World War II Database

Political Situation

Poland had been reborn as an independent nation after World War I and the collapse of Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Germany. Polish borders had been partly re-established by the Versailles Treaty but a series of armed conflicts with Germany, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, and Ukrainian nationalists, as well as a major war with the Soviet Union, gave the borders their final shape.

During the course of the Polish-Soviet War (1919-20), Poland had been forced to rely on her own resources as help from the Western Allies had been slow in coming or had actively blocked by pro-communist unions in Europe. Because of the Polish-Soviet war and continuing Soviet efforts at infiltration thereafter, Polish military and political planning focused primarily on a future conflict with the Soviets. To this end, the Poles developed alliances with Rumania and Latvia. Poland’s policy toward Germany was based on her alliance with France, but Polish-Czech relations remained cool. The problem with the French alliance, as far as the Poles were concerned, was the instability in French politics which resulted in constant indecision about the eastern alliances. As governments rose and fell in regular succession, French policies toward Poland and other allies changed.

German military leaders had begun planning for war with Poland as early as the mid 1920s. Recovering the ethnically Polish territory of Pomerania, Poznan, and Silesia, as well as the largely German Free City of Danzig were the major objectives. Nevertheless, the restrictions of Versailles and Germany’s internal weakness made such plans impossible to realize. Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 capitalized on German’s desire to regain lost territories, to which Nazi leaders added the goal of destroying an independent Poland. According to author Alexander Rossino, prior to the war Hitler was at least as anti-Polish as anti-Semitic in his opinions. That same year, Poland’s Marshal Jozef Pilsudski proposed to the French a plan for a joint invasion to remove Hitler from power, which the French vetoed as mad warmongering.

In 1934, however, the Germans signed a non-aggression pact with Poland, providing a kind of breathing space for both countries. German efforts to woo Poland into an anti-Soviet alliance were politely deferred as Poland attempted to keep her distance from both powerful neighbors. As German power began to grow, however, and Hitler increasingly threatened his neighbors, the Poles and French began to revitalize their alliance.

The Munich Pact dramatically increased Poland’s danger. At the last minute, the Poles and Czechs had attempted to patch up their differences. The Czechs would give up disputed territory taken in 1919 and half ownership in the Skoda arms works in exchange for Polish military intervention in the case of German attack. The Munich Pact, however, closed this option and Poland sent its troops to forcibly occupy the territory of Teschen and the nearby Bohumin rail junction to keep it out of German hands.

After Hitler violated the Munich treaty, Poland was able to extract guarantees of military assistance from France, and significantly, Britain. In March 1939, Hitler began to make demands on Poland for the return of territory in the Polish Corridor, cessation of Polish rights in Danzig, and annexation of the Free City to Germany. These Poland categorically rejected. As negotiations continued, both sides prepared for war.

Hitler, however, again altered the strategic landscape again in August 1939 when Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact which contained secret protocols designed to partition Poland and divide up most of eastern Europe between the two dictators.

Strategic Considerations

Poland’s strategic position in 1939 was weak, but not hopeless. German control over Slovakia added significantly to Poland’s already overly long frontier. German forces could attack Poland from virtually any direction.

Poland’s major weakness, however, was its lack of a modernized military. In the 1920s, Poland had had the world’s first all-metal air force, but had since fallen behind other powers. Poland was a poor, agrarian nation without significant industry. While Polish weapons design was often equal or superior to German and Soviet design, it simply lacked the capacity to produce equipment in the needed quantities. One example was the P-37 Łos bomber, which at start of the war was the world’s best medium bomber. Another example was the "Ur" anti-tank rifle which was the first weapon to use tungsten-core ammunition.

