Puzzle No. 54: When?

On 1 September 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, north and south, employing fast-moving armoured and air forces in a campaign that became associated with the term Blitzkrieg. Britain and France, bound by guarantees to Poland, declared war on Germany on 3 September, marking the formal outbreak of World War II in Europe. Under the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed days earlier, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland on 17 September, and the country was partitioned between the two powers by early October. The conquest subjected millions of Poles to brutal occupation and inaugurated the deadliest conflict in human history, which would eventually engulf much of the globe and cause an estimated 70 to 85 million deaths.

Read the full story · See the world in 1939 CE