1. Day 15Friday 15 September 1939Four governments spend the day insisting they are outside this war while Congress at Wardha declines to be inside or outside it on anybody else's terms, and Berlin's claim that the ring around Warsaw is closed reaches the agencies in the evening.What the neutrals are asked to swallow→
2. Day 14Thursday 14 September 1939Berlin announces its troops are in Gdynia and the garrison is surrendering, with nothing from the Polish side; the Commons limits British bombing to military objectives so long as Germany does the same, gives the Minister of Labour a veto on the hiring of key workers by 223 to one, and spends the evening on what has gone wrong with evacuation; the Government sets out tribunals for 50,000 enemy aliens; and Washington waits for Borah to open the embargo fight on the radio a week before Congress meetsThe machinery of a war→
3. Day 13Wednesday 13 September 1939Chamberlain tells the Commons the troops are in France and will say nothing more about them, the House then spends the afternoon on the night police went through Fleet Street to take the same news back, and a French warship is destroyed at Casablanca with no figure given for the missingThe first battle over information→
4. Day 12Tuesday 12 September 1939Britain confirms an army in France and will say nothing else about it, two governments give incompatible accounts of Warsaw, and Canada is the only government all day that has to be exactAnnounced, without the particulars→
5. Day 11Monday 11 September 1939→
6. Day 10Sunday 10 September 1939→
7. Day 9Saturday 9 September 1939A Swedish legation tells Stockholm that Warsaw is not occupied, against Berlin's claim of entry, while Britain orders its departments to plan for a war of at least three years and Göring tells armaments workers that 1918 will never be repeatedClaims about ground give way to claims about endurance→
8. Day 8Friday 8 September 1939Berlin says its armoured troops have entered Warsaw and the Polish Embassy in London calls it completely false, while Roosevelt proclaims a limited national emergency and Canada's Commons debates without declaring warA claim and its denial→
9. Day 7Thursday 7 September 1939Berlin announces Westerplatte's surrender while Polish radio broadcasts that the position is defending itself, and Canada's parliament opens a war session without declaring warTwo accounts of the same 120 men→
10. Day 6Wednesday 6 September 1939Berlin announces Kraków, Britain revises the Athenia's count upward in gravity while narrowing it in number, and the only government to admit an error admits it about an air-raid sirenThe day the governments got certain→
11. Day 5Tuesday 5 September 1939Athenia survivors come ashore at Greenock while London and Berlin give incompatible accounts of the same air attackThe day the officials outranked the eyewitnesses→
12. Day 4Monday 4 September 1939RAF strikes at the German fleet in the war's first British raids; Poland's border defences give groundBritain opens the air war→
13. Day 3Sunday 3 September 1939Britain and France declare war on Germany; Poland fights onThe world goes to war→
14. Day 2Saturday 2 September 1939Poland fights alone as London and Paris struggle to fix a deadlineThe guarantee tested→
15. Day 1Friday 1 September 1939Germany invades Poland at dawn; Danzig proclaimed part of the ReichThe war begins→