Polish September Campaign
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| Polish Defence War of 1939 | |||||||||||||||||
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| Conflict | World War II | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | 1 September - 6 October 1939 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | Poland | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | Decisive German and Soviet victory | ||||||||||||||||
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The Polish September Campaign refers to the conquest of Poland by German and Soviet armies, and a small contingent of Slovak forces, in September 1939. The German plan was codenamed Fall Weiß ("Fall Weiss" or "Case White") by the German Wehrmacht. This military operation marks the start of World War II in Europe.
Names of the conflict
The conflict is known under several names. From the German perspective the war is called the "September Campaign". Polish historians call it Wojna obronna 1939 ("Defense War of 1939"). Other names include "Polish-German War of 1939" and "Polish Campaign".
Campaign Details
Recent research by the Polish National Remembrance Institute (IPN) indicates, that after staging a number of false provocations (Operation Himmler), the first regular act of war took place on on September 1, 1939, 04:40 local time, when Luftwaffe attacked the town of Wieluń. Five minutes later, on September 1, 1939, 04:45 local time, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Polish enclave of Westerplatte in Gdańsk by the Baltic Sea. At 08:00 local time, German troops attacked Poland near the town of Mokra. Later that day the front was opened along Poland's Western, Southern and Northern borders, while German aircraft started raids on Polish cities.
Despite some Polish successes in minor border battles, German technical and numerical superiority forced the Polish armies to withdraw towards Warsaw and Lwów. Westerplatte garrison capitulated on September 7. The largest battle during this campaign (Battle of Bzura) took place near the Bzura river west of Warsaw from September 9 to September 18 - it was the Polish attempt at a counterattack, which failed after an initial success. Warsaw, under heavy aerial bombardment from the first hours of the war, was first attacked on September 9 and was put under siege from September 13 until its capitulation on September 28.
The fortress Modlin north of Warsaw, capitulated on September 29.
Polish defenders on the Hel peninsula on the shore of the Baltic Sea held out until October 2. The capitulation of the town of Kock near Lublin on October 6, after a 4-day Battle of Kock, marked the end of the September Campaign.
Tanks and aircraft (particularly fighters and ground attack aircraft like the famous Junkers Ju 87 Stuka) played a major role in the fighting. Bomber aircraft also attacked cities and civilian targets causing huge losses amongst the civilian population in what became known as terror bombings.
Soviet agression
From September 17, 1939, the Soviet Red Army invaded the Eastern regions of Poland that had not yet been involved in military operations.
While the Soviet diplomacy stated that they were 'protecting the Russian minority inabiting Poland in view of Polish imminent collapse', in fact they were acting in co-operation with Nazi Germany, carrying out their part of a secret deal (the division of Europe into Nazi and Soviet spheres of influences, as specified in the secret appendix of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact).
Polish border defences forces (Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza) in the east (about 25 battalions) were unable to defend the border and were ordered by Edward Rydz-Smigly to fall back. This however did not prevent some clashes and small battles.
The Soviet invasion was one of the decisive factors that convinced the Polish government that the war in Poland was lost. Prior to the Soviet attack from the East, the Polish military plan called for long-term defence against Germany in the southern-eastern part of the Poland (near the Romanian border), while awaiting relief from an attack on the western border of Germany by the Western Allies. Facing two powerful enemies - Nazi Germany and Soviet Union - the Polish government decided that it was impossible to carry out the defence on Polish territories and ordered all units to evacuate Poland and reorganize in France.
Aftermath
At the end of the September Campaign, Poland was divided between Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, Lithuania and Slovakia. Nazi Germany annexed parts of Poland, while the rest was governed by the so-called General Government.
About 65,000 Polish troops were killed and 680,000 were captured by the Germans (420,000) or Soviets (240,000). Up to 120,000 Polish troops withdrew to neutral Romania and Hungary and 20,000 to Latvia and Lithuania, with the majority eventually making their way to France or Britain.
The invasion of Poland led to Britain and France declaring war on Germany on September 3, however they did little to affect the outcome of the September Campaign. This lack of direct help during the September 1939 lead many Poles to the believe that they have been betrayed by their Western allies. In the meantime Poland fulfilling her alliance obligations did not surrender in 1939, but rather set up a government-in-exile (Polish Government in Exile) in France (later in United Kingdom) connected to the extensive underground civil and military organisation (Polish Secret State) as legal successors to their pre-1939 government. During the German occupation, the Poles continued their struggle as one of the most extremely restive and organised populations under Nazi rule.
The Nazi occupation was one of the most brutal episodes of World War II, resulting in over 6 million deaths, including the mass murder of 3 million Polish Jews. Soviet occupation, while shorter, also resulted in millions of deaths.
Myths
There are some common myths about the Polish Campaign. Although Poland had 11 cavalry brigades and its doctrine emphasized cavalry units as elites, other armies of that time (including Germany) also fielded and extensively used cavalry units. Polish cavalry never charged on German tanks nor entrenched machine guns but usually acted as mobile infantry units and executed cavarly charges only in rare situations.
Secondly, the Polish air force, though numerically inferior and lacking modern fighters, was not destroyed on airfields and remained active in the first two weeks of the campaign, causing some harm to the Germans. Skilled Polish pilots who escaped to the United Kingdom after the German occupation were employed by the RAF during the Battle of Britain. Fighting from British bases, Polish pilots were also, on average, the most successful in shooting down German planes.
Important battles
- Battle of the border (September 1 - September 6) - the first battles
- Battle of Bory Tucholskie (September 1 - September 5)
- Battle of Bzura (September 9 - September 18) - failed Polish counterattack
- Battle of Warsaw (September 8 - September 28) - siege of the Polish capital
- Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski (September 17 - September 20) - second biggest battle of the campaign
- Battle of Kock (October 2 - October 5) - last big battle of the campaign
Forces involved
Poland:
Invading forces:
- German army units invading Poland in 1939
- Slovakian army units invading Poland in 1939
- Soviet army units invading Poland in 1939
Polish army equipment
- PZL P.7, fighter
- PZL P.11, fighter
- PZL P.24, fighter
- PZL.37 Łoś, twin-engine medium bomber
- PZL.23 Karaś, light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft
- Tanks
- TK-3 and TKS, tankettes
- 7TP, a light tank
- Armoured trains
- Warships
- ORP Błyskawica, a destroyer
- ORP Wicher, a destroyer
- ORP Grom, a destroyer
- ORP Burza, a destroyer
- ORP Orzel, a submarine
- ORP Sęp, a submarine
- ORP Wilk, a submarine
- ORP Ryś, a submarine
- ORP Żbik, a submarine
- smaller ships
Quotes
- ...in general the bravery and heroism of the Polish Army merits great respect - Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt, commander of Army Group South
See also
For more information about Poland during the Nazi occupation, see:
External Links
- World War 2 Online Newspaper Archives - The Invasion of Poland, 1939 (http://warmuseum.ca/cwm/newspapers/operations/poland_e.html)
- The Campaign in Poland at WorldWar2 Database (http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/poland.htm)
- The Campaign in Poland at Achtung! Panzer (http://www.achtungpanzer.com/polcamp.htm)
- German Statistics including September Campaign losses (http://www.feldgrau.com/stats.html)
- Fall Weiß - The Fall of Poland (http://worldatwar.net/wars/ww2/poland39/)
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pl:Kampania wrześniowa