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(As of September 17, there was no more Poland)

(Apologies for the delay in posts) September 17, 1939 signified the end of Poland as it was a month earlier. The reports from Warsaw were not encouraging and there was plenty of blame to go around.

But at this particular moment, things were not looking up for any satisfactory conclusion to the conflict.

John Gunther (Reporting from London): “This has been a hard day today, a bad day. We’ve seen something very terrible to watch. The death of a free country. The death of a nation. Poland was killed today. In effect, assassinated. For the fourth time in its unhappy history, Poland has been partitioned. . . . .for all intents and purposes the Poland we have known these past 20 years has ceased to be.”

And it would just get worse.

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(September 2nd - The Poles weren't going to take it lying down)

The invasion of Poland was already a day old. Despite continued efforts to bring the conflict to a close, it was already too late. Great Britain handed Germany the infamous "white paper" and time was about to run out for an answer.

The radio was going into overtime reporting the conflict. BBC ran regular news, while Radio Berlin continued to deny they were acting in anything other than defense.

The series of recordings in this entry begin with the BBC and then followed by French Radio and Radio Warsaw. The French and Polish broadcasts are dim and hard to hear, but have been included because of their historic interest. The last segment is Radio Berlin.

Radio Warsaw Newsreader: “The general atmosphere is that of calm resolve to go through this experience (-----) no matter how long it will take. The general opinion of those everywhere is that odds are against Germany in this war.”

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(German Troops heading to the Polish frontier - waiting to see who blinks first)

As the precautions continue via radio broadcasts from Warsaw, Berlin and Rome, the crisis is at a point where the start of shooting is a matter of hours or minutes, no longer days, away.

Radio Warsaw newsreader: “The following official communiqué has been issued today – several months ago Germany started an aggressive policy against Poland. The anti-Polish press campaign with threatening features against the leading statesmen in Germany, the systematic provocations of frontier incidents, and finally the growing concentration of armed forces mobilized at the Polish frontier. All that constitutes an obvious truth of Germany aggressive policies”.

The propaganda war had no intention of letting up though.

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(In Warsaw an eerie and perplexing calm)

As diplomatic attempts kept going up to the eleventh hour, preparations were being made for the eventuality of war.

The news was filled with precaution and speculation. The broadcasts on this entry start with BBC World Service news, followed by a report from commentator Arthur Mann for Mutual and then Sigrid Schultz reporting from Berlin and finally a newscast from the North American service of Radio Berlin.

As it happened on August 28, 1939.