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Day 17
Sunday 17 September 1939

Moscow says the Polish state has ceased to exist

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The Second World War, in real time, 87 years on.

The day in dispatches

Filed through the day, as it happened
Newest first
23:55GMT
23:55GMT
23:00GMT
23:00GMT
EditorialThe Stockholm Observer

Moscow says Poland's government has vanished, and Poland's ministers say otherwise

Two descriptions of Poland were published today, and only one of them can be accurate.

22:15GMT
22:15GMT
AnalysisLSThe London Sentinel

London, Paris and Washington have yet to respond to the Soviet move

The British, French and American governments have yet to make any formal statement about the Soviet entry into Poland, and the day is nearly over.

21:00GMT
21:00GMT
AnalysisSOThe Stockholm Observer

Lithuania's prime minister says the country's neutrality will be strictly observed

Lithuania's neutrality will be strictly observed, the prime minister, Jonas Černius, said in a broadcast to the country this evening.

20:00GMT
20:00GMT
AnalysisSCThe Southern Cross

Britain accepts the invitation to October's refugee committee in Washington

Britain has accepted the White House invitation to the October meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, the State Department announced today. Lord Winterton is to head the British delegation.

19:00GMT
19:00GMT
AnalysisALThe Atlantic Ledger

American ship reports an aircraft attacking a submarine after the Kafiristan was torpedoed

The American ship American Farmer radioed a report today of an aircraft attacking a submarine in the North Atlantic, after the British steamer Kafiristan was torpedoed.

18:15GMT
18:15GMT
AnalysisFECThe Far Eastern Courier

Chungking papers treat the frontier armistice as a ceasefire and nothing more

Chungking's newspapers carried the armistice on the Mongolian frontier this morning, and they interpret it narrowly.

17:30GMT
17:30GMT
AnalysisPDThe Paris Dispatch

France orders German-born men aged 50 to 65 to report at once

German-born men between the ages of 50 and 65 have been ordered to present themselves to the French authorities immediately, carrying two days' food and hand baggage.

16:45GMT
16:45GMT
WireAPSAllied Press Service

Reuters reports German families in Aachen ordered out of the city

German families in Aachen have been ordered to leave the city for the interior, according to a Reuters dispatch today.

16:00GMT
16:00GMT
AnalysisNYRThe New York Register

Polish ministers say from Kuty that their government is still functioning

The government of the Polish Republic is operating on Polish territory, the foreign minister, Józef Beck, said today in a communication from Kuty, a town near the Romanian frontier. He instructed Polish representatives abroad to press the Allies for a decisive protest.

15:00GMT
15:00GMT
AnalysisPDThe Paris Dispatch

French communiqué reports German reinforcements and counter-attacks repulsed

German reinforcement of the western front is continuing, artillery activity has been heavy, and German counter-attacks have been repulsed, the French High Command's communiqué says today.

14:00GMT
14:00GMT
WireAPSAllied Press Service

Warsaw holds out a day after the German surrender demand

Warsaw is still holding out, a day after a German officer brought a surrender demand to the Polish lines. The city has left the demand unaccepted.

13:15GMT
13:15GMT
AnalysisSOThe Stockholm Observer

A German spokesman says the Soviet advance has Berlin's full approval

The Soviet action in Poland has Germany's full approval, a spokesman for the German Propaganda Ministry told correspondents in Berlin early this morning.

12:30GMT
12:30GMT
WireAPSAllied Press Service

Berlin says its troops have taken the citadel at Brześć Litewski

German troops have taken the citadel at Brześć Litewski, the German High Command says. The announcement says the Polish defence there was broken.

11:45GMT
11:45GMT
EyewitnessAPSAllied Press Service

RAF flight leader describes bombing a German warship at Wilhelmshaven

An RAF flight leader has described going in low to bomb a German warship at Wilhelmshaven on 4 September, in an account printed this morning in the Sunday Pictorial.

10:45GMT
10:45GMT
WireAPSAllied Press Service

Molotov says Soviet troops entered Poland to protect undefended populations

Soviet troops have entered Poland to protect Ukrainians and White Russians who have been left undefended, the foreign commissar, Vyacheslav Molotov, said in a broadcast to all stations in the Soviet Union. He spoke at half past eleven this morning Moscow time, which is half past eight GMT.

08:00GMT
08:00GMT
WireAPSAllied Press Service

Moscow tells foreign missions its neutrality towards their countries is unchanged

The Soviet government has told the foreign missions in Moscow that its policy of neutrality towards their countries is unaffected by its action in Poland.

05:45GMT
05:45GMT
AnalysisIRThe Imperial Review

Moscow's case for entering Poland rests on its own claim of Polish collapse

The Soviet note read to the Polish ambassador at three o'clock this morning justifies the Red Army's entry into Poland with a single claim, which is that the Polish state has collapsed.

03:45GMT
03:45GMT
WireAPSAllied Press Service

Soviet troops cross the Polish frontier, with accounts of the hour in conflict

Soviet forces crossed Poland's eastern frontier during the early hours of this morning. Moscow radio says the advance runs from the northern end of the frontier to the south.

02:15GMT
02:15GMT
BreakingWireAPSAllied Press Service

Moscow tells Poland's ambassador the Polish state has ceased to exist

The Soviet government has told Poland's ambassador in Moscow that the Polish state and its government have in effect ceased to exist, and that the Red Army has been ordered across the frontier.

Where things stood at the start of the day

Poland
Berlin claimed its troops were close around Praga and put figures on prisoners and guns taken south-east of the city. Warsaw radio said the defence was holding. Neither account could be tested.
Western Front
Paris said German troops were destroying villages as they fell back towards their fortified line. No width has ever been given for the French advance.
Baltic
Estonia continued disarming the Polish submarine Orzeł at Tallinn.
Far East
Fighting on the Mongolian frontier stopped at two o'clock on the 16th. Extracts from the terms were published in Moscow, and a boundary commission was left to be named.
Atlantic
Contraband control continued to take cargoes off neutral ships, with the cost falling on the shipper.
Washington
Colonel Lindbergh broadcast against American entry. Congress meets in special session on 21 September to consider the arms embargo.
India
The Congress Working Committee's terms for supporting the war stood unanswered by the Viceroy.