Curated playlist
Conflicts in 1939
- Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)Hitler gave Czechoslovakia's president two choices: cooperate or face armed destruction.
- Saar OffensiveIn September 1939, 110 Allied divisions barely moved against 23 German ones in the Saar Offensive.
- Invasion of PolandThe famous Polish cavalry charge against German tanks never happened. German propaganda created the myth.
- 1939–1940 Winter OffensiveJapan never expected China's army to attack on many fronts at once. Its commanders thought that army was spent.
- Slovak invasion of PolandSlovakia invaded Poland in 1939 when it was less than six months old. It sent over 50,000 soldiers alongside Germany.
- Soviet invasion of PolandOn September 17, 1939, Polish schools and factories were still running when the Red Army crossed the border.
- Winter WarIn the Winter War, a small Finland with almost no tanks held off the Soviet Union for three and a half months.
- Battle of Changsha (1939)At Changsha in 1939, Japanese troops found themselves surrounded just as the city seemed about to fall.
- Italian invasion of AlbaniaA Tintin comic borrowed its plot from Italy's 1939 invasion of Albania. Hergé felt "Syldavia is Albania."
- Battles of Khalkhin GolA search for horse pasture in 1939 helped push Japan toward Pearl Harbor. It began at the Khalkhin Gol river.
- World War IIHistorians still disagree about the day World War II began. Most choose 1 September 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.
- Bombing of ChongqingChina's wartime capital, Chongqing, endured 268 air raids over nearly seven years.
- Phoney WarDuring the Phoney War, the RAF helped bury German airmen at Clacton-on-Sea. Wreaths of sympathy lay on the coffins.