A royal proclamation ordered all British men between the ages of 20 and 22 to report for army registration on October 21.[1]
First Lord of the AdmiraltyWinston Churchill gave a radio address from London reviewing the first month of the war. During this broadcast he famously called Russia "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."[1][2]
The Panama Conference concluded with the adoption of a general declaration of neutrality of the American Republics.[3]
The Greek cargo ship Diamantis was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-35 west of the Isles of Scilly. Because the ship's lifeboats were not suited for use in bad weather, the U-35 took all 28 crew members aboard and dropped them off at Dingle Bay, Ireland the next day.[4]
Died:Fay Templeton, 73, American actress, singer and comedian
Adolf Hitler issued a secret decree granting an amnesty to all crimes committed by German military and police personnel in Poland between September 1 and October 4. The decree justified the crimes as being natural responses to "atrocities committed by the Poles."[5][6]
Hitler addressed a special session of the Reichstag. After speaking at great length about the victory over Poland he then proposed an international security conference, hinting at desire for an armistice by saying that such a conference would be impossible "while cannons are thundering."[10][11] Britain (Chamberlain war ministry) and France rejected these overtures some days later and the uneventful phase of the war known as the Phoney War would drag on[12] until 10 May 1940
A Gallup poll was published in the United States asking, "What should be the policy in the present European war? Should we declare war and send our army and navy abroad to fight Germany?" 95% of Americans polled said no.[13]
Hitler issued Directive No. 6 ordering preparations for an offensive in the west with an initial date set for November 12. Protests from his service chiefs and very cold weather would cause the date of the attack to be postponed repeatedly.[12]
Off Newfoundland, the American freighter City of Flint was intercepted en route from New York to Liverpool by the German cruiser Deutschland. The Germans declared the freighter's cargo "contraband" and took the ship over with a prize crew. While at sea the Germans painted the fake name Alf on the freighter and hung Danish flags over the sides.[19][20][21][22]
French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier gave a radio address rejecting Hitler's latest peace propositions, saying that a settlement at this time "would only consecrate conquests by deceit or violence and would not prevent preparation for new ones." Daladier vowed that arms would only be laid down "when we have certain guaranties of security which may not be put in doubt every six months."[23]
Admiral Erich Raeder urged Hitler to invade Norway to protect Germany's vital iron ore traffic.[14]
The regions of Nazi-occupied Poland not annexed by the Reich were incorporated into a new administrative unit called the General Government. Wawel Castle in Kraków was made the seat of government.[16]
In the British House of Commons, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain formally replied to Hitler's peace offer by saying that a settlement "must be a real and settled peace, not an uneasy truce interrupted by constant alarms and repeated threats." Chamberlain further explained, "Herr Hitler rejected all suggestions for peace until he had overwhelmed Poland, as he had previously overthrown Czechoslovakia. Peace conditions cannot be acceptable which begin by condoning aggression. The proposals in the German Chancellor's speech are vague and uncertain and contain no suggestion for righting the wrongs done to Czechoslovakia and to Poland. Even if Herr Hitler's proposals were more closely defined and contained suggestions to right these wrongs, it would still be necessary to ask by what practical means the German Government intend to convince the world that aggression will cease and that pledges will be kept. Past experience has shown that no reliance can be placed upon the promises of the present German Government."[24]
U-42 was sunk southwest of Ireland by depth charges from the British destroyers Imogen and Ilex.
Charles Lindbergh made another radio address in favor of American isolationism and questioned Canada's right to be involved in the war. "We must protect our sister American nations from foreign invasion, both for their welfare and our own", Lindbergh said. "But, in turn, they have a duty to us ... We desire the utmost friendship with the people of Canada. If their country is ever attacked, our navy will be defending their seas, our soldiers will fight on their battlefields, our fliers will die in their skies. But have they the right to draw this hemisphere into a European war simply because they prefer the Crown of England to American independence?"[25][26]
Germany and Estonia signed an agreement on the resettlement of Baltic Germans.[28]
The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed LaGuardia Airport) was formally dedicated in New York. Nearly 100,000 people turned out to watch almost 60 military aircraft perform a flypast.[29]
Nine planes of the Luftwaffe conducted an air raid on the Firth of Forth, damaging three British ships, the cruisers Southhampton and Edinburgh, as well as the destroyer Mohawk, and killing sixteen Royal Navy crew before Supermarine Spitfires of No. 603 Squadron arrived and shot down three of the enemy aircraft, the first to be downed over British territory.[30]
Reinhard Heydrich issued a decree commonly referred to as the Festsetzungserlaß, prohibiting all Romani and part-Romani from changing their registered place of residence.[32]
Switzerland passed a decree defining the legal status of emigrants and forbidding them to engage in activities that were political in nature or in breach of Switzerland's neutral status.[33]
The Soviet Union set up Military Bases in Estonia.[14]
President Roosevelt banned all belligerent submarines from American ports and territorial waters except in cases of force majeure.[34]
Hitler issued Directive No. 7, Preparations for Attack in the West.