To motorize a single division to German standards would have required use of all the civilian cars and trucks in the country. This occurred despite heroic efforts by Polish society to create a modern military which included fundraising among civilians and the Polish communities in the USA to buy modern equipment. As a percentage of GNP, Polish defense spending in the 1930s was second in Europe, behind the Soviet Union but ahead of Germany. Yet, in real dollar terms, the budget of the Luftwaffe alone in 1939 was ten times greater than the entire Polish defense budget. Yet even this did not give the full picture, since the Polish defense budget included money to upgrade roads and bridges and to build arms factories.

The Polish leadership was also hamstrung by political rifts and by the legacy of Pilsudski’s authoritarian rule which had retarded the development of modern strategic thinking and command. The top leadership was held by Marshal Edward Smigly-Rydz, who had been an able corps commander in 1920 but lacked the ability to command a complex modern army. Yet there were many able officers, such as Gen. Tadeusz Kutrzeba and Gen. Kazimierz Sosnkowski. Although overburdened by military brass, Poland had a solid corps of junior officers. The Polish Air Force, by contrast, was a very strong service.

Poland’s one major advantage was in intelligence, beginning in the early 1930s, a group of young mathematicians had managed to break the German military codes of the supposedly unbreakable Enigma encoding machine. Until 1938, virtually all German radio traffic could be read by Polish intelligence. Thereafter, the Germans began to add new wrinkles to their systems, complicating the task. On the eve of the war, the Poles could read about ten percent of Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe traffic and nothing from the Kriegsmarine. However, the German military police frequencies continued to use the older system and were fully readable. This was augmented by human intelligence efforts. By September 1, 1939, the Polish high command knew the location and disposition of 90 percent of German combat units on the eastern front.

Polish doctrine had developed during the Polish-Soviet War and emphasized maneuver with little reliance placed on static defenses, aside from a few key points. Unfortunately, the Polish army’s ability to maneuver was far less than the more mechanized German army.

Much mythology surrounds Poland’s use of cavalry, mostly due to Nazi propaganda absorbed by Western historians. About 10 percent of the Polish army was horse cavalry, a smaller percentage than the U.S. army in 1939. Poland had more tanks than Italy, a country with a well developed automotive industry. Polish cavalry were used as form of mobile infantry and rarely fought mounted, and never with lances. The cavalry attracted high-caliber recruits and the forces trained alongside tanks and possessed greater tank-fighting ability than comparable infantry units. Their use was also envisioned in any conflict with the USSR in eastern Poland where the terrain was mainly forest, swamp, and mountain.

Poland’s primary strategic goal was to draw France and Britain into the war on her side in the event of an attack by Germany. Poland’s defense strategy in 1939, developed by Gen. Kutrzeba, envisioned a fighting withdrawal to the southeastern part of the country, the "Rumanian bridgehead." There, the high command stockpiled reserve supplies of equipment and fuel. In the rougher terrain north of the Rumanian and Hungarian borders, the army would make its stand. If all went well, an Anglo-French counterattack in the west would reduce German pressure and Polish forces could be re-supplied by the allies through friendly Rumania.

Hitler’s political tactics, however, forced a modification of this plan. Fearing the Germans might attempt to seize the Polish Corridor or Danzig and then declare the war over, Polish forces were ordered closer to the border to ensure that any German attack would be immediately engaged in major combat. In so doing they would ensure that Poland’s allies could not wriggle out of their treaty obligations.

For its part, Germany’s planners sought to deliver a rapid knock out blow to Poland within the first two weeks. German forces would launch deep armored attacks into Poland along two main routes: Lodz-Piotrkow-Warsaw and from Prussia across the Narew River into eastern Mazovia. There would be secondary attacks in the south and against the Polish coastal defenses in the north. The primary objective would be to cut off Polish forces in northern and western Poland and seize the capital. [Editor's addition: To further deter France from entering the soon-to-begin German-Polish conflict, Hitler made several public visits to the West Wall on the German-French border beginning from Aug 1938 to survey the construction of bunkers, blockhouses, and other fortifications. The Nazi propaganda machine elaborated on these visits to form a picture of an invincible defensive line to deter French attacks when Germany invades Poland.]

