Page "1939" Paragraph 123

** The Reichstag passes a statement stating that Hitler, s second-in-command Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring should be appointed as Hitler, s succesor as Führer should Hitler die in the middle of the Second World War. Rudolf Hess is to be appointed in Göring, s place should anything befall Göring.

At 04. 45 Central European Time, under cover of darkness, the German WW1-era battleship Schleswig-Holstein quietly slips her moorings at her wharf in Danzig harbor, drifts into the center of the channel, and commences firing on the fortress Westerplatte, a Polish army installation at the mouth of the port of Danzig, Poland.

These are generally considered to be the opening shots of World War Two.

Simultaneously, shock-troops of the German Wehrmacht begin crossing the border into Poland.