Figure 1.--These two Jewish boys are playing the violin for German soldiers who have just seized their village as part of the September 1939 invasion of Poland. The photograh was taken by a German soldier. |
|
The Germans more than any other military, correctly assessed the lessons of World War II. The War in Europe began in 1939 when the German blitzkrieg smashed Poland in only a few weeks. The invasion was made possible the preceeding week when Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler. The Panzers crossed the Polish frontier on September 1 along with a devestating strike by the Luftwaffe. The Polish Army and Air Force was shattered. About 1.8 million German soldiers surged into Poland. Hitler emerged from the Reich Chancellery in a new grey uniform with his World War I Iron Cross. In a speech at the Reichstag before cheering NAZIs he declared, "I myself am today, and will be from now on, nothing but the soldier of the German Reich." Whithin 6 days Cracow, the center of Polish nationhood, fell. Pincer movements began on September 9 to encirle the major remaining Polish forces. Once certain of Polish defeat, Stalin ordered the Red Army to attack from the East. German and Russian forces met at Brest-Litovsk on September 18. Warsaw fell a few days later after a ruthless bombing assault. The Blitzkrieg tactics that were to prove so devestaing in the West during 1940 were all on display in 1939. Neither the British or French showed much attention, abscribing Polish defeat to military incompetance. The French had promissed the Poles an offensive in the West. It never came.
Hitler had promissed Chamberlin "Peace in our times" if he was given the Sudetenland. The Allies (Britain and France) acquiesed and Czecheslovakia which was prepared to fight was dismembered. Churchill was apauled. Only a few months later in total violation of the Munich Agreement, Hitler seized the rest of Czecheslvakia (March 1938). It was clear to the Allies that Hitler was prepared to make one demand after another. Although facing a rearmed Germany with an unrivaled air force, British and French leaders and increasingly the public in those countries realized that there was no choice, but to confront the NAZIs.
The Germans more than any other military, correctly assessed the lessons of World War II. Tacticians like Erwin Rommel and Hans Guderian conceived the use of mobile formatuions, motorized infantry supported by tanks and close air support to drive gaps into enemy lines and avoid the debilitating trench warfare of World War I. The principles the Germans adopted would not begin to be fully adopted by the British until El Alemain (July/October) and the Americans after the disaster at Kaserine (February 1943).
Hitler in total violation of the Munich Agreement, ordered the Wehrmacht to seize the rest of Czechoslovakia. German troops cross the border without resistance and enter Prague (March 16, 1939). This was aotal violation of the Munich Accords. Britain and France only complained diplomatically. One result, however, that arch appeaser Prime Minister Chamberlain now understood that Hitler was intent on making war and could not be appeased. With all of Czechoslovakia under his control, Hitler began to plan his subgegation of Poland. Hitler met with Colonel General Keitel, chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces (OKW) and Colonel General von Brauchitsch, commander in chief of the Whermacht, and informed them that the time had come to settle the Polish problem by military means. The following week he presented a strategic outline for an attack on Poland with a deadline no later than September 1, 1939. Within days Hitler issues demands for the surrender of Danzig and the "Polish Corridor". The Poles reject the German demands (March 22). The German press began to intensify attention to the German minority in Poland as they had done with the Germans in Czechoslovakia.
Britain and France commit to guaranteeing Poland's defense (March 31). Poland and Britian sign a mutal-assistance pact (April 6). Hitler renounces the Nonaggression Pact between Poland and Germany (April 28). Stalin demands permission to deploy The Red Army in Poland. This would have led to a Soviet take over as it did in the Baltic states (1940). Poland rejects the Soviet demands (August 14). Hitler garanteed the neutrality of Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark and Switzerland (August 26). Even by this late point, Hitler did not believe that Britain and France would go to war over Poland.
Although unknown at the time, the Poles had cracked the German Enigma machine. They thus had access to the German military communications preparing for the invasion. The Poles gave the British and French Enigma machines (July 25). These machines were the beginning of a the massive Allied Ultra code breaking operation which would play a critical role in Allied operations.
