MARCH 21 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

MARCH 21

1931

Zygmunt Puławski died on March 21, 1931, when he crashed while flying his newest design, an amphibious flying boat PZL.12 .  Pulawski was a Polish aircraft designer and pilot. He invented a gull-wing aircraft design and constructed a series of Polish PZL fighters. The first was the PZL P1 commissioned by the Polish military. Its gull-wing design gave the pilot an excellent view from his cockpit. A prototype was flown in 1929 and was met with great interest around the world. The wing design became known as "Puławski wing" or "Polish wing",  which was copied in later designs by various international manufacturers.

1939

Nazi Germany demanded the return of Danzig (Gdansk) from Poland. (Note: The Treaty of Versailles, which was signed after the end of World War I, between the Allied Powers, and Germany restored the sovereignty and independence of Poland  (after 123 years of oblivion) and gave Poland control of an outlet to the sea, as well as a large portion of  land inhabited by the Germans.  (In order to give Poland access to the Baltic Sea a  "corridor" was created by passing control of the German provinces of Posen and West Prussia to Poland. In the process East Prussia was separated from the rest of Germany.) Poland also gained half of Silesia. Danzig was made a Free City under the control of the League of Nations. The German government signed the treaty under protest. Consequently, a large portion of the German population was living under foreign rule, and the territorial changes brought about by the Versailles Treaty would create tensions in the ensuing months and years culminating in the invasion of Poland by Germany on September 1, 1939.

1941

Tadeusz Tański, 49 was murdered at Auschwitz concentration camp. He was a Polish automobile engineer and the designer of the first Polish serially-built automobile, the CWS T-1 among other designs. Until late 1930s Tanski was one of the most notable Polish constructors and the designer of numerous cars, lorries and artillery tractors.

1942

Nazi German Fritz Sauckel was named General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment to expedite recruitment and use of slave labor. According to Sauckels testimony at Nuremberg, of the five million foreign workers brought to Germany, around 200,000 came " voluntarily ". The majority were workers rounded up from the Eastern territories, especially Poland and the Soviet Union, and subjected to extremely harsh treatment in service for German coal mining, steel making and manufacture of armaments, and others. It was to be one of the main accusations against Sauckel when he was brought before the Nuremberg trials for his crimes. He attempted to defend himself claiming that it was not slave labor and that it had "nothing to do with exploitation. It is an economic process for supplying labour".  He was found guilty of crimes of war, and crimes against humanity and hanged on October 16, 1946.

1943

A second attempt was made on Hitler's life in the space of eight days. Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff, an officer in the German army,  was given the opportunity to escort Hitler through an exhibition of captured Soviet war materiel at the Zeughaus in Berlin. Gersdorff had set a ten minute fuse on a time bomb that when detonated would kill himself and Hitler.  Unexpectedly,  Hitler rushed through the viewing and left after two minutes. Whereas Gersdorff excused himself and hurried to defuse the explosive which had been hidden in the restroom. His plans were never detected.