This is a timeline of events of World War II in 1939 from the start of the war on 1 September 1939. For events preceding September 1, 1939, see the
timeline of events preceding World War II.
Germany's
invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 brought many countries into the war. This event, and the declaration of war by France and Britain two days later, mark the beginning of World War II. After the declaration of war, Western Europe saw minimal land and air warfare, leading to this time period being termed the "
Phoney War". At sea, this time period saw the opening stages of the
Battle of the Atlantic.
The
Republic of China and the
Empire of Japan are involved in the early stages of the third year of armed conflict between them during the
Second Sino-Japanese War. The war is in what will be known as the "Second Period", which starts after the
fall of Wuhan in October 1938 and ends in December 1941 with
Pearl Harbor. This conflict will eventually be swept up into
World War II when Japan joins the
Axis and China joins the
Allies.[1]
In a mass evacuation effort (code named "operation Pied Piper") the British authorities relocate 1,473,000 children and adults from the cities to the countryside. The adults involved were teachers, people with disabilities and their helpers, mothers with preschool children.[15]
Acting on account of their governments, the ambassadors of
France and
Britain demand the German government to cease all hostile activities and to withdraw its troops from Poland.[6]
At 9:00 a.m. the British ambassador to Berlin
Nevile Henderson is instructed by the
Cabinet to deliver an ultimatum to Germany which expired without answer at 11:00 a.m.[26]
The
Australian Prime Minister
Robert Menzies declares that the country is at war with Germany due to Britain's choice, and a similar war declaration against Germany is made by
New Zealand's government.[33]
German authorities order U-boats to immediately take action against all British ships, but sparing French ships and in strict observance of
prize rules.[39]
In Britain's first military action, the
Royal Air Force's
Bomber Command sends out 27 planes to bomb the Kriegsmarine, but they turn back before having been able to find any targets.[41] Overnight ten
Whitleys made the first of many 'nickel raids' in
Bremen,
Hamburg and the
Ruhr in which the planes dropped propaganda leaflets.[42]
Further answering to Roosevelt's plea the British and French present a joint formal declaration stating that the Allied bombers would attack only military targets unless Germany begins indiscriminate civilian bombings.[16]
In the first British raid of the war, the
Royal Air Force's send 15
Blenheim bombers to launch a bombing raid on the German fleet in the
Heligoland Bight. They target the German pocket-battleship
Admiral Scheer and the
light cruiserEmden anchored off
Wilhelmshaven. Seven aircraft are lost in the attack and, although the Admiral Scheer is hit three times, all of the bombs fail to explode.[43][44]
Japan's
Prime MinisterNobuyuki Abe sends a formal note to all belligerents and neutrals announcing it would remain neutral and "avoid becoming involved" in the European conflict; instead it will concentrate on "settling the China incident".[45]
Duncan calls on the politician
Jan Smuts to attempt to form a Cabinet and replace Hertzog as Prime Minister of South Africa, which he successfully does.[33]
The British freighter
SS Bosnia becomes the first merchant ship sunk in the battle of the Atlantic when it gets targeted off the coast of Portugal by the U-boat
U-47.[54]
The United States publicly declares neutrality.[55]
Following the administration’s declaration of neutrality,
American PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt orders to put together a
Neutrality Patrol which must observe and report any belligerent forces by patrolling the United States Atlantic coast and the Caribbean.[56]
British Destroyers escorting the
aircraft carrierHMS Ark Royal sink the U-39 after the U-boat's attack against the
carrier failed. It was the first sinking of a German U-boat in WW II.[82]
The
Romanian cabinet under intense German pressure decides that the Polish military and civilian leaderships would be interned if they were to evacuate in Romania.[78]
Romanian authorities drastically limit the passage through the country of war materials to be sent to Poland.[78]
The
British aircraft carrierHMS Courageous is torpedoed and sunk by U-29 on patrol off the coast of Ireland, causing the death of 514 aboard; it represented the first major warship to be sunk in the war.[82]
The Soviet
news agencyTASS accuses the
Estonian government of having deliberately permitted the Orzeł of escaping internment and also alleges the existence of other Polish submarines hidden in other
Baltic states. [84]
The French Army completes its sixteen-day long mobilization.[25]
19 September
The German and Soviet armies link up near
Brest Litovsk.
