 |
If you had asked the German officials, they would have said something like, “Polish militants attacked us without provocation and we were forced to respond.” If you would have asked the leadership in Warsaw, they probably would have responded with something like, “Yeah, right. The Nazi-Soviet Pact trapped us between two colossal enemies, so our answer was to attack the strongest of the two. Yeah, right!!”
If you would have flown over the German-Polish border the night before the Germans launched their attack, what you saw may well have blown your mind. Fully 85% of Germany’s military was prepared for attack. The numbers are staggering: 1.6 million men, more than 65,000 artillery pieces and 4,000 tanks, and 2,000 aircraft. The Poles were hopelessly outnumbered: 2-to-1 in men, 2-to-1 in artillery, more than 4-to-1 in tanks, and nearly 5-to-1 in airplanes. Germany was poised to make a military statement, and Poland was the tablet on which it would be written.
And that’s precisely what happened on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland and commenced the Second World War in Europe (keep in mind that Japan and China had already been fighting on the Chinese mainland for years). France and Great Britain would declare war on Germany two days later (which also “formally” began the Second World War), but by then it was already too late to send any forces that could stem the German onslaught.
The War was on…
Recommended Reading: Panzer Leader
Today's History Lesson 
Leave a Reply