On 1 September 2026, LIVE WW2 begins: the Second World War, replayed in a modern, full-colour 24/7 newsroom.
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01 How it works
...as if it were happening today: breaking-news feeds, a daily newsletter, colourised photography, moving maps, frontline dispatches, and editorials, all written without the safety of knowing how it ends.
The war reported in real time, 24 hours a day, for 2194 days, by reporters who don’t yet know how it ends.
Two minute catch-up delivered to your inbox, every day at 7am GMT - top headlines, where the war stands, and what it all means for today.
02 Day 1 preview
On 1 September 1939,Germany invades Poland.
London hesitates.Paris mobilises.Washington watches.
No one yet knows whether this is a border crisis, a European war, or something far worse.
The German news agency DNB [state-controlled] reports an armed group described as Polish insurgents attacked the Reichssender Gleiwitz radio transmitter in Upper Silesia this evening.
The attackers, the agency states, were killed by German police within minutes.
No independent confirmation. Warsaw has not commented.
The Reichssender Gleiwitz transmitter stands in Upper Silesia, close to the German-Polish frontier.
The Polish Telegraphic Agency has rejected the German account of an attack on the Reichssender Gleiwitz transmitter as “wholly without foundation” and “a fabrication.”
A Foreign Ministry spokesman states recent border incidents have been “manufactured in the German press for purposes which are now evident.”
The denial has not been carried by DNB.
The Schleswig-Holstein has opened fire on Polish positions at the Westerplatte peninsula in Danzig harbour.
The Polish garrison is reported to be returning fire.
Berlin has made no announcement.
Schleswig-Holstein opens fire in Danzig harbour as smoke rises over Westerplatte.
Reports reaching the wire describe German troops crossing the Polish frontier from East Prussia, Pomerania, and Silesia.
The Polish High Command has yet to issue a consolidated statement. Communications with frontier districts are described in Warsaw as fragmentary.
German forces mass on Poland’s border as invasion fears grow.
Albert Forster, the National Socialist leader in the Free City, has broadcast a proclamation declaring that Danzig has on this day returned to Germany.
Berlin radio reports that the Chancellor has accepted the act.
The British Government’s position, conveyed informally, is that the Free City’s international status cannot be altered unilaterally and that the proclamation will not be recognised.
Reports describe German aircraft overhead in multiple Polish cities this morning.
Air-raid sirens have sounded. First reports of bomb damage to civilian districts are reaching foreign correspondents.
The scale and accuracy of these reports remain under verification.
Warsaw wakes to uneasy silence as war clouds gather.
Air-raid sirens sounded over central Warsaw before first light, followed by the drone of aircraft and, somewhere to the south, the dull thud of explosions.
Civilians are making for the shelters. The trams have stopped. The streets are quieter than this correspondent has ever known them. Full dispatch continues →
In the Commons this morning the Prime Minister has stated that all three Services have been ordered to mobilise.
A Vote of Credit for five hundred million pounds has been moved, together with a Currency (Defence) Bill placing the financial system on a war footing.
Mr Chamberlain told the House that attacks upon Polish towns are proceeding and that British efforts at peaceful settlement are now at an end. Continue reading →
Westminster this morning as the Prime Minister announces full mobilisation.
In a speech to the Reichstag, the Chancellor has framed the invasion as a defensive response to alleged Polish aggression along the frontier, including an incident overnight at the Gleiwitz radio station.
Foreign correspondents present treat the framing with reserve. No independent confirmation of the Gleiwitz incident has reached the foreign press; Polish authorities deny it.
First pictures arriving of German SS Soldiers advancing on the Post Office in Danzig under cover of an ADGZ armored vehicle.
The Chancellor repeated the German account of last night’s incident at the Reichssender Gleiwitz transmitter in his address to the Reichstag today.
No foreign correspondent has been permitted to visit the station. The bodies of the alleged attackers have not been produced.
American correspondents in Berlin are filing the German claims with pointed qualifications. (cont.)
The Government has put its evacuation plan into effect.
From this morning, children, expectant mothers, and the blind are being moved from London and other vulnerable cities to receiving districts in the country.
British wireless reports the operation is proceeding in a ‘quiet and orderly fashion’. ARP controllers nationwide have been ordered to assume full duty.