The
Führer der UnterseebooteKarl Dönitz greatly relaxes prize rules ordering the sinking without warning of merchant ships that send signals by radio and the attack on smaller Allied passenger ships. He also opens the war on French shipping.[95][96]
In Moscow Molotov asks from the Estonian delegation a mutual assistance pact which would give the Soviets naval and air bases. If the Soviet Union doesn't get military bases in Estonia, it will be compelled “to use force against Estonia”.[93]
The Japanese army successfully crosses the
Dongting Lake, thus cutting by more than half the distance from the army’s target, the
Chinese city of
Changsha.[100]
27 September: In the first military operations by the German Army in Western Europe, guns on the
Siegfried Line open up on villages behind French
Maginot line.[101]
28 September
German–Soviet Frontier Treaty is signed by Molotov and Ribbentrop. The secret protocol specifies the details of partition of Poland originally defined in
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (August 23, 1939) and adds Lithuania to the Soviet Union sphere of interest.
The remaining Polish army and militia in the centre of
Warsaw capitulate to the Germans.
Soviet troops mass by the Latvian border. Latvian air space violated.
Estonia signs a
10-year Mutual Assistance Pact with the Soviet Union, which allows the Soviets to have 30 000-men military bases in Estonia. As a gift in return Stalin promises to respect Estonian independence.
Latvian representatives negotiate with
Stalin and
Molotov. Soviets threaten an occupation by force if they do not get military bases in Latvia.
2 October
The
Declaration of Panama is approved by the American republics. Belligerent activities should not take place within waters adjacent to the American continent. A neutrality zone of some 300 miles (480 km) in breadth is to be patrolled by the
U.S. Navy.[56]
British forces move to take over part of the frontier defenses manned by French troops.[104]
Lithuanians meet
Stalin and
Molotov in
Moscow. Stalin offers
Lithuania the city of
Vilnius (in Poland) in return for allowing Soviet military bases in Lithuania. The Lithuanians are reluctant.
Latvia signs a
10-year Mutual Assistance Pact with the Soviet Union, which allows the Soviets to have 25,000 men in military bases in Latvia. Stalin promises to respect Latvian independence.
Reacting to the news that
German surface raiders are targeting commercial shipping, the British
First Sea Lord Sir
Dudley Pound orders the creation of eight hunting forces together with the French to scout the Atlantic and destroy the surface raiders.[105]
The last of Poland's military surrenders to the Germans.
The leaders of the German navy suggest to
Hitler they need to occupy
Norway.
British Prime Minister
Chamberlain formally declines Hitler's peace offer in a speech held in the
House of Commons.
Lithuania signs a
15-year Mutual Assistance Pact with the Soviet Union, which allows the Soviets to have 20,000 men in military bases in Lithuania. In a secret protocol, Vilnius is made Lithuanian territory.
11 October
An estimated 158,000 British troops are now in France.
French Premier
Édouard Daladier declines Hitler's offer of peace.
Finland's representatives meet Stalin and Molotov in Moscow. Soviet Union demands Finland give up a military base near
Helsinki and exchange some Soviet and Finnish territories to protect
Leningrad against Great Britain or the eventual future threat of Germany.
Finns meet Stalin again. Stalin tells them that "an accident" might happen between Finnish and Soviet troops, if the negotiations last too long.[citation needed]
The submarine
ORP Orzeł completes its voyage reaching the east coast of
Scotland.[80]
16 October: The Luftwaffe made its first air raid on Britain when it sent a dozen
Junkers Ju 88 after ships off
Rosyth, in particular the
battlecruiserHMS Hood. The raid was unsuccessful, failing to land any hits while the group commander
Helmuth Pohle was shot down.[97][109]
17 October
The Luftwaffe launches a new raid on Britain, this time targeting the British fleet anchored at
Scapa Flow, again with limited success, with only the
decommissionedHMS Iron Duke being hit.[97][110]
First Soviet forces enter Estonia. During the Umsiedlung, 12,600
Baltic Germans leave Estonia.
Adolf Eichmann starts deporting Jews from Austria and Czechoslovakia into Poland, executing the
Nisko Plan.
19 October: Portions of Poland are formally inducted into Germany; the first Jewish
ghetto is
established at Lublin.
20 October
The "
Phoney War": French troops settle in the Maginot line's dormitories and tunnels; the British build new fortifications along the "gap" between the Maginot line and the Channel.
