September 4, 1939; French Break through German Lines:

THIS WAS REPORTEDD TODAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1939:

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1939.

Action Scene Kept Secret
in Dispatches; Heavy
Duel Reported.

PARIS, Sept. 4.—(INS)—France's seasoned and war-tried army opened operations against Nazi Germany at dawn today and 12 hour- later had broken through the German lines at a dozen points, according to official announcement by the French high command.

At some places, the communique asserted, the French penetrated into German territory to a depth of three kilometers (1.86 miles). "Attacking with traditional bravery and clan," The communique issued at 4:45 p. m., stated, "French troops penetrated the German lines at a dozen points, advancing as much as three kilometers."

(Editor's note: For obvious reasons of censorship, the exact spots where the French broke through were not revealed. It was thought likely, however, that the attack might have been made from the Metz region into the Saar, where the Rhino river docs not form a natural fortification as it docs father south).

LAND, SEA AND AIR.
With land, sea. and air forces all participating, France went into action at 5 a. in., today. Details o/ the operations were exceedingly scanty, but it was clearly obvious that hostilities on a major scale were in progress.

Quick Victory in Eastern

Europe Sector Pledged
to Germany.

BERLIN, Sept. 4.—W—Adolf Hitler, relying on the Siegfried line of fortifications in the west to "shelter and defend" Germany against Britain and France, joined his troops on the eastern front today to direct the drive to conquer Poland and thus "burst open the ring laid around Germany."Declaring "Germany will never again capitulate," the fuehrer left behind him .an assurance the task of subjugating Poland will take "only a few weeks," if the western army does its duty in holding off Poland's two allies.

"Then," he added, in a special message to the army facing France, "the strength of our entire ninety millions stands behind you."

PERSONAL COMMAND.
Hitler departed to take personal command of the forces fighting on the Polish • front some 12 hours after he had rejected the ultimatum presented by the British ambassador, sir Nevlle Henderson, demanding the withdrawal of German troops from Poland.

 

Mobilization of All Regular

Forces in Empire
Announced.

LONDON, Sept. 4.—(INS)—Full mobilization of all regular forces in Great Britain and the colonies was announced by the war office today as Britain's mighty navy, backbone of defense against Nazi Germany,was launched upon a sweeping blockade of reich naval ports.

A bulletin Issued by the ministry of information said: The war office states that all British regular forces have been mobilized in all colonies and all measures of security taken. Precautions have been taken to ensure that enemy action will not hinder the use of the Suez canal tor merchant shipping.

LOYALTV MESSAGES.
From the colonies and dependencies where defense measures have all been completed, messages of loyalty are still arriving. "Reports show volunteer forces everywhere. The colonies and dependencies have no lack of volunteers."

 

Liner With 1347 Aboard,
Including 311 From
U.S. Is Sunk.

LONDON, Sept. 4.—(AP)—A rescue fleet, guarded by guns of British destroyers, was officially reported today to have saved all but the few persons killed by the explosion which sank the Donaldson liner Athenia, which British officials sald was torpedoed by a German submarine in the open North Atlantic.

There were 1347 passengers and crew aboard, which Included United States citizens listed tentatively at 311.

The charge that the Athena was torpedoed was made by the British ministry of information and officially reiterated in commons by Winston Churchill, first lord of the admiralty.

ANNOUNCEMENT CONFIRMED
Bulletins from British government agencies failed to give the number of dead. The main basis for hope was the announcement which the Athenians master, Capt. James Cook, wirelessed:

 

 

Keep Out of War

We can keep out of war if we want to. Europe could keep out of war if it wanted to. There .is no situation in Europe which could not have been solved by the peaceful discussion which the president urged. But the traditional hatreds and jealousies and the long established warlike habits of Europe made war inevitable there. But war is in no sense inevitable here. We have not the established warlike habits. We have not the racial hatreds, the international jealousies. We have not the greed for power and added territory.

And if we follow the injunctions of Washington, we will not have the partisanship which might lead us into war.