The War in Europe began in 1939 when the German blitzkrieg smashed Poland in only a few weeks. The invasion was made possible the preceeding week when Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler. NAZI Foreign Minister Ribbentrop and newly appointed Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov on August 23, 1939, signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. At the time of the signing, British and French delegations were in Moscow trying to reach an understanding with Stalin. He was convinced, however, that they were tring to draw him into a war with Hitler. The two countries which until that time had been bitter foes, pledged not attack each other. Any problems developing between the two countries were to be delt with amicably. It was last for 10 years. The Pact shocked the world and the purpose was immedietly apparent. It meant that Germany could attack Poland without fear of Soviet intervention. Thus after defeating Poland, Germany did not have to fear a full-scale European war on two fronts. What was not known at the time was that there was a secret protocol to the pact which in effect divided Eastern Europe betwen the two countries. This protocol was discovered after the end of the World War II in 1945. The Soviets continued to deny this protocol until 1989. The
NAZIs 8 days after signing the Pact invade Poland on September 1, 1939, launching World War II. Although the Soviet's did not enter the War against Britain and France, the Soviets were virtual NAZI allies as they provided large quantaies of strategic materials, especially oil. Communist parties in Britain and France opposed the war effort. The Communist Party in America opposed President Roosevelt's efforts to expand defense spending and assist Britain and France.
Poland and Britain sign a common defense pact against Germany (August 25). Polish commanders disperse their small, largely obsolete air force to small camouflaged airfields mostly around Warsaw (August 27).
The NAZIs aware that a large part of the German people did not want another world war, decided to stage a Polish attack that could be used to justify the invasion of Poland.
SS men dresssed in Polish uniforms "attack" the German radio station at Gliewitz along the Polishh border. The SS selected concentration camp prisioners and outfit them in Polish uniforms before shooting them. The bodies were used as evidence of the Polish attack in Germnan newsreels. Propaganda Minister Goebbels prominenbtly featured the incident and claimed that Germany had been attacked. We are unsure just how many Germans actually believed the German press accounts.
The German invasion of Poland was Operation Weiss. The World War I German battleship Schleswig Holstein beiung used as a naval training ship fired the first salvo of World War II when on the morning of September 1 they began shelling s the Polish naval base at Westerplatte. The Schleswig-Holstein was on a "good will visit to Danzig. The German invasion began 1 hour later at 4:45 am. NAZI Panzers poured accross the 1,500 mile Polish frontier with Germany. The Wehrmacht invasion was accompanied with a devestating strike by the Luftwaffe. The German Panzers were closely supported by Junkers Ju87 ("Stuka" -- Sturzkampfflugzeug) dive-bombers. The German tactical operations were after Poland styled Blitzkrieg or Lighting War by Goebels. The Polish Air Force was shattered on the first day and the Army stunned. About 1.8 million German troops surged into Poland.
Hitler emerged from the Reich Chancellery in a new grey uniform with his World War I Iron Cross. In a speech at the Reichstag before cheering NAZIs he declared, "I myself am today, and will be from now on, nothing but the soldier of the German Reich."
At 9.00 am England and France at 9;00 am issue an ultimatum to Germany to witdraw from Poland or face war. Britain and France when the Germans ignore their ultimatum and persue their invasion of Poland,reluctantly declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. Prime Minister Chamberlin told the British people on the radio, "This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final Note stating that unless we heard from them by
11 0'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany." Earlier he had told Parliament, "This is a sad day for all of us, and to none is it sadder than to me. Everything that I have worked for, everything that I have hoped for, everything that I believed in during my public life, has crashed into ruins. There is only one thing left for me to do; that is, to devote what strength and powers I have to forwarding the victory of the cause for which we have to sacrifice so much. I cannot tell what part I may be allowed to ply myself; I trust I may live to see the day when Hitlerism has been destroyed and a liberated Europe has been reestablished." Hitler who felt cheated after Munich now had his war. After speaking to the nation on the radio, Chamberlain offered Winston Churchill a post in government--First Lord of the Admiralty. Within hours, Churchill was at the Admiralty. He later wrote, "Once again defense of the rights of a weak state, outraged and invaded by unprovoked agression, forced us to draw the sword. One again we must fight for life, and honour against all the might and fury of the valiant, disciplined, and ruthless German race. Once again! So be it." Churchill's brave words were not matched by action on behalf of the British or French Government.