Opposing Forces

On paper, Poland’s full mobilized army would have numbered about 2.5 million. Due to allied pressure and mismanagement, however, only about 600,000 Polish troops were in place to meet the German invasion on September 1, 1939. These forces were organized into 7 armies and 5 independent operational groups. The typical Polish infantry division was roughly equal in numbers to its German counterpart, but weaker in terms of anti-tank guns, artillery support, and transport. Poland had 30 active and 7 reserve divisions. In addition there were 12 cavalry brigades and one mechanized cavalry brigade. These forces were supplemented by units of the Border Defense Corps (KOP), an elite force designed to secure the frontiers from infiltration and engage in small unit actions, diversion, sabotage, and intelligence gathering. There was also a National Guard used for local defense and equipped with older model weapons. Armored train groups and river flotillas operated under army command.

German forces were organized in two Army Groups, with a total of 5 armies. The Germans fielded about 1.8 million troops. The Germans had 2600 tanks against the Polish 180, and over 2,000 aircraft against the Polish 420. German forces were supplemented by a Slovak brigade.

Opening Moves

Armed clashes along the border became increasingly frequent in August 1939 as Abwehr operations worked to penetrate Polish forward areas and were opposed by the Polish Border Defense Corps, an elite unit originally designed to halt Soviet penetration of the eastern frontier. These clashes alarmed the French who urged the Poles to avoid "provoking" Hitler.

Polish forces had been partly mobilized in secret in the summer of 1939. Full mobilization was to be declared in late August, but was halted at French insistence. Mobilization was again declared on August 30, but halted to French threats to withhold assistance, and then re-issued the following day. As a result of this, only about a third of Polish forces were equipped and in place on Sept. 1.

On August 31, operational Polish air units were dispersed to secret airfields. The navy’s three most modern destroyers executed Operation Peking and slipped out of the Baltic Sea to join the Royal Navy. Polish submarines dispersed to commence minelaying operations.

As Hitler gathered his generals, he ordered them to "kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language... only in this way can we achieve the living space we need." Mobile killing squads Einsatzgruppen would follow the main body of troops, shooting POWs and any Poles who might organize resistance. On the night of August 31, Nazi agents staged a mock Polish attack on a German radio station in Silesia, dressing concentration camp prisoners in Polish uniforms and then shooting them. Hitler declared that Germany would respond to "Polish aggression."

The invasion began at 4.45 A.M. The battleship Schleswig-Holstein was moored at the port of the Free City of Danzig on a "courtesy visit" near the Polish military transit station of Westerplatte. The station was on a sandy, narrow peninsula in the harbor, garrisoned by a small force of 182 men. At quarter to five on September 1, 1939, the giant guns of the battleship opened up on the Polish outpost at point-blank range. As dawn broke, Danzig SS men advanced on Westerplatte expecting to find only the pulverized remains of the Polish garrison. Instead, they found the defenders very much alive. In moments the German attack was cut to pieces. Further attacks followed. Polish defenders dueled the mighty battleship with a small field gun. At the Polish Post Office in Danzig, postal workers and Polish boy scouts held off Nazi forces for most of the day before surrendering. The post office defenders were summarily executed. A similar fate awaited Polish railway workers south of the city after they foiled an attempt to use an armored train to seize a bridge over the Vistula.

Battle for the Borders

German forces and their Danzig and Slovak allies attacked Poland across most sectors of the border. In the north, they attacked the Polish Corridor. In southern and central Poland, Nazi armored spearheads attacked toward Łódź and Kraków. In the skies, German planes commenced terror bombing of cities and villages. Nazi armies massacred civilians and used women and children as human shields. Everywhere were scenes of savage fighting and unbelievable carnage. Polish forces defending the borders gave a good account of themselves. At Mokra, near Częstochowa, the Nazi 4th Panzer Division attacked two regiments of the Wolynska Cavalry Brigade. The Polish defenders drew the Germans into a tank trap and destroyed over 50 tanks and armored cars.

