland, the Baltics and Bessarabia to Stalin.
From Chapter 2 — The Pact and the Partition of Poland of The War Room — WW2, 1936–1945 (SEP 1939).
OPEN THE INTERACTIVE MAP →TEACH THIS IN 5 MINUTES
- Why it happened — Munich’s aftershock in Moscow. Stalin read Munich as the West steering Hitler eastward. If they would not stand with him, he would buy time and territory by standing aside — and…
- The turn — First shots, 1 September, 04:47. The old battleship Schleswig-Holstein, on a “courtesy visit” to Danzig, opens fire on the Polish depot at Westerplatte. Its 182 defenders hold for…
- What it changed — A world war nobody can start fighting. Britain and France are at war but stand still behind the Maginot Line — the strange eight-month “Phoney War.” The next blow will come where they…
Then ask the room: Why would two sworn ideological enemies — fascism and communism — sign a pact? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
THE ATLAS THAT SHOWS IT
THE DISPATCH
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