The British Government has delivered a formal communication to the Reich Government tonight.
Unless Germany suspends its attack and is prepared to withdraw its forces from Polish territory, His Majesty’s Government will without hesitation fulfil their obligations to Poland.
The note, handed to Herr von Ribbentrop in Berlin by Sir Nevile Henderson this evening, sets no time limit. No reply has been received.
Civilians gathered outside 10 Downing Street today following news of Germany’s invasion of Poland.
Prime Minister Daladier has signed the decree of general mobilisation.
The first day of mobilisation is to be Saturday, 2 September. President Lebrun is to address Parliament tomorrow.
A French communication has been delivered to the Reich Government in Berlin tonight in terms aligned with the British warning.
The Chamber of Deputies in Paris, between sessions.
President Roosevelt has appealed to the governments of Britain, France, Italy, Germany, and Poland to give a public undertaking that their armed forces will not bomb civilians or undefended cities.
France and Poland have replied in the affirmative. Germany has replied that the principle accords with the Chancellor’s own view, and that the Luftwaffe has been instructed to confine itself to military objectives.
Polish dispatches received this evening report civilian casualties from air attack.
Diplomatic pressure is building, but the Anglo-French response remains uncertain.
The treaties of guarantee point in one direction; political hesitation in another.
The hours between now and tomorrow’s parliamentary sessions in both capitals may decide whether the war remains a Polish question or becomes a European one. Full report continues below →
03 The morning briefing
Every day at 7am GMT, the State of the War briefing lands in your inbox. Where things stand, what changed overnight, and what it means for today. No essays. No spoilers. Just WW2, one day at a time.
Free for the whole war. First briefing lands 02 September 2026.
The Second World War was a rolling global emergency long before it became a fixed narrative in a textbook. People peeled back the fog of war through newspapers, radio bulletins, rumours and maps redrawn overnight.
LIVE WW2 brings the Second World War into a modern media format, reporting history as if it were happening live in 2026.
It’s made by Chronos FM, a small team of history obsessives. We wanted to follow the biggest event in the 20th century in a modern, full-colour, breaking-news format. We couldn’t find it done the way we imagined, so decided to build it ourselves. It’s the first thing we’re making. It won’t be the last.
Yes. Every dispatch is grounded in primary records, contemporary press, official statements and communiqués from the period.
LIVE WW2 is produced by Chronos FM, a small team of history obsessives. We're not a media company. We're people who wanted to experience the Second World War day by day in a modern media breaking news format. We couldn't find a version that did this how we imagined it. So we decided to build it. LIVE WW2 is the first thing we're making, and it won't be the last.
Wires are short, factual and fast. Correspondent pieces are voiced and bylined, written by a named reporter from the scene. Editorials are opinion, signed by the publication. The mix changes day by day.
@realtimewwII was a pioneering project. The difference here is scale and format. While @realtimewwII delivered scheduled updates through a Twitter feed, we've built a fully functioning rolling newsroom: breaking news, lead stories, colour photography, maps, analysis and nine distinct editorial voices, operating 24 hours a day from 1 September 1939 to 2 September 1945.
AI helps us deep-research primary sources, draft initial copy and process images. Every dispatch is reviewed and edited by the Chronos FM team before it is filed. The editorial calls are ours: what to cover, what voice each publication uses, and how to handle sensitive material.
Historically. Where contemporary press reported on atrocities, we cover them. Where coverage at the time was thin, that silence is part of the record too. Our rules are simple: dignity to victims, no sensationalism, clear sourcing.
Everyone reading is on the same day. The feed begins 1 September 1939 and concludes 2 September 1945, Day 2,194 of a war the world watched in real time. The full six years is planned and committed to. We're going the distance.
Never. We never foreshadow events that haven't happened in the feed's timeline, even when the outcome is famous.
You join wherever the war is. The archive stays open behind you, but the live experience only moves forward, at the same pace, for everyone.
The live feed is free. The State of the War email briefing is free. Dispatches, maps, image-led reports and all nine editorial voices are open to everyone, every day, for the full run of the war.
However suits you. Most readers settle into one of two habits: the morning briefing over coffee, or the live feed dipped into across the day. Either way you stay on the same date as everyone else reading.
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First briefing: 1 September 2026. Free for the whole war.