The battle in the Polish Corridor was especially intense. It was here that the myth of the Polish cavalry charging German tanks was born. As Gen. Heinz Guderian’s panzer and motorized forces pressed the weaker Polish forces back, a unit of Pomorska Cavalry Brigade slipped through German lines late in the day on Sept. 1 in an effort to counterattack and slow the German advance. The unit happened on a German infantry battalion making camp. The Polish cavalry mounted a saber charge, sending the Germans fleeing at that moment, a group of German armored cars arrived on the scene and opened fire on the cavalry, killing several troopers and forcing the rest to retreat. Nazi propagandists made this into "cavalry charging tanks" and even made a movie to embellish their claims. While historians remembered the propaganda, they forgot that on September 1, Gen. Guderian had to personally intervene to stop the German 20th motorized division from retreating under what it described as "intense cavalry pressure." This pressure was being applied by the Polish 18th Lancer Regiment, a unit one tenth its size.

Where the Poles were in position, they usually got the better of the fight, but due to the delay in mobilization, their forces were too few to defend all sectors. The effectiveness of German mechanized forces proved to be their ability to bypass Polish strong points, cutting them off and isolating them. By September 3, although the country was cheered by the news that France and Britain had declared war on Germany, the Poles were unable to contain the Nazi breakthroughs. Army Łódź, despite furious resistance, was pushed back and lost contact with its neighboring armies. German tanks drove through the gap directly toward Warsaw. In the Polish Corridor, Polish forces tried to stage a fighting withdrawal but suffered heavy losses to German tanks and divebombers. In the air, the outnumbered Polish fighter command fought with skill and courage, especially around Warsaw. Nevertheless, Nazi aircraft systematically targeted Polish civilians, especially refugees. Bombing and shelling sent tens of thousands of people fleeing for their lives, crowding the roads, hindering military traffic.

Editor's addition: Realizing that escaping civilians crowded up important transportation routes and disrupted Polish military movement, the Germans began to broadcast fake Polish news programs that either falsely reported the position of German armies or to encourage civilians of certain areas to evacuate. With both methods, the Germans were able to exploit the fear of the Polish civilians and render Polish transportation systems nearly useless.

The effects of the Poles’ lack of mobility and the fateful decision to position forces closer to the border now began to tell. On September 5, the Polish High Command, fearing Warsaw was threatened, decided to relocate to southeastern Poland. This proved a huge mistake as the commanders soon lost contact with their major field armies. Warsaw itself was thrown into panic at the news.

Resistance Stiffens

Although the situation was grim, it was not yet hopeless. Following the High Command’s departure, the mayor of Warsaw Stefan Starzyński and General Walerian Czuma rallied the city’s defenders. Citizen volunteers built barricades and trenches. An initial German attack on the city’s outskirts was repulsed.

The fast German advance took little account of Army Poznań under the command of Gen. Kutrzeba which had been bypassed on the Nazis’ quick drive toward Warsaw. On September 8-9, Army Poznań counterattacked from the north against the flank of the German forces moving on Warsaw. The Nazi advance halted in the face of the initial Polish success on the River Bzura. The Nazis’ superiority in tanks and aircraft, however, allowed them to regroup and stop Army Poznań’s southward push. The counterattack turned into a battle of encirclement. Although some forces managed to escape to Warsaw, by September 13, the Battle of Bzura was over and Polish forces destroyed. The delay, however, had allowed Warsaw to marshal its defenses, turning the perimeter of the city into a series of makeshift forts. In the south, German forces had captured Kraków early in the campaign but their advance slowed down as they approached Lwów. The defenders of Westerplatte had surrendered after seven days of fighting against overwhelming odds, but the city of Gdynia and the Hel Peninsula still held as Polish coastal batteries kept German warships at bay.

