28 Apr 1939
  • Lieutenant Commander Edwin Layton assumed command of Wickes-class destroyer USS Boggs. ww2dbase [Edwin Layton | DS]
China
  • General Duan Lang ordered his Chinese 79th Division to disengage south of Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China after suffering high casualties during a Japanese counterattack. ww2dbase [Battle of Nanchang | Nanchang, Jiangxi | CPC]
Germany
  • In a two-hour speech to the German Reichstag which was widely broadcast around the world, Adolf Hitler repudiated the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and expressed the wish to annex Danzig. In regards to the recent British-Polish treaty, Hitler claimed that it broke the terms of the 1934 German-Polish non-aggression treaty, thus the 1934 agreement was now void; he was, however, willing to negotiate a new one with Poland. Finally, addressing US President Franklin Roosevelt's letter of 14 Apr 1939, in which Roosevelt requested Germany to guarantee the borders of 31 nations, Hitler noted the result of the subsequent survey that revealed most of the nations (Poland excluded) responded they were not at all threatened by Germany. ww2dbase [The Danzig Crisis | Adolf Hitler | AC]
Photo(s) dated 28 Apr 1939
Carrier Hiryu running speed trials off Tateyama, Chiba, Japan, 28 Apr 1939Cruiser St. Louis on acceptance trials off Rockland, Maine, United States, 28 Apr 1939.

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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Parafrag bombs falling in Simpson Harbor, Rabaul, New Britain, 1940s

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"With Germany arming at breakneck speed, England lost in a pacifist dream, France corrupt and torn by dissension, America remote and indifferent... do you not tremble for your children?"

Winston Churchill, 1935


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