The crew of the U-47 was brought to the Reich Chancellory in Berlin where they all received the Iron Cross 2nd Class and the personal congratulations of Hitler. Captain Günther Prien was awarded the Knight's Cross.[35]
An art exhibition titled "Contemporary Unknown American Painters" opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The exhibition made 79-year old folk artist Grandma Moses famous.[31]
The Anglo-French-Turkish Treaty of Mutual Assistance was signed in Ankara, guaranteeing that if Turkey was attacked, Britain and France would come to its aid. In exchange, Turkey pledged to fight on the side of Britain and France if war spread to the Mediterranean.[36]
The Haupttreuhandstelle Ost was created to co-ordinate the confiscation of Jewish and Polish assets in Nazi-occupied Poland.[37]
Four American Navy flyers were killed when two bomber planes collided in mid-air near San Diego, California.[38]
Former heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney criticized Charles Lindbergh's radio address of October 13, especially his remarks about Canada. Tunney said he had great respect for Lindbergh but could not understand how he could "desert" England after being sheltered there. Tunney also said it took "great nerve and ambition" for Lindbergh to tell Americans how they should think after accepting an award from the Nazis while visiting Germany.[39]
Died:Red Downs, 56, American baseball player and convicted armed robber
The German prize crew of the City of Flint (disguised as a Danish ship named Alf) entered the Norwegian port of Tromsø to get fresh water. The Norwegians supplied the water but ordered the ship to have its proper name and marking restored and to leave the next morning.[22]
With an offensive on Germany's western front looking increasingly unlikely before next spring, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier announced that French soldiers would receive eight to ten days' leave every four months. Blackout regulations were also eased in many French cities.[47]
The City of Flint arrived in the Russian port of Murmansk to escape the heavy fog in the Barents Sea. Initially, the Russians arrested the German prize crew and told the American captain that his ship could leave freely as soon as the proper documents were ready, but this changed after Berlin applied heavy pressure.[19][22]
Another Gallup poll result was published in the United States, this time asking, "Which side do you want to see win the war?" 84% of Americans surveyed said the Allies, 14% expressed no opinion, and only 2% said Germany. The same poll asked, "Do you think the United States should do everything possible to help England and France win the war, except go to war ourselves?" 62% said yes, 38% said no.[13]
Joachim von Ribbentrop made a speech in Danzig blaming Britain for the war and indicating that fighting would begin on a large scale now that Chamberlain had "refused the hand of the Führer stretched out in a peace gesture."[49] London swiftly provided an official reply saying the speech "introduces no new element into the situation nor is it considered as having any particular importance."[50]
The American crew of the City of Flint were detained by Russian authorities and prevented from communicating with the U.S. embassy in Moscow.[19][20]
The administration of Włocławek in Nazi-occupied Poland ordered the city's Jews to wear a yellow badge on their clothes.[17]
Another German submarine was lost in the Strait of Dover when the U-16 ran aground on the Goodwin Sands trying to avoid a depth charge attack.[51] U-boats were subsequently ordered to stop using the Strait of Dover as a deployment route.[52]
The Pope Pius XII encyclical Summi Pontificatus was published, denouncing totalitarianism.[54] The encyclical expressed compassion for displaced Poles but avoided condemning Germany by name.[37]
On Czech Independence Day marking the 21st anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia, thousands of people, mostly students, protested at various locations throughout the region making up the former country. The Nazis retaliated by closing universities, executing student leaders and making many arrests.[55]
Heinrich Himmler issued a secret directive to the SS and police encouraging them to procreate with women of "good blood", even outside of marriage, "to regenerate life for Germany". The directive explained that the SS would support all mothers of children of good blood regardless of legitimacy, so no father would need to be concerned about creating a burden for them.[56]
The City of Flint left Murmansk under control of the German prize crew, intending to go to Germany.[57]
The City of Flint ended up in Tromsø again, to the displeasure of the Norwegians who were trying to avoid being drawn into any international incidents involving belligerent ships in their ports. Norway dispatched a naval escort to see the City of Flint through Norwegian waters to ensure that the freighter neither tried to stop again nor came under attack from Allied warships.[22]
Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov sent a Soviet ultimatum to Finland making several demands, including that the town of Hanko be handed over for use as a Russian naval base.[31]
^Wiktor, Christian L. (1998). Multilateral Treaty Calendar 1648–1995. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 404. ISBN9789041105844.