Registration begins in the United Kingdom in order to conscript all able-bodied males between 18 and 23.[29]
The German prize crew anchors the SS City of Flint in
Tromsø,
Norway, but are immediately ordered to limit their stay to less than twenty-four hours.[113]
23 October: The seized freighter City of Flint reaches
Murmansk in the
Soviet Union. Here the prize crew is forced to leave the ship, but the latter is not given permission to leave.[114]
The City of Flint is permitted to leave under the control of its prize crew despite the angry protests of the
Roosevelt administration.[118]
28 October
Hitler, worried on one side by the protests received by the American and
Norwegian governments, and on the other by the danger of losing a warship with such a prestigious name, orders the Deutschland to return home.[119]
30 October: The British government releases a report on concentration camps being built in Europe for Jews and anti-Nazis.[121]
31 October: As Germany plans for an attack on France, German Lieutenant-General
Erich von Manstein proposes that Germany should attack through the
Ardennes rather than through Belgium – the expected attack route.
1–2 November: The German physicist
Hans Ferdinand Mayer compiles, while on a trip to
Oslo, the so-called
Oslo Report, containing important German secret military information.[122]
3 November
Finland and
Soviet Union again negotiate new borders. Finns mistrust Stalin's aims and refuse to give up territory breaking their defensive line.
The seized City of Flint anchors at
Haugesund,
Norway, claiming medical reasons.[123]
4 November
Roosevelt signs into law the amendments to the
Neutrality Act: belligerents may buy arms from the United States, but on a strictly
cash and carry basis, banning the use of American ships.[124]
Hans Mayer sends an anonymous letter to the British
Naval attaché in Oslo, Captain Hector Boyer, asking if the British wants information from Germany on present and future German weapons. If the answer is positive he requires that confirmation be given by a small change of the German version of the BBC World Service, which is done.[125][126]
The anchorage in Haugesund is judged a violation of international law by Norwegian authorities that during the night
board the ship freeing the ship and interning the Germans.[123]
5 November: Hans Mayer sends anonymously his report to the
British Embassy in Norway; from there it was sent for evaluation to
Whitehall, where it attracted the attention of
Reginald Victor Jones, Assistant Director of Intelligence to the Air Ministry, despite the skepticism of many who suspected it being a German plant.[125]
6 November: Sonderaktion Krakau: In Krakow, Nazis detain and deport university professors to concentration camps.
8 November: Hitler escapes a bomb blast in a Munich beerhall, where he was speaking on the anniversary of the
Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. British bombers coincidentally bomb Munich.
9 November
At an Anglo-French meeting held in
Varennes general Gamelin obtains the approval of the
Dyle plan, a strategy meant to keep the war out of France if Hitler
invaded Belgium.[128]
12 November: The
Czech student
Jan Opletal dies as a result of wounds inflicted by German authorities, causing vast anger and resentment among Czechs.[127]
13 November
Negotiations between Finland and Soviet Union break down. Finns suspect that Germans and Russians have agreed to include Finland in the Soviet sphere of influence.[130]
The first British destroyer lost in the war is
HMS Blanche, sunk by a minefield laid by an U-boat close to the
Thames Estuary.[131]
The Deutschland arrives home at
Gotenhafen, after having only sunk two ships and caught one.[132][130]
The Luftwaffe drops in the mud an intact magnetic mine off
Shoeburyness at the mouth of the
Thames Estuary. Once salvaged, Admiralty scientists invented
degaussing that greatly decreased the danger represented by magnetic mines.[138]
Polish Jews are ordered to wear
Star of David armbands.
24 November: Japan announces the capture of
Nanning in southern China.
26 November
The Soviets stage the
shelling of Mainila, Soviet artillery shells a field near the Finnish border, accusing Finns of killing Soviet troops.
Germany and Slovakia sign a border treaty which assigns to the latter the Polish parts of
Orava and
Spiš together with the territories
taken by Poland in 1938.[141]
29 November: The USSR breaks off diplomatic relations with Finland.
1 December: Russia continues its war against Finland;
Helsinki is bombed. In the first two weeks of the month, the Finns retreat to the
Mannerheim line, an outmoded defensive line just inside the southern border with Russia.
5 December: The Russian invaders begin heavy attacks on the Mannerheim line. The Battles of
Kollaa and
Suomussalmi begin.
