The 1st of September 1939 marked the beginning of Germany’s invasion of Poland, quickly joined by its ally, the Soviet Union, who rampaged Poland from the East in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentropp Pact of 23 August 1939.
This tragic event represented Poland’s de facto fourth partition, following the ones the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth suffered in the late 18th century. After having regained its independence in the aftermath of WWI, the country reappeared on the map for two short decades.
In the first years of the Second Polish Republic, Józef Piłsudski and his army miraculously managed to delay the Sovietisation of not only his country but of the whole of Central Europe (1919-1921). Less than 20 years later, Western powers played the appeasement card towards an increasingly threatening Adolf Hitler.
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The UK and France accepted the annexation by Nazi Germany of the Czechoslovak region of Sudetenland in 1938. Shortly after, the long-awaited assault took place, this time against Poland. On 1 September, the Wehrmacht launched its brutal “Blitzkrieg” against Poland without even declaring war. Two days later, France and the UK declared war on Germany. Poles had absolutely no chance of defeating the Germans by themselves. British and French support was actually non-existing, as both armies did not feel ready to “die for Gdańsk”.
Poland could oppose only 150 tanks and 400 combat planes to some 2,600 tanks and 2,000 more modern German planes. Nevertheless, Poles were highly motivated and put up tough resistance to the German forces, including after 17 September when the situation became hopeless with the entry into the action of the Soviet troops.
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Warsaw did not surrender until 27 September. There were around 66,000 dead and nearly 134,000 wounded in the fighting of the September Campaign on the Polish side, while the Germans had more than 17,000 dead and 40,000 wounded.
Poland never capitulated. Part of the Polish forces was evacuated by Hungary, bound to Poland by a centuries-old friendship that was stronger, throughout the war, than the alliance of convenience of Budapest with Berlin, towards Romania, which was then neutral.
These Polish forces joined the Western front and took part in the campaign of May 1940 and in the other campaigns carried out by the Allies until 1945. Polish pilots, for example, played a decisive role in the Battle of Britain: representing 5% of RAF pilots, or 144 pilots, they inflicted on the Luftwaffe 12% of its losses.
Between 1 September and 26 October, when the Wehrmacht command exercised control over the occupied Polish territories, the Wehrmacht and other German formations, such as the Einsatzgruppen carried out over 760 mass executions of civilians and Polish servicemen, killing a total of approximately 24,000 Polish citizens.
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Some 6 million Polish citizens were killed between 1939 and 1945, including around 3 million Jews exterminated for the most part in the Holocaust and approximately one million Poles killed by the Soviets between 1939 and 1941, out of a total of approximately 35 million inhabitants.
Image: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
Author: Sébastien Meuwissen
