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• » 23 Sep 1939

• In Hunan Province, China, Japanese Army 6th Division crossed the Sinchiang River at dawn, followed by a similar crossing by another division at 0620 hours at Yingtian (now Miluo). Also on the same day, naval vessels landed Japanese Navy Shanghai Special Naval Landing Force and Japanese Army 3rd Division east of the city of Changsha. Surrounded on three sides, Chinese troops fell back to prevent encirclement, opening the way to Changsha. ww2dbase [First Battle of Changsha | Changsha, Hunan | CPC]

• Émile Bertin embarked 57 tons of Polish gold at Syria-Lebanon. ww2dbase [Émile Bertin | CPC]

• German police began confiscating radios from Jews. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]
• The construction work for slip III at Deutsche Werke Kiel AG in Germany completed. ww2dbase [Deutsche Werke Kiel | Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein | AG]
• U-12 departed from Wilhelmshaven, Germany on her first and only war patrol. ww2dbase [U-12 | Wilhelmshaven, Weser-Ems | CPC]

• Comandante Cappellini was commissioned into service under the command of Cristiano Masi. ww2dbase [Comandante Cappellini | La Spezia, Liguria | CPC]

• German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop expressed approval for the Soviet proposal on the partition of Poland. Meanwhile, at Krasnobrod, Poland, three squadrons of the Nowgrodek Cavalry Brigade attacked and surprised the German 8th Infantry Division which had entrenched on a hill. The German made a disorderly retreat to a nearby town, hotly pursued by the Polish cavalry. Despite heavy losses from machine-gun fire the Poles secured the town, capturing the German divisional headquarters including General Rudolf Koch-Erpach and about 100 other German soldiers. In addition forty Polish prisoners were freed. During the action Lieutenant Tadeusz Gerlecki, commanding the second squadron, defeated a German cavalry unit - one of the last battles in military history between opposing cavalry. ww2dbase [Invasion of Poland | CPC, AC]

• Joseph Stilwell ended a period of leave in the United States. ww2dbase [Joseph Stilwell | CPC]

23 Sep 1939 Interactive Map