If the president wants to keep us out of war—as it is evident from his broadcast that he does—if the congress acts intelligently to keep us out of war, if the people continue their desire, so often expressed, to keep out of European conflicts, there is no reason why we should become involved in this European catastrophe. When it is over, Europe will be prostrated of course.

The people will be exhausted and impoverished. A large part of what we considered civilization, but what is apparently only an empty shell, will have been destroyed over there.

But here in America peace and prosperity will prevail, the best benefits of civilization will have been retained, and the United States in her full strength can stand forth to lead and aid the world back to such peace and happiness as these warring peoples are then capable of securing and enjoying.

America has a great opportunity, a great mission, which it can only fulfill if it keeps out of war, and if it keeps its resources, its institutions, its democratic principles intact, and fully available for its own benefit, and for the reconstruction of the world.

WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST

 

War Bulletins

AMSTERDAM, Sept. 4.—(AP)_A Netherlands radio announcement tonight said that German bombing planes had been seen flying west over Netherlands territory.

_______________________________________________________

LONDON, Sept. 4—(AP)—Via Radio)—The admiralty announced today that there were no mines in the north Atlantic where the liner Athenia went down yesterday with 1347 persons aboard, about 300 of whom were Americans.

 

 

September 3, 1939; PEACE OR WAR ANSWER DUE:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1939:

ABILENE, TEXAS, SUNDAY MOBNING, SEPTEMBEB 3, 1939~-THJRTY-SIX PAGES        
By LLOYD LEHBRAS

WARSAW, Sept. 2.—(AP)~Twenty-one dead and over 30 wounded were counted tonight after a German bomb had struck an apartment house in a Warsaw working-men's quarter. The bombs tore off the side of the apartment house as if it had been made of paper. Rescue workers still were clearing away the resultant pile- of debris in a search for further casualties when I inspected it.
One of the bombs had dug a crater fully twenty feet in diameter, and the open ground was piled high with furniture and belongings. In the center of a large park in the southern section of Warsaw, I saw where a bomb had struck a simple wooden dwelling, killing two persons and wounding one. In an open field near the Vistula river, where ten light bombs apparently had been released simultaneously, they had dug craters in a 100-yard circle.

PEACE OR WAR ANSWER DUE TODAY

Germans Claim

Advance Like
Steamroller

BERLIN, Sept. 2— (AP)—

Nazi troops moving swiftly but as effectively as a steamroller —according to high command communiques—tonight continued their advance over the lowlands and lakes of Pomorze (the Polish corridor) and hilly regions of Silesia.

At the same time the British and French ambassadors awaited the reply to their government's final -"warnings" delivered to the foreign office last night. Authoritative German sources said they did not know when Adolf Hitler's replies would be made.

Meanwhile, diplomatic relations with Poland were broken off in fact when Polish Ambassador Jozef Lipski left Berlin early today.

 

Parliament To Hear

Report On New
Peace Bid

(By Th« Associated Press)

Behind the guarded doors of the Reich chancellery in Berlin last night apparently lay the answer to whether a general European war would start today. France and Great Britain had given Germany a "last warning/' occasioned by Germany's two-day-old undeclared war with Poland. Chancellor Hitler had not yet replied.

The British-cabinet held a brief midnight meeting less than three hours after Prime Minister Chamberlain in an historic session of parliament delayed: decision on a declaration of war against Germany as a result of her invasion of Poland.

An announcement after the 45-minute session said no statement would be made today when parliament is scheduled to meet at noon (5 AM; CST) for Chamberlain’s report on results of last minute peace proposals advanced by Premier Mussolini.

 

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September 2, 1939; BRITIAN / FRANCE MAKE ONE MORE EFFORT TO AVERT WAR:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1939:

RACINE, WIS., SATURDAY AFTERNOON, SEPTEMBER 2, 1939.

