November 1939

November

• 01

  • The USSR annexes eastern PolandOn 1–2 November 1939 the Supreme Soviet annexed eastern Poland to the Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSRs, citing rigged “elections” of 22 October.
• 04

  • The United States adopts cash and carryOn 4 November 1939 Roosevelt signed a new Neutrality Act. It lifted the arms embargo: belligerents could buy arms for cash and carry them in their own ships.
  • The end of the City of Flint affairOn 3 November 1939 the Germans brought the captured City of Flint into Haugesund. That night Norway returned her to the Americans and interned the prize crew.
• 05

  • The Oslo ReportOn 5 November 1939 the British legation in Oslo received an anonymous report on secret German weapons. Its author was Hans Mayer, a Siemens physicist.
• 06

  • Sonderaktion KrakauOn 6 November 1939 the Germans lured Kraków professors to a bogus lecture in the Collegium Novum, arrested 183 people and deported them to Sachsenhausen.
• 08

  • Elser’s assassination attemptOn 8 November 1939 a bomb built by the carpenter Georg Elser exploded in Munich’s Bürgerbräukeller. Hitler had left 13 minutes earlier. Eight people died.
• 09

  • The Dyle PlanOn 9 November 1939 at Vincennes Gamelin won approval for the Dyle Plan. If Belgium were attacked, the Allies would advance as far as the Antwerp–Namur line.
  • The Venlo incidentOn 9 November 1939 SD men abducted two British intelligence officers at Venlo in the Netherlands, after luring them into talks with supposed conspirators.
• 13

  • Finnish–Soviet talks break downOn 13 November 1939 Paasikivi and Tanner left Moscow without an agreement. Finland had refused a base at Hanko and the border line drawn by Stalin.
  • Establishment of the Union of Armed StruggleOn 13 November 1939 in Paris Gen. Sikorski created the Union of Armed Struggle under Gen. Sosnkowski. It replaced the Service for Poland's Victory.
• 15

  • The funeral of Jan OpletalOn 15 November 1939 the farewell to Jan Opletal, a student mortally wounded on 28 October, became a demonstration in Prague. The Germans used it as a pretext.
• 16

  • Germany extends unrestricted submarine warfareBy mid-November 1939 U-boats had for a month been free to sink enemy ships without warning. Hitler agreed to a further step, but with no official declaration.
• 17

  • IRA bombings in LondonIn November 1939 bombs blamed on the IRA went off in London again. Its bombing campaign had begun in January and, once war broke out, became a security matter.
  • Sonderaktion PragOn 17 November 1939 the Germans closed the Czech universities, shot nine student leaders without trial and deported some 1,200 students to Sachsenhausen.
• 21

  • A magnetic mine damages HMS BelfastOn 21 November 1939 the new cruiser HMS Belfast struck a magnetic mine laid by U-21 in the Firth of Forth. She was out of service for three years.
• 22

  • The Shoeburyness mineOn the night of 22–23 November 1939 a German magnetic mine fell on the mudflats off Shoeburyness. Once disarmed, it gave away the secret of its firing unit.
  • Hodža’s Slovak National CouncilOn 22 November 1939 Milan Hodža founded the Slovak National Council in Paris, a rival to Beneš’s Committee, which France had just recognised.
  • The Polish government moves to AngersIn November 1939 Sikorski’s government moved from Paris to Angers on the Loire, where it got an extraterritorial seat. It reached London only in June 1940.
• 23

  • The sinking of HMS RawalpindiOn 23 November 1939 the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sank the armed merchant cruiser Rawalpindi between Iceland and the Faroes. About 265 men died.
  • Star of David armbandsOn 23 November 1939 Hans Frank ordered Jews in the General Government aged 10 and over to wear a white armband with a blue Star of David from 1 December.
• 24

  • The Japanese take NanningOn 24 November 1939 the Japanese 5th Division took Nanning in Guangxi. Japan wanted to cut China off from supplies via French Indochina, its main supply route.
• 26

  • The shelling of MainilaOn 26 November 1939 Moscow blamed Finland for shelling Soviet troops at Mainila, though the shots came from the Soviet side. It cut relations on 29 November.
  • Germany hands Polish land to SlovakiaIn November 1939 Germany gave Slovakia Poland's part of Spiš and Orava and the land Poland took in 1938, about 770 km², as a reward for joining the war.
• 30

  • Key eventThe Soviet Union invades FinlandOn 30 November 1939 the Red Army attacked Finland without a declaration of war, and Soviet aircraft bombed Helsinki. The Winter War had begun.