7 December: Italy, Norway and Denmark again declare their neutrality in the Russo-Finnish war. Sweden proclaims "non-belligerency", by which it could extend military support to Finland, without formally taking part in the war.[145]
11 December: The Russians meet with several tactical defeats by the Finnish army.
17 December: The Admiral Graf Spee is forced by
Uruguay to leave Montevideo harbor; given freedom of choice by Berlin, the ship's Kapitän zur See,
Hans Langsdorff, orders the scuttlling of the vessel just outside the harbour. The ship's captain and its crew are interned by
Argentinian authorities.[151][152]
27 December: The first Indian troops arrive in France.
28 December
The British
Minister of FoodW.S. Morrison announced that starting January 8, rationing would be expanded to include butter, bacon, ham and sugar.[154]
While patrolling the
Butt of Lewis the British battleship
HMS Barham is damaged by the German
U-30 and put out of service for four months.[155][156]
31 December: German Propaganda Minister
Joseph Goebbels makes a radio address reviewing the official Nazi version of the events of 1939. No predictions were made for 1940 other than saying that the next year "will be a hard year, and we must be ready for it."[157]
^"1939: Key Dates". Holocaust Encyclopedia. Washington, DC: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Archived from the original on 2020-09-30. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
Aboul-Enein, Youssef; Aboul-Enein, Basil (2013). The Secret War for the Middle East: The Influence of Axis and Allied Intelligence Operations During World War II. Annapolis, MY: Naval Institute Press.
ISBN978-1-61251-309-6.
Adamthwaite, Anthony P. (2011) [1st pub. 1977]. The Making of the Second World War. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
ISBN978-0-415-90716-3.
Alexander, Martin S. (2002) [1st pub. 1992]. The Republic in Danger: General Maurice Gamelin and the Politics of French defence, 1933-1940. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN0-521-52429-6.
Baldoli, Claudia; Knapp, Andrew (2012). Forgotten Blitzes: France and Italy Under Allied Air Attack, 1940–1945. London: Continuum.
ISBN978-1-4411-8581-5.
Beevor, Antony (2012). The Second World War. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
ISBN978-0-316-08407-9.
Blair, Clay (2000) [1st pub. 1996]. Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters, 1939–1942. New York: Modern Library.
ISBN0-679-64032-0.
Bollinger, Martin (2011). Warriors and Wizards: The Development and Defeat of Radio-Controlled Glide Bombs of the Third Reich. Annapolis, MY: Naval Institute Press.
ISBN9781612510026.
Brecher, Michael; Wilkenfeld, Jonathan (1997). A Study of Crisis. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
ISBN0-472-10806-9.
Brewing, Daniel (2022). In the Shadow of Auschwitz German Massacres against Polish Civilians, 1939–1945. Berghahn Book.
ISBN9781800730892.
Broad, Roger (2006). Conscription in Britain, 1939-1964: The Militarisation of a Generation. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
ISBN0-714-65701-8.
Carroll, Francis M. (2012). Athenia Torpedoed: The U-Boat Attack that Ignited the Battle of the Atlantic. Annapolis, MY: Naval Institute Press.
ISBN978-1-59114-148-8.
Crowhurst, Patrick (2020) [2013]. Hitler and Czechoslovakia in World War II: Domination and Retaliation. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
ISBN978-0-8577-2304-8.
Crowe, David M. (1993). The Baltic States And The Great Powers: Foreign Relations, 1938-1940.
Boulder, CO & Oxford, UK: Westview Press.
ISBN0-8133-0481-4.
Crowson, N. J. (1997). Facing Fascism: The Conservative Party and the European Dictators, 1935 -1940. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
ISBN0-415-15315-8.
Cull, Nicholas John (1996). Selling War: The British Propaganda Campaign Against American "Neutrality" in World War II. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ISBN0-19-511150-8.
Daniels, Roger (2016). Franklin D. Roosevelt: The War Years, 1939-1945. Urbana, IL - Chicago, IL - Springfield, IL: University of Illinois Press.
ISBN978-0-252-03952-2.
De Felice, Renzo (1996) [1st pub. 1981]. Mussolini il duce: Lo Stato totalitario, 1936-1940 (in Italian). Torino: Einaudi.
ISBN88-06-13997-5.
Delaney, Douglas E. (2018) [1st pub. 2017]. The Imperial Army Project: Britain and the Land Forces of the Dominions and India, 1902-1945. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ISBN978-0-19-870446-1.
Delve, Ken (2005). Bomber Command 1936-1968: An Operational & Historical Record. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books.
ISBN1-84415-183-2.
Dimbleby, Jonathan (2015). The Battle of the Atlantic: How the Allies Won the War. London: Penguin Books.
