Third Reich Day by Day: February 1939

Despite the appeasement of Great Britain and France, Hitler’s territorial ambitions could only be satisfied by the conquest of Poland. Great Britain and France finally realized that Hitler was determined to absorb Poland just as he had the Austrians and Czechs. They therefore signed treaties with the Poles guaranteeing to declare war on Germany should Hitler invade. But the world was stunned by the Russo-German Non-Aggression Treaty, which sealed the fate of Poland. On September 1 German forces attacked Poland. World War II had begun.

14 February

Armed Forces, Navy

The pride of the German fleet, the battleship Bismarck, glides into the water on the day of her launch.
The pride of the German fleet, the battleship Bismarck, glides into the water on the day of her launch.

The battleship Bismarck is launched. The ship was ordered to be built by the shipbuilding firm Blohm & Voss. The keel was laid down on July 1, 1936 at the Blohm & Voss shipyard facilities in Hamburg. By September 1938, the hull was already complete to the level of the upper deck. The launching ceremony is attended by thousands of people, military personalities, government officials, and yard workers. Adolf Hitler delivers the pre-launch speech and the hull is then christened by Frau Dorothea von Loewenfeld, granddaughter of the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, after whom the ship was named. Moments afterwards, at 13:30 hours, Bismarck’s hull slipped into the water.

After launching, the ship was moored to the equipping pier where the boilers, turrets and all other parts of the superstructure began to be installed. In addition, the original straight stem was replaced with a new “Atlantic” bow that offered better sea-keeping capabilities and a different arrangement for the anchors. The war started in September 1939, but despite this and the hard winter that came after, the construction work continued as scheduled to produce a potent warship.