(Days from the Abyss)

August 26, 1939 - seventy years ago this week, Germany had just signed a mutual non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union and Poland had just signed an mutual alliance pact with Great Britain. The set up for a state of war was already in place.

Germany had been staging raids on border check-points for several days previous. But the attacks were stepping up.

Here is an English language shortwave broadcast from Radio Warsaw on August 26, 1939, outlining the aggression.

Newsreader: “The aggressive activities of Germany, which in the last days were only sporadic, multiplied today. At midnight a German gang at the frontier of Silesia crossed to Poland and opened fire on the frontier post Krival, throwing four hand grenades. Later on, three other assaults of that kind happened along the Silesian frontier in the Ribeni district. Gangs of thirty to one hundred men were shooting at frontier posts Balentita, Tzumina and Dworowitza. At Tsmunina, fifty men were shooting to the frontier post from behind the German frontier and were protected by a range of military machine guns which did not shoot.”

In a matter of days a shooting war would start that turn into World War 2.