^"Diamantis". uboat.net. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
^Majer, Diemut (2003). "Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 432. ISBN9780801864933.
^Chickering, Roger; Förster, Stig; Greiner, Bernd (2005). A World at Total War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction, 1937–1945. Cambridge University Press. p. 104. ISBN9780521834322.
^Shirer, William L. (2002). Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934–1941. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 230. ISBN9780801870569.
^Showalter, Dennis (December 2009). Hitler's Panzers: The Lightning Attacks that Revolutionized Warfare. Berkley Caliber. ISBN9781101151686.
^ abcTucker, Spencer C. (2010). A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC. p. 1894. ISBN9781851096725.
^Draper, Alfred (1979). Operation Fish: The Fight to Save the Gold of Britain, France and Norway from the Nazis. Don Mills: General Publishing. ISBN9780773600683.
^ abPaczkowski, Andrzej (1998). Spring Will Be Ours: Poland and the Poles from Occupation to Freedom. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 43. ISBN9780271047539.
^ abGarbarini, Alexandra (2011). Jewish Responses to Persecution. Vol. II, 1938–1940. Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press. p. 552. ISBN9780759120396.
^Willmott, H. P. (2010). The Last Century of Sea Power: From Washington to Tokyo, 1922–1945. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 159. ISBN9780253004093.
^ abcBertke, Donald A.; Kindell, Don; Smith, Gordon (2009). World War II Sea War Volume 1. Bertke Publications. p. 150. ISBN9780578029412.
^ abcdHaarr, Geirr H. (2013). The Gathering Storm: The Naval War in Northern Europe September 1939 – April 1940. Seaforth Publishing. pp. 338–339. ISBN9781848321403.
^ abcd"1939". MusicAndHistory. Archived from the original on June 5, 2014. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
^Milton, Sybil. "Holocaust: The Gypsies." Century of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts, 2nd Edition. Ed. Samuel Totten, William S. Parsons, Israel W. Charney. New York: Routledge, 2004. p. 168. ISBN9781135945589.
^Hayes, Peter (2015). How Was It Possible?: A Holocaust Reader. University of Nebraska Press. p. 220. ISBN9780803274914.
^Trohan, Walter (October 19, 1939). "Roosevelt Bars Ports to Warning Subs". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
^Morgan, Daniel; Taylor, Bruce (2011). U-Boat Attack Logs: A Complete Record of Warship Sinkings from Original Sources 1939–1945. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books. p. 12. ISBN9781848321182.
^ abCymet, David (2010). History vs. Apologetics: The Holocaust, the Third Reich, and the Catholic Church. Plymouth: Lexington Books. p. 178. ISBN9780739132951.
^"Two Bombers Collide in Air; Four Naval Flyers are Killed". Chicago Daily Tribune. October 20, 1939. p. 1.
^Wardzyńska, Maria (2009). Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion (in Polish). Warszawa: IPN. pp. 193–198, 191–192, 199, 205–206, 211.
^Grochowina, Sylwia (2017). Cultural policy of the Nazi occupying forces in the Reich district Gdańsk–West Prussia, the Reich district Wartheland, and the Reich district of Katowice in the years 1939–1945. Toruń. p. 87. ISBN978-83-88693-73-1.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Henckaerts, Jean-Marie (1995). Mass Expulsion in Modern International Law and Practice. The Hague: Kluwer Law International. p. 155. ISBN9789041100726.
^"Pope Flays Despots, Asks Just Peace". Brooklyn Eagle. October 27, 1939. p. 1.
^Van Husen, William H. and Sinclair, Donna. "Bohemia and Moravia, Annexation of (1939–1945)." Germany at War: 400 Years of Military History. Ed. David T. Zabecki. ABC-CLIO, 2014. p. 183. ISBN9781598849813.