ISBN978-0-241-97211-3.
Dreyer, Edward L. (2013) [1st pub. 1995]. China at war, 1901-1949. Abingdon, UK & New York, NY: Routledge.
ISBN978-0-582-05125-6.
Duroselle, Jean-Baptiste (2004) [1st pub. 1985]. France and the Nazi Threat: The Collapse of French Diplomacy 1932-1939 [La Décadence 1932-1939]. New York, NY: Enigma Books.
ISBN978-1-929631-15-5.
Elleman, Bruce A.; Paine, S.C.M., eds. (2006). Naval Blockades and Seapower: Strategies and counter-strategies,1805-2005. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
ISBN0-415-35466-8.
Evans, A. S. (2010). Destroyer Down: An Account of HM Destroyer Losses, 1939–1945. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books.
ISBN978-1-84884-270-0.
Gilbert, Martin (2011) [1st pub. 1983]. Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour, 1939-1941. Hillsdale, MI: Hillsdale College Press.
ISBN978-0916308292.
Gildea, Robert; Warring, Anette; Wieviorka, Olivier, eds. (2006). Surviving Hitler and Mussolini: Daily Life in Occupied Europe. Oxford, UK: Berg.
ISBN978-1-84520-181-4.
Haarr, Geirr H. (2013). The Gathering Storm: The Naval War in Northern Europe, September 1939 - April 1940. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books.
ISBN978-1-84832-140-3.
Hauner, Milan (2008) [1st pub. 1983]. Hitler: A Chronology of His Life and Time (2nd ed.). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN978-0-230-58449-5.
Haynes, Rebecca (2000). Romanian Policy towards Germany, 1936–40. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN978-1-4039-1949-6.
High, Steven, ed. (2010). Occupied St John's: a social history of a city at war, 1939–1945. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
ISBN978-0-7735-3750-7.
Hill, Christopher (1991). Cabinet decisions on foreign policy: The British experience, October 1938 -June 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN0-521-39195-4.
Holland, James (2016) [1st pub. 2015]. The War in the West - A New History: Volume 1: Germany Ascendant 1939-1941. London: Corgi Books.
ISBN9780552169202.
Hough, Richard; Richards, Denis (1990) [1st pub. 1989]. The Battle of Britain: The Greatest Air Battle of World War II (W. W. Norton, NY ed.). Hodder & Staughton.
ISBN978-0-393-30734-4.
Humphreys, R. A. (2016) [1st pub. 1981]. Latin America and the Second World War: Volume 1, 1939-1942. London, UK & New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic.
ISBN978-1-4742-8821-7.
Jackson, Julian (2004) [1st pub. 2003]. The Fall of France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ISBN0-19-280550-9.
Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher; Keay, John; Keay, Julia (2010) [1st pub. 1983]. The London Encyclopaedia. London: Macmillan.
ISBN978-1-4050-4925-2.
Kirschbaum, Stanislav J. (2007) [1st pub. 1999]. Historical Dictionary of Slovakia (2nd ed.). Lanham, MY: Scarecrow Press.
ISBN978-0-8108-5535-9.
Kochanski, Halik (2012). The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
ISBN978-0-674-06814-8.
Liddell Hart, B. H. (1970). The History of the Second World War. London: Pan Books.
ISBN0-304-93564-6.
Lightbody, Bradley (2004). The Second World War: Ambitions to Nemesis. London: Routledge.
ISBN0-203-64458-1.
Macri, Franco David (2012). Clash of Empires in South China: The Allied Nations' Proxy War with Japan, 1935-1941. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
ISBN9780700618774.
Maier, Klaus A.; Rohde, Horst; Stegemann, Bernd; Umbreit, Umbreit (1991). Germany's Initial Conquests in Europe [Die Errichtung der Hegemonie auf dem europäischen Kontinent]. Germany and the Second World War. Vol. 2. Translated by McMurry, Dean; Osers, Ewald. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
ISBN0-19-822885-6.
Manchester, William (1988). The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932–1940. Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co.
ISBN0-316-54512-0.
Mauch, Peter (2011). Sailor Diplomat: Nomura Kichisaburō and the Japanese-American War. Cambridge, MA & London: Harvard University Press.
ISBN978-1-68417-506-2.
Mawdsley, Evan (2019). The War for the Seas: A Maritime History of World War II. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
ISBN978-0-300-19019-9.