By the middle of September, Polish losses had been severe and the German advance had captured half of the country. The high command’s fateful decision to leave Warsaw had resulted in more than a week of confusion, rescued only by the courage of Army Poznań’s doomed counterattack. By the middle of September, however, Polish defenses were stiffening. Local commanders and army-level generals now directed defenses around the key bastions of Warsaw, the Seacoast, and Lwów. German losses began to rise (reaching their peak during the third week of the campaign). Small Polish units isolated by the rapid advance regrouped and struck at vulnerable rear-area forces.

Black September

This thin ray of hope, however, was extinguished on September 17 when Red Army forces crossed Poland’s eastern border as Stalin moved to assist his Nazi ally and to seize his share of Polish territory. Nearly all Polish troops had been withdrawn from the eastern border to fight the Nazi onslaught. Only a few units of the Border Defense Corps aided by local volunteers stood in the way of Stalin’s might. Although often outnumbered 100 to 1, these forces refused to surrender.

One such force commanded by Lt. Jan Bolbot was attacked by tens of thousands of Red Army troops in their bunkers near Sarny. Bolbot’s surrounded men mowed down thousands of Soviet attackers who advanced in human waves. Finally, communist forces piled debris around the bunkers and set them on fire. Lt. Bolbot, who remained in telephone contact with his commander, reported that the neighboring bunker had been breached and he could see hand to hand fighting there. He told his commander that his own bunker was on fire and filling with thick smoke but all his men were still at their posts and shooting back. Then the line went dead. The entire Sarny garrison fought to the last man. Bolbot was posthumously awarded the Virtuti Militari, Poland’s highest military decoration.

Polish defenses in the southeast fell apart as formations were ordered to fall back across the relatively friendly Rumanian and Hungarian borders to avoid capture. Fighting raged around Warsaw, the fortress of Modlin, and on the seacoast. On September 28, Warsaw capitulated. Polish forces on the Hel Peninsula staved off surrender until October 1. In the marshes of east central Poland, Group Polesie continued to mount effective resistance until October 5. When this final organized force gave up, its ammunition was gone and its active duty soldiers were outnumbered by the prisoners it had taken.

Throughout the first two and half weeks of September 1939, Germany threw its entire air force, all of panzer forces, and all of its frontline infantry and artillery against Poland. Its border with France was held by a relatively thin force of second and third string divisions. The French army, from its secure base behind the Maginot Line, had overwhelming superiority in men, tanks, aircraft, and artillery. A concerted push into western Germany would have been a disaster for Hitler. Yet the French stood aside and did nothing. The British were equally inactive, sending their bombers to drop propaganda leaflets over a few German cities. Had the Allies acted, the bloodiest and most terrible war in human history could have been averted.

Occupation and Escape

Both German and Soviet occupations began with murder and brutality. Many prisoners of war were executed on the spot or later during the war. Countless civilians were also shot or sent to concentration camps, including political leaders, clergy, boy scouts, professors, teachers, government officials, doctors, and professional athletes. Among them was Mayor Starzynski of Warsaw who had rallied his city to resist the Nazi onslaught. In the German sector, Jews were singled out for special brutality.

Many small army units continued to fight from remote forests. Among the most famous was the legendary "Major Hubal," the pseudonym of Major Henryk Dobrzański. Major Hubal and his band of 70-100 men waged unrelenting guerilla warfare on both occupiers until they were cornered by German forces in April 1940 and wiped out. Hubal’s body was burned by the Germans and buried in secret so he would not become a martyr, but others soon took his place.

POWs captured by the Germans were to be sent to labor and prison camps. Many soldiers escaped and disappeared into the local population. Those who remained in German custody were frequently abused, used for slave labor, or shot. POWs captured by the Soviets suffered an even worse fate. Officers were separated from the enlisted men and an estimated 22,000 were massacred by the Soviets. Enlisted men were often sent to Siberian gulags where many died.