The Wehrmacht invaded Poland on three fronts: from East Prussia in the north, Germany in the west, and Slovakia (seized from Czecheslovakia) in the south. The Wehrmacht deployed 2,600 tanks against Poland's 180. Poland was completely outmached in the air. The Luftwaffe deployed over 2,000 modern aircraft against Poland's 420 planes, many of which were obsolesent. The stunded Polish Army was unable to stop the Panzers. Whithin 6 days Kracow, the center of Polish nationhood, fell (September 6). The Polish General Staff abandoned Warsaw (September 6). The Polish Army launches a counterattack between Lodz and Warsaw surprising the Germans and achieving some local success (September 9). The battle continues for 3 days, but overwealming German superiority in men and material prevails (September 12). Wehrmacht pincer movements began to encirle the major remaining Polish forces (September 9).
The German 4th Panzer Division reaches the suburbs of Warsaw, but is stopped (September 9). Hans Guderian, the mastermind of Blitzkrieg tactics commanded the German XIX Panzer Corps. The Wehrmach armored thrusts surrounded Warsaw (September 14). Polish resistance stiffened. Warsaw prepared to resist the Wehrmacht. Panzer units were stopped at Kutno. Remnants of the shattered Polish Army attempted to regroup behind the Vistula and Bzura rivers.
The NAZIs demonstrated from the onset that they were going to conduct a new kind of war, unseen in Europe since the religious wars of the 17th century. Each day terrible attrocities were conducted in the wake of the German advance. As soon as the Germans entered Poland they began to build concentration camps to enforce theirvnew order and persue their racial campaign. The Germans began constructing the Stutthof concentration camp (September 2). Stutthof would eventually be equipped with gas chambers in which thousands of Poles would be murdered. German troops at Truskolasy round up and shoot 55 Polish peasants (September 4) German troops at Bydgoszcz murder a thousand Poles, including several dozen Boy Scouts. The Germans line the Polish civilians up against a wall and shoot them. The German shoot 19 Polish officers who surrendered after resisting a tank attack near Mrocza (September 6). The Germans at Bedzin burn 200 Jews alive in a synagogue. They then blame Poles with the crime and execute 30 in a public sqaure (September 8).
The Germans at Piotrkow forced several thousand Polish POWs, including Jews, to relieve
themselves in the synagogue and to clean the mess up with Jewish sacred objects (September 23). Many of these attrocities were conducted by regulat Wehrmacht troops and not SS units.
SS units were given the task of finding and arresting Polish officials and intelectuals as part of a campaihn to destroy Polish national identiity. Some were executed almost immediately others were interned in concentration camps. Special Task Force troops
executed 800 Polish intellectuals and leaders at Bydgoszcz. (September 24)
The Luftwaffe bombed the railway station at Kolo killing 111 refugees (September 2). This of course can be seen as an attempt to disrupt Polish transportation. The Allied strategic bombing campaign would eventually target the German transportation network. It should be noted, however, that Germany initiated this aspect of the air war. Bombing railway stations and instalations is more important than in may sound. Railway stations and other rail centers are located in cities, often the center of cities. There is no way that railway stations can be surgically bombed using World War II technology. An attack on a railway station is thus almost by definition an attack on a city. The Luftwaffe staged a terror bombing raid on Krzemieniec, killing dozens (September 12).
The SD before the War organized Selbstschutz (Self Defence) Units in Poland among the ethnic Germans. Members were trained at secret sites in the Reich. When the Germans invaded Poland, the Selbstschutz units coducted aange of activities to disrupt the Polish defense. This included sabatoge and attacks on Polish positions and rail lines as well as attacks on Polish civilians. SS officers oversaw the operations. Gustav Berger was the overall commander. As the Wehrmacht advanced district commanders appointed in West Prussia, Upper Silesia and Warthegau--all areas to be annexed. Individual Selbstschutz Units remained under the control of local ethnic Germans who both obeyed orders from head quarters as well as conducted actions on their own initiative.
