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Living history
Seventy years ago this morning, at 04.45 Central European Time, the German warship, Schleswig Holstein fired the first shots in the European theatre of World War II, at point blank range, at a Polish fort on the Westerplatte peninsula. At the same time, the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht crossed the border on three fronts.
The start of the war is generally held to be September 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by most of the countries in the British Empire and Commonwealth, and by France. Many countries were already at war before this date, such as Nationalist China and Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and many who were not initially involved joined the war later, as a result of events such as the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), and the attacks on Pearl Harbor and British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia.
German soldiers remove a border barrier in Sopot, Poland, as the invasion began on September 1, 1939
The start of the war is generally held to be September 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by most of the countries in the British Empire and Commonwealth, and by France. Many countries were already at war before this date, such as Nationalist China and Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and many who were not initially involved joined the war later, as a result of events such as the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), and the attacks on Pearl Harbor and British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia.
German soldiers remove a border barrier in Sopot, Poland, as the invasion began on September 1, 1939
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I wonder if Germany was ready to use the ship in a similar fashion if Denmark had proved resistant? It would have answered the question.