Original: The Gleiwitz incident , sometimes incorrectly referred to as Operation Canned Goods , was a staged attack on 31 August , 1939 against the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz , Upper Silesia , Germany ( since 1945 : Gliwice , Poland ) on the eve of World War II in Europe .
Simplified: The Gleiwitz incident was a planned German attack against the radio station '' Sender Gleiwitz '' in the German town of Gliwice on the night of August 31 , 1939 .