Large numbers of Polish soldiers had fled into neighboring Hungary and Rumania where they were interned. While both countries were officially allied to Germany, both had strong sympathy for the Poles. This was especially true in Hungary. Polish soldiers began to disappear from internment camps as bribable or sympathetic guards and officials pretended to look the other way. Individually and in small groups, they made their way to France and Britain. German diplomats raged at their Hungarian and Rumanian counterparts, but officials in neither country had much interest in enforcing Berlin’s decrees. As a result, within months a new Polish army had begun to form in the West.

Photographs

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Visitor Submitted Comments

1. Anonymous says:
   11 Mar 2006 09:57:15 AM
   
   Ill bet these facts have not been taught in American schools for decades or any other schools for that matter., Great work
2. Peter Rechniwski says:
   15 Oct 2006 01:04:15 PM
   
   Concise, well written account of the brief but determined struggle by the Polish armed forces againt Hitler and the Soviets. Excellent
3. brent miller says:
   11 May 2007 09:19:50 AM
   
   good
4. Alan Chanter says:
   30 Dec 2007 04:23:01 AM
   
   To accuse the British Expeditionary Force of "Idling" is perhaps a little harsh. Great Britain has always relied on volunteers to man her army, rather than on forcible conscription. The Military Training Act was not passed until April 1939 and General conscription not announced until the October of that year. All these men, plus the many thousands who volunteered to serve at the announcement of a state of war would need a period of time for training (at least six months and sometimes longer for specialised trades). Nevertheless the BEF was still able to grow to a strength of 10 Divisions, a Tank Brigade, c.500 RAF Aircraft, plentifully supported by Artillery and Engineer units by May 1940. This force would only have grown larger as new Divisions from Home and Empire found their way to France. By Late 1940-Early 1941 the BEF would have been well able to commence offensive operations-But the Germans struck first.
5. JNRoy says:
   7 May 2008 07:23:53 AM
   
   In paragraph 3 of the section "Western Betrayal", you state that Brittain declared war on Poland...I think you meant ot say they declared war on Germany don't you?
   
   Very interesting reading...
6. Alan says:
   9 Jul 2008 07:57:39 AM
   
   What is with the bloody French, anyway??
   
   Too busy having croissant and tea to lend a hand?
7. Dave says:
   9 Jan 2009 06:09:51 PM
   
   i found this very helpful i am doing a project on hitler and the poland invastion was part of word war 2 right? please tell me at r_uknight101@yahoo.com
8. Chris says:
   28 Jan 2009 09:47:03 PM
   
   Excellent Work!
9. Patrick Bass says:
   24 Mar 2009 07:38:40 AM
   
   And where is your bibliography Professor? Haha, J/K. Good insight into the beginnings of the European war.
10. BILL says:
    13 May 2009 05:00:23 PM
    
    Cry "Havoc"! and let slip the dogs of War.
    
    _William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar,
11. BILL says:
    25 May 2009 08:38:50 AM
    
    "Armies do not exist for peace. They exist solely for triumphant exertion in War"
    
    Adolf Hitler
12. Anonymous says:
    21 Sep 2009 10:24:28 PM
    
    Very well written and informative. I enjoyed reading this article and learned a great deal.Most information I've come across on WWII deals with the Pacific islands, we all need to be reminded it was truly a World War.
    One minor detail though, I must agree with Patrick Professor. Where is you bibliography? :)lol
13. Peter says:
    17 Nov 2009 04:26:29 PM
    
    Excuse me - what's this nonsense i read again on these "good" Allied history sites? These are blunt lies... oh yes, those bad, bad Germans, and the Allies are "good". LOL Yes we know. Seriously, why don't you guys get a history book? Look at this - you "good" Angloamericans claim:
    
    "German military leaders had begun planning for war with Poland as early as the mid 1920s. Recovering the ethnically Polish territory of Pomerania, Poznan, and Silesia, as well as the largely German Free City of Danzig were the major objectives."
    
