World War II in Photographs
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1939
THE SINO-JAPANESE CONFLICT
In 1931 Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria, which
was proclaimed the puppet state of Manchukuo the following year,
and in 1937 the Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of China.
The fighting gave a grim foretaste of what was to come elsewhere,
with towns bombed and civilians becoming involved in an ugly war.
LEFT
Volunteer members of the Chunking fire brigade
fighting fires caused by Japanese bombing.
BELOW
Japanese soldiers march
through a Chinese town.
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1939
THE ADVENT OF WAR
The Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922
and became dictator three years later. In October 1936, Hitler and
Mussolini formed the Berlin-Rome axis, and next month Germany
and Japan concluded the Anti-Comintern pact. Hitler outlined his
programme to his service chiefs in November 1937, and set about
the territorial expansion that led to war. In March 1938, Austria
was annexed, and in September, the Munich Agreement enabled
Germany to annex the Sudeten district of Czechoslovakia.
Bohemia-Moravia was made into a German protectorate in
March 1939, Lithuania ceded Memel to Germany in the same
month, and on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland.
ABOVE
Mussolini attended the Wehrmacht's 1937
manoeuvres. The substantial figure of
Hermann Goring is half-hidden between
him and Hitler and Hans Frank, later
Governor-General of Poland, is on Mussolini's
immediate right. On Frank's right Colonel
General von Fritsch, chief of the general
staff (who was dismissed the following year
after a false accusation of impropriety)
is chatting to Lt General Wilhelm Keitel,
who was later to run the Armed Forces High
Command, Oberkommando der Wehrmacht.
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1939
LEFT
Signs of the times. On March 12, 1938,
a Viennese square named for the
Austrian Chancellor, Engelbert Dollfuss,
murdered during an attempted Nazi
coup in 1934, receives its new name.
BELOW
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
arriving at Heston airport after the Munich
conference in September 1938, he was later
to declare infamously "Peace in Our Time".
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LEFT
Nazi policies unleashed a flood of
Jewish refugees, although not all
were as fortunate as Renate Lewy, an
11 -year-old who found asylum in Britain.
BELOW
Czech President Emil Hacha, hopelessly
isolated by the Munich Agreement and
visibly close to the collapse which required
the attention of Hitler's doctor, Theodor
Morell, about to sign away his state.
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1939
ABOVE
German Mk II tanks in Wenceslas
Square, Prague, April 20, 1939.
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1939
ABOVE
German sailors march into Memel, March 23, 1939.
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1939
ABOVE
This informal photograph by Nicolaus von
Below, Hitler's Luftwaffe adjutant, shows
Hitler, Goring, Keitel and foreign minister,
Joachim von Ribbentrop lunching on
August 22, 1939 at the Berghof, Hitler's
retreat above Berchtesgaden in the
Bavarian Alps. They have been finalizing
the strategy for the invasion of Poland,
which was just over a week away.
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1939
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1939
THE INVASION OF POLAND
AND THE DECLARATION OF WAR
In August 1939, the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact was signed by the
foreign ministers of Germany and Russia. It was the last step in
the isolation of Poland, upon whom both Russia and Germany
had designs, and at dawn on September 1, the German invasion
began. Polish courage and outdated equipment were no match
for the Wehrmacht, using its blitzkrieg tactics for the first time. The
Russians attacked on September 17, and organized Polish resistance
ended on October 5. The German invasion of Poland was the last
straw for Britain and France, who declared war on September 3.
OPPOSITE PAGE
The faces say it all. French Premier
Edouard Daladier (second from right)
and his cabinet return from the Elysee
Palace on September 2, 1939 having agreed
to order general mobilization. Jean Zay,
education minister, manages a brave smile.
The French had built fortifications
along their border with Germany to
protect themselves from invasion.
Known as the Maginot Line, they were
to prove ineffective, largely because they
persuaded the Germans to attack elsewhere.
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BELOW
1939
ABOVE
Newspaper placards announce the German
invasion of Poland, September 1, 1939.
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