Ready to Try

For Conciliation,
Says Daladier

Chamberlain Delays

Vital Statement to
British Parliament

LONDON, Sept. 2.—(INS)—The cabinet of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain assembled

at 19 Downing street at 4:30 p. m. today (9:30 a. m.. CST). Chamberlain is now expected to make his delayed statement to the house of commons around 9 p. m. (2 p. m.. CST). As their lawmakers met in historic sessions, it a p p e a r e d that Great Britain a n d France were making one more effort to avert the o u t  b r e a k of a general European w a r . P r i m e Minister C h a m b e r l a i n deferred an e x p e c t e d s t a t e m e n t to parliament . Premier Daladier said that France is willing to try for conciliation if hostilities in Poland cease.

Bottle-Neck

Of Corridor Is
Closed,-Berlin

Reich to Present

'Fait Accompli/ Say
German Sources

PARIS, Sept. 2.—(INS)—Great Britain a n d F r a n c e are sending a new u l t i m a t u m  to  R e i c h s  f u e h r e r  H i t l e r  w a r n i n g  t h a t  t h e y  c an wait only a n "extremely limited" time for a  r e p l y to their demand for cessation of m i l i t a ry  o p e r a t i o ns in Poland. P r e m i e r Daladier was g r a n t e d implied authority to d e c l a r e war on G e r m a n y . The power was vested in a war  b u d g e t bill.

 

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September 1, 1939; GERMAN / POLISH WAR FLARES:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1939:

MOORHEAD, MINNESOTA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1939

Poland Charges Nazis Bombing

Open Cities; Claim Many Dead

HITLER ACCUSED OF VIOLATION-

OF PLEDGE TO SPARE
CIVILIANS.

Ciaim Evacuation Train Bombed; resident Proclaims State of War In Poland.

Paris (UP) — A Polish radio broadcast tonight quoted a first army communique announcing

that the Poles had shot down 16 German planes and had repulsed two German attacks on
the Westerplatte. a point in Danzig harbor.

Warsaw. Sept. 1 (UP)—.An official communique tonight charged t h a t Germany was bombarding open cities.  including Warsaw, and that many civilians were dead and wounded.

The communique charged Fuehrer Adolf Hitler with, violation of his pledge to spare civilians.

Charges include:; the alleged German aerial bombardment of an evacuation train carrying women

and children near the Kutno station 60 miles west of Warsaw. Many were killed and wounded when the train was bombed, the communique said.
Claim Planes Shot Down.
The communique asserted that Police defenders brought down three German bombers at Cracow and shot down 3 German planes in the Crdynia district.

The Poles .said they disabled and captured a German armored train near Chojnice in the Polish corridor.

President Ignacy Moscicki proclaimed a state of war in Poland after German airplanes had  bombed

Polish cities and German troops had smashed across the frontier' from Slovakia to the Baltic.

The state of war proclamation was now a declaration of war.

Hitler Annexes Danzig;

British Warn Germany
To Withdraw Soldiers

CHAMBERLAIN SAYS ENGLAND

WILL BACK POLES UNHESITATINGLY.

Britain Warning Almost An Ultimatum To Hitler;

Wild CheersGreet Speech.

By WEBB MILLER

London, Sept. 1 (UP) — Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain warned Germany tonight in a statement to the House of Commons to withdraw the Reich troops which have invaded Polish soil or face military action by Great Britain.

France will duplicate British demands that German troops evacuate Polish territory, high French quarters said tonight in Paris.

Britain, the prime minister said, will stand unhesitatingly behind her military obligations to aid Poland in case of aggression.

Blames Germany.
The prime minister laid the blame for the invasion of Poland on Germany, declaring that Poland had offered to negotiate the dispute and had been turned down.

NAZY ARMY INVADES POLAND

IN UNDECLARED "LIGHTNING" WAR.

Berlin Claims Move Is Counter-

Attack; Hitler Aims For Quick,
Decisive Thrust.

By FREDERICK C. OESHSNER

Berlin, Sept. 1 (UP)—Adolf Hitler annexed Danzig today and sent his armed forces surging across the Polish frontier in an undeclared "lightning" war. Germany's army frontiers in what described as a "counter-attack."
Nazi airplanes bombed Polish cities which were deemed to be "fortified."
Navy Defends Baltic.
The German navy assumed defense of the Baltic sea. After the vast Nazi war machine moved into action at 5:45 a. m., Hitler appeared before a suddenly called session of the Reichstag which approved his action in seizing Danzig.

