WW2 - Invasion of Poland

The nation state of Poland, on the Eastern borders of Germany, had emerged periodically through the mists of European history, but never once in the same place as before.

The resurrection of Poland, under the terms of the treaty of Versailles, in 1919, had awarded that country a corridor of land, connecting Poland to the Baltic, and giving control to Poland of the ancient German seaport of Danzig. The Polish corridor effectively cut Germany in two.

Throughout the interwar years, conflicts between Poles and Germans in the corridor led to increasing polarisation,and by 1933 an indigenous Nazi Party in Danzig had gained control of the city, and begun agitation for reincorporation with Germany.

By the Spring of 1939 Hitler felt strong enough to demand the return of Danzig, and access through the corridor for road and rail communications with Danzig and East Prussia, but any justice behind these demands had been undermined by his occupation of Prague and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia.

Incensed at what they regarded as a betrayal of the agreements of Munich, the British and French extended guarantees to Poland, and urged Hitler to solve the matter by negotiation.

On August 23rd, the Nazi - Soviet Non - Aggression Pact was signed in Moscow effectively concluding Hitler s negotiations, and signalling the death knell for Poland. In its secret clauses the Pact provide, not only for the division of Poland between these two powers for the fourth time in its history, but outlined general agreements for a division of Europe from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

As the German armies mobilised along the frontier, Britain dramatically converted her guarantees to Poland into a formal alliance, thus ensuring the inevitability of a European War.

The invasion of Poland began at dawn on September 1st 1939. While the German armies crossed the Polish border, the Luftwaffe began a co-ordinated air offensive against both strategic and civilian targets in Poland.

The attack on Poland had been in planning for several months, but the German strategy for the invasion had been in development for much longer. Although the German and Polish armies were numerically nearly equal, technologically and tactically they were light years apart.

Throughout the l920s and 30s the Germans had evolved a theory of aggressive warfare, which placed the emphasis on rapid armoured advances supported by air attacks. Against ten armoured German divisions, the Poles could field only one armoured brigade, the bulk of their mobile forces being cavalry divisions. Their artillery also was both antiquated and sparse.

But it was in the air that the Germans had complete supremacy. Most of the two thousand German aircraft deployed over Poland were modern specialist weapons. In the Messerschmitt 109, the Luftwaffe possessed the best fighter aircraft in the world. The twin engined Messerschmitt 110 could be used equally effectively as a fighter or as a bomber. The Junkers 87 or Stuka mounted sirens which made its effectiveness as a divebomber all the greater for its power to confuse and panic the enemy ainst columns of marching troops or refugees, the screaming Stuka was to prove a formidable weapon.

The Polish airforce on the other hand comprised some seven hundred planes, most of which were obsolete, the rest unquestionably inferior to those of the Luftwaffe. Its command and communications structures were woefully inadequate. In the first few days of the attack the Polish airforce was completely wiped out.

The campaign in Poland was a war of movement. No front formed for more than a few hours. The attack had been launched across the Northern, Western and Southern borders of Poland. In the West the German armies knifed through the Polish front in powerfully concentrated spearheads.

From the North and South the German attacks were intended to encircle the Polish forces and prevent them from retreating and regrouping.

Everywhere the Luftwaffe attacked remorselessly disrupting communications and supply lines. Attacking ahead of the army, the tactical bombers of the Luftwaffe performed the role of a highly accurate airborne artillery.