Follow the deadliest conflict in human history in real time, week by week, blow by blow.
When Germany invades Poland on September 1 1939, the world is already at the brink of a new world war…
The German-Polish war is the match that ignites the flames that finally burn British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement efforts to the ground.
When the Wehrmacht and the SS continue devastating Poland and her people in the first weeks of September, her last chance is her western allies.
When the USSR crushes the plans of the Allies for Poland and the Japanese plans in China in the same week, it is Germany that benefits.
Facing two enemies at once, Poland finds itself in a crushing vice after less than a month of war and the Polish forces must flee their own country to live to fight another day.
In the West, the sun sets on Poland as the last forces surrender, but her defenders are already regrouping abroad. In the East, the sun rises on China as Japan meets yet another defeat.
While the Third Reich and USSR consolidate their Polish conquest, their leaders are wary of each other but turn the attention to the next prize. Stalin moves to the North and Hitler pushes for an attack in the West.
For the men in the navies of the warring nations in Europe, there was nothing phony about WW2 in October 1939 - mortal danger was immediately under the cold surface at the receiving end of a torpedo or a depth charge...
The persecution, incarceration, enslavement and murder of the Polish people in occupied Poland is driven by ideological hatred for both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, but it's also a personal matter for Joseph Stalin.
Ten weeks into World War Two, and the Allied ground forces are bored in France. In North-Eastern Europe, Poland's suffering has no end and Finland is in the crosshairs of the USSR.
As Hitler drives for a fast invasion he faces covert and open resistance, even an assassination attempt. In the background British and German agents and double agents play a game of betrayal and counter-betrayal.
While the Finnish and the Soviets seem to be moving ever closer to war, the Royal Navy is losing ships at a frightening rate to an explosive threat not yet understood.
The European Allies seek a countermeasure to the mysterious German mines, in China the Japanese advance, and in Poland it is the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto.
On the last day of November 1939 the Red Army of the USSR invades Finland and the Winter War begins.
When the Red Army invades Finland they get a cold reception and a pretty nasty surprise. It looks like team Stalin might just be skating on some very thin ice.
In the second week of the Winter War, during multiple counteroffensives, including the famous Sausage War, the Finnish Defence Forces dash any hopes of a quick victory that the Red Army and Stalin might have had.
While the Winter War continues with a Soviet armoured attack at Summa and the Lähde Road and the British attack the Germans from the skies in the first official aerial battle of World War Two, there's trouble in China. Chiang Kai Shek is looking for ways to gain a new advantage on the Japanese.
The Chinese Nationalists under command of Chiang Kai Shek is desperately looking to make new or restore old, allies to aid them in their fight against the Japanese. Meanwhile, the Soviets are still struggling to turn the Winter War against the Finnish in their favor.
Indy Neidell
Self
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