Menon, V. P. (2015) [1st pub. 1957]. Transfer of Power in India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
ISBN978-1-4008-7937-3.
Miller, Nathan (1996). War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
ISBN0-19-511038-2.
Mitter, Rana (2013). Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937–1945. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
ISBN978-0-618-89425-3.
Moorhouse, Roger (2019). First to Fight: The Polish War 1939. London: Vintage.
ISBN9781473548220.
Morewood, Steven (2005). The British Defence of Egypt 1935–1940: Conflict Crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean. Abingdon, UK: Frank Cass.
ISBN0-203-49512-8.
Morison, Samuel Eliot (2001) [1st pub. 1947]. The Battle of the Atlantic, September 1939-May 1943. Champaign, IL: Illinois University Press.
ISBN0-252-06963-3.
Overy, Richard (2010) [1st pub. 2009]. The 1939: Countdown to War. London: Penguin Books.
ISBN978-0-141-04130-8.
Overy, Richard (2013). The Bombing War: Europe, 1939-1945. London: Allen Lane.
ISBN978-0-141-92782-4.
Prazmowska, Anita (2004) [1st pub. 1987]. Britain, Poland and the Eastern Front, 1939. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN0-521-52938-7.
Redford, Duncan (2014). A History of the Royal Navy: World War II. London: I. B. Tauris.
ISBN978-1-78076-546-4.
Reginbogin, Herbert R. (2009) [1st pub. 2006]. Faces of Neutrality: A Comparative Analysis of the Neutrality of Switzerland and other Neutral Nations during WW II [Der Vergleich]. Translated by Seeberger, Ulrike; Britten, Jane. Berlin, Germany: Lit verlag.
ISBN978-3-8258-1914-9.
Sassoon, Joseph (2012) [1st pub. 1987]. Economic Policy in Iraq, 1932-1950. Abingdon, UK: Frank Cass.
ISBN978-0-7146-3305-3.
Schwarz, Urs (1980). The Eye Of The Hurricane: Switzerland In World War Two.
Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
ISBN0-89158-766-7.
Shaw, Stanford J. (2016) [1st pub. 1993]. Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey's Role in Rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi Persecution, 1933–1945. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN978-1-349-13043-6.
Smalley, Edward (2015). The British Expeditionary Force, 1939-40. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN978-1-137-49419-1.
Smetana, Vít (2008). In the Shadow of Munich: British Policy towards Czechoslovakia from the Endorsement to the Renunciation of the Munich Agreement (1938–1942). Prague: Carolinum Press.
ISBN978-80-246-2819-6.
Stahel, David, ed. (2018). Joining Hitler's Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN978-1-316-51034-6.
Stultz, Newell M. (1974). Afrikaner Politics in South Africa, 1934-1948. Berkeley: University of California Press.
ISBN0-520-02452-4.
Swanston, Alexander; Swanston, Malcolm (2010) [1st pub. 2008]. The Historical Atlas of World War II. Edison, NJ: Chartwell Books.
ISBN978-0-785-82702-3.
Symonds, Craig L. (2018). World War II at Sea: A Global History. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780190243678.
Tarulis, Albert N. (1959). Soviet Policy toward the Baltic States, 1918-1940. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
OCLC470247033.
Teich, Mikuláš; Kováč, Dušan; Brown, Martin D., eds. (2011). Slovakia in History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN9780521802536.
Wells, Anne Sharp (2014). Historical Dictionary of World War II: The War against Germany and Italy. Lanham, MY - Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield.
ISBN978-0-8108-5457-4.
Velazquez-Flores, Rafael (2022). Principled Pragmatism in Mexico's Foreign Policy: Variables and Assumptions. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN978-3-030-99572-0.
Welshman, John (2010). Churchill's Children: The Evacuee Experience in Wartime Britain. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
ISBN978-0-19-957441-4.
Wiggam, Marc (2018). The Blackout in Britain and Germany, 1939-1945. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN978-3-319-75470-3.
Williams, Allan (2013). Operation Crossbow: The Untold Story of the Search for Hitler's Secret Weapons. New York: Random House.
ISBN9781409051732.
Wood, Ian S. (2010). Britain, Ireland and the Second World War. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.
ISBN978-0-7486-2327-3.
Wragg, David (2007). Sink the French: The French Navy After the Fall of France 1940. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Books.
ISBN978-1-84415-522-4.
Wylie, Neville, ed. (2002). European Neutrals and Non-Belligerents during the Second World War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN0-521-64358-9.