    Pomerania was ethnically German - not Polish. Most of Silesia was German - not Polish. And both were part of Germany - so why should Germany want to wage a war aganist their own territory? LOL
    
    Honestly,I really begin to wonder, who wrote these nonsense-articles? Its like saying "Yorkshire is ethnically Norwegian", lol.
    
    The only thing that is half-true is that the Area of Poznan was Polish at the time, but with around 50 percent of the city's inhabitants German.
    
    What Angloamericans usually try to cover up:
    
    The "good" Allies had placed 2.1 Million Germans and 6 Million Ukrainians under Polish occupation. Poznan was half-Polish half-German, but Westprussia definetely had a German majority. It was given under the Tyranny of the Poles, without a democratic election. That's Angloamerican "democracy". lol
    
    The great injustice on Millions of German families, who were forbidden democratic votes and brought under Alien yoke and tyranny instead, was one of the key reasons for World war two. It is easy to find out, who actually caused the mess in 1919, and thus, who actually is guilty of world war two.
    
    I am not surprised all you "good" Allies hide your true history. How wicked to deliberately draw borders that create war and enslavemen of millions, and then blame the war you created yourself, on others. Disgusting.
    
    Be ashamed to be British....not for what you have done, but for lying about your true history. Pathetic.
14. Anonymous says:
    19 Dec 2009 10:12:52 AM
    
    i am a 8th grade teacher and all of this information is all fake
15. tmx says:
    3 Feb 2010 09:09:52 PM
    
    qUOTE/ "German military leaders had begun planning for war with Poland as early as the mid 1920s. Recovering the ethnically Polish territory of Pomerania, Poznan, and Silesia, as well as the largely German Free City of Danzig were the major objectives...."
    
    COMMENT: Pomerania and Silesia had a population consististing of 75% (Silesia) and 60% Germans. Poznan: 35%, Danzig: 97%. In 1920 the court of the League of Nations beagn its work, being appealed 75 times by Germany thereafter cc. mistreatment of German in Poland in areas, where they had the minority. 5 times mistreatment was confirmed, the other rulings were not yet found by myself.
    
    
    Q2: "The battleship Schleswig-Holstein was moored at the port of the Free City of Danzig on a "courtesy visit" near the Polish military transit station of Westerplatte. The station was on a sandy, narrow peninsula in the harbor, garrisoned by a small force of 182 men. At quarter to five on September 1, 1939, the giant guns of the battleship opened up on the Polish outpost at point-blank range".
    
    COMMENT: The "Schleswig Holstein" was a training ship, equipped with 4 guns caliber 28 cm. "Battleships" used 38 cm, British battleships 38.1 cm. The Polish ammunition depot (not "transit station") was allowed to hold 88 men of military personnel. That rule was ignored.
    
    Q: "Polish forces had been partly mobilized in secret in the summer of 1939. Full mobilization was to be declared in late August, but was halted at French insistence. Mobilization was again declared on August 30, but halted to French threats to withhold assistance",
    
    
    COMMENT: "Mobilization" is one method of declaring war, another one is "making war". International law does not require written declarations. Ask me for the sources, if necessary.
    
    The rest of the pamphlet is of similar quality.
    "Polish heroes vs. childslaughtering Huns". Polish airforce and ground troups suddenly disappeared by miracle during the Germans still were busy shooting at children.
16. Anonymous says:
    13 Feb 2010 12:42:00 PM
    
    I have to say I appreciate how well written and informative this site is.
17. Kim says:
    10 May 2010 07:25:58 PM
    
    so why were the poles so poorly prepared to resist the German invasion and How did German planning ensure rapid success in the invasion ??
    please help, doing a thing for school but cant find my answers. these are the only questions i am having trouble with
18. JOE HAMILTON says:
    6 Jul 2010 12:47:23 AM
    
    Yes, the "huns" were murdering swine. Anyone who defends their invasion of Poland, is lower than a worm. Or perhaps murdering 6 million Poles? Peter and tmx, you nothing more than cowardly keyboard warriors.

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