The Selbstschutz set up concentration camps for Poles. Some of their camps were set up independently. Others were set up where the Wehrmacht or German police commands were setting up camps. The Selbstschutz camps included: Bydgoszcz (Bromberg), Brodnica (Strasburg), Chełmno (Kulm), Dorposz Szlachecki, Kamień Krajeński, Karolewo, Lipno (Lippe), Łobżenica, Nakło (Nakel), Nowy Wiec (near Skarszew), Nowe (over Vistula), Piastoszyn, Płutowo, Sępolno, Krajeńskie, Solec Kujawski (Schulitz), Tuchola (Tuchel), Wąbrzeźno (Briesen), Wolental (near Skórcza), Wyrzysk (Wirsitz). The great majority of the Poles arrested and detained in these camps were murdered within weeks. But few survived the War.
The Poles targeted by the Selbstschutz were Polish intellectuals (writers, journalists, artists, composers, university professors, teachers, etc.), nationalists, priests, Jews, Roma, and even Catholic Germans, ethnic Germans married to Poles, and Poles denounced for personal reasons). In addition to theor on actions, the Selbstschutz worked closely with the newly formed SS Einsatzgruppen--mobile killing units.
The shattered Polish forces fall back east and attempt to organize a new defensive line. Once certain of Polish defeat, Stalin seeing that the Polish Army was unable to resist the Germans and that the British and French were not intervening, ordered the Red Army to attack from the East (September 17). A Red Army force of 1 million men enters Poland, Soviet propaganda claims it was necessary to "protect it's Byelorussian and Ukrainian population." This was an attempt to follow the NAZI success at claiming to protect the German minority in Czexhoslovakia and Poland. The demoralized Polish Army which valiantly fought the Germans, offers little resistance to the Soviets. The Soviets take 240,000 Polish soldiers and 15,400 officers prisioner German and Russian forces met at Brest-Litovsk (September 18). World War II accounts usually focus on the NAZI invasion and occupation of Poland. In fact the Soviet occupation was also horific, although it did not include the biological genocide of the NAZI occupation. Stalin like Hitler, however, was at this stage of the War intent on destroying the Polish nation.
The Luftwaffe launched a ruthless air assault on Warsaw's civilian population beginning September 24. I have noted different estimates of the number of bombers used, varying from 420-1,150 bombers. The different estimates probably reflect differences as to daily raids or the overall campaign. The Polish airforce has been destroyed and Warsaw has vurtually no air defenses. At the same time approaching Wehrmact forces prepared to assault the capital. The Luftwaffe on September 25 strikes again with 400 German bombers dropping both incendiary and highexplosive bombs. The city's water pipes are ruptured by the bombing fire-fighters have been evacuated. Fires spread througout the city. Warsaw surrenders to the NAZIs on September 27. Casualties totaled about 40,000 people killed. German sources often charge that the British first began bombing in World War II. [Rumpf, p. 24-25.] Of course this ignores the German raids on Warsaw as well as smaller raids on other Polish cities.
the Polish Home Army or Armia Krajowa (AK) was formed in Warsaw during the Luftwaffe terror bombing (September 26).
Esespecially constituted SD Einsatzkommandos from the very beginning undertook a calculated campaign of repression. These units were created and trained under Heydrich's command. Regular units of the Wehrmacht were also involved in this campaign, but their activities were not as carefully calculated as the actions of the Einsatzkommandos. SD Einsatzkommandos carried out standard operations. They were trained in these actions. The normal procedure was that once a town was taken by combat troops, the Einsatzkommandos was entered and arrested a group of Jews or Poles. Normally men were taken for hostages. They were then kept as hostages and usually shot when some excuse was found. The idea was to terrify the town and discourage any thought of resistance. Dpending on the proclivities of the individuals involved, the hostages were often tormented. This was especially true of the Jewish hostages. The Einsatzkommandos persued a special campaign against synagogues. Many synagougues were burbned as in Kristallnacht. Estimates indicte that that several hundred synagogues were destroyed during September and October 1939. There are many accounts of what happened to the synagogues in different Polish towns. The Germans in many towns and cities conducted mass roundups of Jews. These roundups were simetimes whole families, includuing men, women, and children. Sometimes the round up methods separatedd children from their families. These people then were interened. Regular Wehrmact units participsated in these attricities. It was not just the the Einsatzkommandos and other SS units. At the same time many Wehrmact officers were appalled at the attrocities they witnessed. In fact the Wehrmacht actually arrested some German soldiers for excesses in Poland.
