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THE BEGINNING OF WORLD WAR II
The September Campaign
In the early morning hours of Sept. 1, 1939, 1.5 million German troops invaded
Poland by air and by land, unleashing the first “blitzkrieg,” a strategy meaning
“lightning war.” Planes, tank and air forces were deployed with stunning speed,
and troops destroyed railroads and communications stations, infiltrated
strongholds by posing as Polish military officers, and killed enemies with
explosives, guns and even sabers.
Hours after the attack, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler went before the Reichstag
and claimed that Germany had launched an attack in response to Polish
aggressiveness. “For the first time Polish regular soldiers fired on our own
territory,” he said. “Since 5:45 a.m. we have been returning the fire, and from
now on bombs will be met with bombs.”
France and England declared war against Germany on Sept. 3, but their support
was nominal at best. Neither country deployed significant military forces until
the next year, leaving Poland alone in its defense.
Although it had an army of more than 700,000, Poland was unprepared for the
blitzkrieg tactics. Its army was built around the tactics of World War I and it
could not deploy its troops quickly enough to defend against the more powerful
German forces.
Any hopes of repelling the invasion were dashed on Sept. 17, when the Soviet
Red Army invaded from east. Many Polish soldiers fled to Romania and formed
resistance forces. By the end of September, Germany and the Soviet Union had
control of the country. The last organized Polish resistance was defeated on Oct.
6.
Background: Hitler’s Foreign Aggression
Hitler felt that the seizure of foreign land for German use, known as Lebensraum,
was necessary for the German economy. In defiance of the Treaty of Versailles,
he began rearmament, seized the Rhineland in 1936, formed a union with
Austria (Anschluss) in March 1938, and pushed for Czechoslovakia to cede the
Sudetenland, a region with a large German minority.
Britain and France responded with appeasement, allowing Hitler to take control
of the region in September 1938 under the condition that he seize no more
territory. In March 1939, he seized the rest of the country; France and Britain did
little in response.
His next target was Poland, specifically the industrial port city of Danzig
(present-day Gdansk) on the German border, which had been ceded to Poland in
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the Treaty of Versailles. In April, Poland formed a military alliance with Britain
that would guarantee British intervention if Germany invaded Poland.
Undeterred, Hitler and his generals formed plans for the invasion of Poland
through the spring and summer. Hitler feared that it might provoke the Soviet
Union and leave Germany fighting a two-front war. On Aug. 23, 1939, Germany
signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, known as the MolotovRibbentrop pact.
The invasion was set to begin three days later, but it was called off just hours
before, after Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, Hitler’s ally, said that his
country was not yet prepared for war. The invasion was delayed until Sept. 1.
Reactions: The “Phony War”
After the initial rapid attacks on Poland, things appeared to quickly quiet down.
News was sparse from the front lines, and the American press started referring
to the situation as the “phony war.”
Actually, while there were few explosions or military engagements, there was
plenty of activity in Poland, Germany and the Soviet Union. The Nazis were
steadily establishing their occupation of Poland by imprisoning or killing the
country’s residents.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was pursuing war on other soil. On Nov. 30, Josef
Stalin declared war on Finland but met with an even match. The fighting in
Finland went on until spring, while the German forces rested from battle,
exhausted from fighting in bitter winter conditions.
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