National Affairs 1939: Roosevelt Learns of the Outbreak of WWII

The President Preface of War

The telephone in Franklin Roosevelt's bedroom at the White House rang at 2:50 a. m. on the first day of September. It was a ghastly hour, but operators knew they must ring. Ambassador Bill Bullitt was calling from Paris. He told Mr. Roosevelt that World War II had begun. Adolf Hitler's bombing planes were dropping death all over Poland.

That day Franklin Roosevelt's press conference was a grave business. One question was uppermost in all mind's. Correspondent Phelps Adams of the New York Sun uttered it: "Mr. President, can we stay out of it?" Franklin Roosevelt sat in silent concentration, eyes down, for many long seconds. Then, with utmost solemnity, he replied: "I not only sincerely hope so, but I believe we can."

No person in the room doubted Franklin Roosevelt's sincerity, but neither was anyone in the slightest doubt as to where lay the sympathy, the potent human partisanship, of this President of the United States. He was against Germany, against the aggressor, against totalitarianism, against Adolf Hitler the dictator and Adolf Hitler the man perhaps mad.

POLISH THEATRE Grey Friday

World War II began last week at 5:20 a. m. (Polish time) Friday, September 1, when a German bombing plane dropped a projectile on Puck, fishing village and air base in the armpit of the Hel Peninsula. At 5:45 a. m. the German training ship Schleswig-Holstein lying off Danzig fired what was believed to be the first shell: a direct hit on the Polish underground ammunition dump at Westerplatte. It was a grey day, with gentle rain.

In the War's first five days, hundreds of Nazi bombing planes dumped ton after ton of explosive on every city of any importance the length & breadth of Poland. They aimed at air bases, fortifications, bridges, railroad lines and stations, but in the process they killed upward of 1,500 noncombatants. The Nazi ships were mostly big Heinkels, unaccompanied by pursuit escorts. Germany admitted losing 21 planes to Polish counterattack by pursuits and antiaircraft.

The broad outlines of Germany's assault began to take shape. Recapture of what was Germany in 1914 was the first objective: Danzig, the Corridor, and a hump of Upper Silesia. It is believed that Adolf Hitler, if allowed to take this much, might have checked his juggernaut at these lines. When Britain & France insisted that he withdraw entirely from Polish soil, he determined on the complete subjugation of Poland.

GERMANY Hitler's Decision

All week sombre-faced Germans filed past the huge new building that Adolf Hitler built as a symbol of Germany's might. It was a housepainter's dream of a Reichschancellery, nearly a quarter-mile long, with marble chambers and vast, tapestry-hung halls and an immense study in which a man might feel alone with his destiny. For the seven most momentous days of Europe's modern history Adolf Hitler did not leave this building.