The NAZIs and Soviets on September 29 sihn the German-Russia Treaty of Frontier and friendship at Moscow. The treaty provides for the division of Poland and establishes the new boundaries.
The Polish garrison on the Hel peninsula finally surrendered on October 2. The Polesie Defence group, fighting on two fronts against both German and Soviet forces, surrendered October 5. The last remaining Polish ground troops surrender on October 6. About 140,000 Polish soldiers were killed in the fighting. About 25,000 civilians were killed in the fighting--many in bombing raids. The NAZIs rounded up an executed another 10,000 prominent Poles and professionals as well as an unknown (but still relatively limited number) of Jews. About 0.7 million Polish soldiers were taken prisoner by the Germans. Few survived the horendous conditions in the NAZI concentration camps. The Soviets take about 0.2 million prisonors. About 0.1 million Polish soldiers manage to escape. These forces while small in number were to play gallant roles in the Allied campaigns in the West. Other Poles were to fight with the Red Army when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa (June 1941).
The Blitzkrieg tactics that were to prove so devestaing in the West during 1940 were all on display in 1939. Neither the British or French showed much notice, abscribing Polish defeat to military incompetance. The Poles had in fact reamianed in the field twice as long as the Allied War Plan had anticipated. They were to inflict more casulties on the Germans than the combined British and French forces were able to accomplish in 1940. Polish anti-tank guns in particular proved highly effective and were superior to French and British guns. The Germans lost 50,000 men, 697 planes and 993 tanks and armoured cars.
The French had promissed the Poles an offensive in the West. The Allied War Plan was for the Poles to fight a defensive campaign for 2 weeks during which time the Allies would launch an attack in the West. It never came. [Fest, pp. 602-603.] The 92 French divisions manning the Maginot Line took no serious action against the 35 weak German divisions facing them.The French military was built for a defensive operation around the Maginot Line. They had little offensive military capability. Although the French did have armored forces, their air force in particular was weak as was to be seen when the Germans struck west with their Western Offensive in May 1940.
The British RAF conducts a raid on German naval facilities at Willelmshaven and the Nordsee Canal (September 4). The attack proves costly to the British with 7 bombers lost. [Rumpf, p. 21.] Damage to the target was limited and some of the bpombs fell on a Danish village. The German ship Admiral Scheer, but the British bombs do not explode and cause little damage. The RAF conducts further raids on Wilhelmhaven and Cuxhaven (September 9). Neither the British or the French at this stage of the war wwre willing to vigorously wage war. The memories of World war I were still too painfull and fear of the Luftwaffe too strong. The RAF dropped leaflets on Germany. British officials do not bomb German industry because it would mean the destruction of private property. The French are even more reluctant.
The NAZI occupation of Czecheslovakia had been brutal. The ocupation of Poland was savage. The NAZIs were determined to destroy every vestage of Polish national culture in an effort to wipe out the very idea of Poland. Their plan
was to destroy the entire Polish intelegencia and reduce Poland to a kind of ignorant labor pool of mannual laborers for German industry and agriculture. The NAZIs began the process even while figting was still going on. Some children were actually shot, but many more died in the mass expulssions of Poles and Jews living in the areas of Poland annexed
to the Reich.
The Poles formed a government-in-exile. Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz served as President and General Wladyslaw Sikorski as Prime Minister.
Fest, Joachim C. Hitler (Vintage Books: New York, 1974), 844p.
Gilbert, Martin. A History of the Twentieth Century Vol. 2 1933-54 (William Morrow and Company, Inc.: New York, 1998), 1050p.
Rumpf, Hans. The Bombing of Germany (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962), 256p.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to Main World War II European campaign page]
[Return to Main military style page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]