22nd September 1938
'Tag der Befreiung'

'Liberation Day' timeline

21st September

Czech President Beneš agrees to Sudetenland plebiscite and to cede majority German territory in exchange for an Anglo-French 'guarantee'.

22nd - 23rd September

At Bad Godesberg, Hitler reneges on plebiscite pledge, demanding Czech withdrawal and occupation of Sudetenland.

23rd September

Czechoslovakia mobilizes. British chiefs of staff express 'confidence as to the ultimate outcome.'

24th September

Hitler’s Godesberg Memorandum demands Czechs accept Sudetenland ultimatum by 2pm on 28th September. Later he sets occupation date back to 1st October 'out of respect' for Chamberlain.

25th September

To Chamberlain’s shock, Halifax tells the Cabinet: 'Hitler has given us nothing…as if he had won a war without having to fight'.

26th September

German generals refused audience with the Führer. Horace Wilson conveys Chamberlain’s letter to Hitler stating that if Czechs reject terms and France is involved, Britain will support France.

27th September

Coup raiding party assembles at safe houses. Royal Navy ordered to mobilize. Hitler postpones German mobilization twenty-four hours, telling Goering, 'the English fleet might shoot after all'.

28th September

Raiding party issued arms and ammunition. Chamberlain proposes conference by which Hitler will get 'all essentials without war and without delay'.

29th September

Munich Accord—virtually identical to Godesberg Memorandum—signed by Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain and Daladier, excluding the Czechs.

30th September

Czechoslovakia capitulates. Returning to Britain, Chamberlain declares 'peace for our time.'

2nd October

Inspecting Czech fortifications, Hitler tells Goebbels, 'we would have shed a lot of blood.'

3rd October

Duff Cooper resigns as First Lord of the Admiralty. Oster, Schacht, Gisevius and Witzleben burn their conspiracy papers.

5th October

Beneš resigns as Czech President. In London, Churchill tells Parliament: 'we have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat…'

6th October

British Ambassador to Germany Nevile Henderson writes Lord Halifax, 'by keeping the peace, we have saved Hitler and his regime.'

10th October

German troops begin occupying Sudetenland. Czechoslovakia loses 70% of its iron, steel and electrical power and 3.5 million citizens.

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