 

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September 2, 1945; RISE / FALL OF JAPANESE EMPIRE:

(E. T.s Note)  The following is a brief synopsis of the rise and fall of the Japanese Empire that was published in the Johannesburg Sunday Times that E. T. deemed apropriate for
this date. The author was not identified.

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, AUGUST 11, 1945:

RAPID RISE AND FALL OF

THE JAPANESE EMPIRE

Nation That Turned On Its

European Mentors

SUNDAY TIMES, JOHANNESBURG, TRANSVAAL, AUGUST 12, 1945.

   JAPAN'S admission of complete and humiliating defeat is now only a formality.

   It is her first defeat since the American naval officer Perry awakened the isolated island nation in 1853 and set it off on the ambitious, course of Empire building.

   Japan built slowly and patiently at first. Her victory in the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-5 gained her Korea.       She became a world power by her success in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5. Japan was befriended by all the European nations. Germany taught her how to organize her armies. Her navy was modeled on the British navy. The Netherlands gave her battleships. From America she learnt industrial efficiency and mass production.

   In the Great War Japan was on the side of the Allies. She helped to kick Germany out of Kiaochow in China, and at the end of the war was rewarded by the mandate over the Marshall Islands.

   After the war Japan was all for peace and order, She  was a member of the League of Nations. Then she got ambitious, she left the League because it would not approve of her unprovoked war on China and annexation of Manchuria. She flouted world opinion by waging a major war- on China She " accidentally " bombed British and American gunboats.

   She joined the Axis when Hitler had rearmed Germany.

   Below is a chronology of the Japanese war, but it tells little of the drama of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour while her emissaries

Were  in  Washington. ostensibly to negotiate a peace pact; it cannot convey the treachery of  Japans attempt to stab her former ally,. B r i t a i n , in the back while she was at death  grips with Germany.

   Japan won the opening rounds of  her, fully-calculated war so easily that Tokyo was elated. She gained spectacular victories conquered Burma and Malaya, Singapore, the Philippines and in the Java Sea. But they were all won while British and American forces in the Far East were painfully thin.

   From December 7, 1941, until the Battle of the Coral Sea in May, 1942 the first major Allied victory in the Pacific nothing was able to stem the Japanese tide. That, era was a gloomy period in the European war: Hitler's armies were advancing in Russia. Rommel was top dog in North Africa.

   But Britain and America and particularly America were rushing reinforcements to the Pacific. As the Australians fought the Japs to a standstill in New Guinea and thwarted their plan to invade Australia, MacArthur, spurred on by his vow to avenge Corregidor, was building up a powerful force in Australia.

   Once the Jap flood was arrested it started to recede. After the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway—both decisive American victories—the enemy navy was on the retreat. Jap air power was steadily destroyed After the Japanese naval disaster in the battle of Leyte, when the Japs risked powerful naval forces to try and interfere with Mac-Arthur's amphibious offensive against the Philippines, the Japanese navy retreated to "skulk in home waters.

   Japan could only send suicide bombers against Allied task forces. Her . naval power, so formidable in 1941 was finally broken and her conception of empire shattered.

   Meanwhile, Britain's Forgotten Army the 14th Army under General Slim—had fought and won the major land campaign of the Japanese war, reconquered Burma and reopened the Burma road to long-suffering China.

  This is the sequence of events that brought airpower—and finally the atomic bomb—within striking distance of Japan, and forced the proud nation that had never bowed its head to sue for peace and ask for special favours for its " divine " Emperor before an  Allied soldier had landed on its shores.

 

September 2, 1945: EPOCH MAKING SURRENDER CEROMONY / TERMS

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, SEPTEMBER 31, 1945:

(E. Ts. Note)  See below for the "Surrender Terms", also the second post of September post reports a brief synopsis of the rise and fall of the Japanes Empire.

 

Long Beach 2, California Sunday, September 2, 1945

 

By KENNETH McCALEB

INS (Staff Correspondent)

ABOARD THE U. S. S, MISSOURI, Tokyo Bay, Sept. 2 (Sunday).

Japan placed her humbled empire and emperor at the feet of the united nations today to an epoch making surrender ceremony presided over by Gen. Douglas MacArthur aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo bay.

  

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1945.

The Surrender Instrument

U. S. S. MISSOURI, TOKYO BAY, Sunday, (AP)—

Official text of the surrender instrument:

 "1.. We, acting by command of and in behalf of the Emperor of Japan, the Japanese government and the Japanese Imperial general headquarters, hereby accept provisions In the declaration issued by the heads of the governments of the United States, China

and Great Britain July 26, 1945, at Potsdam, and subsequently adhered to by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which four powers are hereafter referred to as the allied powers

 "2. We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the allied powers of the Japanese Imperial general headquarters and of all Japanese armed forces and all armed forces under Japanese control wherever situated.

"3 We hereby command all Japanese forces, wherever situated, and the Japanese people to cease hostilities forthwith, to preserve and save from damage all ships, aircraft and military and civil property and to comply with all requirements which may be Imposed by the supreme commander for the allied powers or by agencies of the Japanese government at his direction.

"4. We hereby command the Japanese Imperial general headquarters to issue at once eiders to the commanders of all Japanese forces and all forces under Japanese control, wherever situated, to surrender unconditionally themselves and all forces under their control.

"5. We hereby command all civil, military and naval officials to obey and enforce all proclamations, orders and directives, deemed by the supreme commander for the allied powers to be proper to effectuate this surrender and issued by him or under his authority and, we direct all such officials to remain at their posts and to continue to perform their non-combat duties unless specifically relieved by him or under his authority.

"6. We hereby undertake for the Emperor, the Japanese government and their successors to carry out the provisions of the Potsdam declaration in good faith, and to issue whatever orders and take whatever action maybe required by the supreme commander for the allied powers or by any other designated representative of the allied powers for the purpose of giving effect to that declaration

"7. We hereby command the Japanese Imperial government and the Japanese Imperial general headquarters at once to liberate all allied prisoners of war and civilian internees now tinder Japanese control and to provide for their protection, care, maintenance and Immediate transportation to places as directed, .

"8. The authority of the Emperor and the Japanese government to rule the state shall be subject to the supreme commander for the allied powers who will take such steps as he deems proper to effectuate these terms of surrender."












 

September 1, 1945; JAPANESE TO SIGN SURRENDER:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1945:

MIDDLETOWN, N. Y.,  SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER I, 1945.

TOKIO—Representatives of Emperor Hirohito, the Japanese government and the imperial general staff will sign allied surrender terms aboard the Battleship Missouri in Tokio Bay between nine and 9:30 a. m. tomorrow (eight and 8:30 p. m. EWT today. The entire surrender ceremony formalizing Japan's first defeat in modern history will last only about a half-hour.

 

PORT ARTHUR, TEXAS, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER I. 1945.

Stage Set for

Capitulation of
Nippon Empire

Historic Event Will

Take Place on U. S.
Battleship Missouri

YOKOHAMA, Sept. I (AP)

—American troops extended their steel grip today along both sides of Tokyo bay, the stage on which will be played out Sunday (today. Port Arthur time) the greatest military pageant of the century—the final and formal surrender of the Japanese empire.

Last of the actors to take their places were the Eighth Army men of Lt. Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger scheduled to begin their mass landings in the bay sector by nightfall tonight. (A radio report said the landings already had begun.)

As a backdrop there was the black horror endured by prisoners of war, who poured from their' stockades of death., and degradation with blood-freezing accounts of the wanton cruelties, inflicted upon them in the year's, when Japan was riding the crest of conquest.

Shoe on other Foot
Now, as the gaunt Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright remarked, "the shoe was on the other foot." He and his staff who survived the forced surrender of the Philippines and evil years behind enemy wires,  arrived to witness the Japanese surrender signatures.

 

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