1 September 1939 army III The Reichs invaded Poland from land, sea and air. Bombs fell on Tczew and Wieluń, a military transit facility on Westerplatte was fired on. Polish forces, although respective times weaker, more than a period resisted the opponent. Thus began the top conflict in the past of the world, which consumed 50 to 80 million lives.
Schleswig-Holstein" shelling Westerplatte, September 1, 1939.
“So war. As of today, all matters and matters continue. All our public and private lives are being moved to peculiar tracks. We entered the war. All the effort of the nation must go in 1 direction. We're all soldiers. We must think only of 1 thing – the fight until the victory" - he preached a peculiar radio message broadcast at 6.30 a.m. on September 1, 1939. On that day before dawn, without a declaration of war, German troops hit Poland.
Chancellor of the 3rd Reich Adolf Hitler has sought to revise the provisions since the beginning of government Treaty of Versaillesterminating First planet War, and rebuilding Germany's power. In 1936, he occupied demilitarized Rhineland. 2 years later, the 3rd Reich absorbed Austria, and in March 1939 it subjugated Czechoslovakia. Poland became another target.
In April 1939, at Hitler's command, his staff developed a plan to invade our country under the code name “Fall Weiss”. The Germans were to attack from 3 directions: along the full dimension of the Polish-German western border, from the north, from the area of East Prussia and Pomerania and from the south, from the area dependent on Germany Slovakia. “The German plan of the attack on Poland predicted a lightning war, a concentric hit was to break the Polish defence lines and let the march to Warsaw”, says Dr. Krzysztof Małecki, historian of planet War II.
"The demolition of Poland is our first task. Be without pity, be violent," Hitler said to his commanders in August 1939. The attack was scheduled for September 1.
Heroic Fight
To this day there is simply a dispute between historians, where the first shots were fired. any researchers admit that the first object of the German attack in Poland was Tczew, over whom enemy bombers appeared at 4.34 o'clock. The aim of the attack was to prevent Poles from destroying bridges on the Vistula. They were a crossing linking the 3rd Reich to East Prussia and were mined by Polish bomb squads. During the raid German machines destroyed the cables firing charges, fortunately Poles re-prepared explosives and began blowing up Tczewski bridges.
In turn, according to many another historians, the place where planet War II began was the 15,000 Wieluń, a town located 21 km from the border with the 3rd Reich. The first bombs dropped by the 4th Luftwaffe Air Fleet aircraft fell on an unarmed city at 4.35. After respective hours of raids, Wieluń was almost completely destroyed, respective 100 of its inhabitants were killed.
To this day, however, the symbol of aggression against Poland and at the same time the beginning of planet War II is Westerplatte. There, at 4.45 German school battleship Schleswig-Holstein, which had arrived a fewer days earlier in Gdańsk with a courtesy visit, fired the first volleys towards the Military Transit Component. The Polish crew of about 200 soldiers under Major Henryk Sucharski and Captain Franciszek Dąbrowski for 7 days resisted German attacks.
The German forces attacking Poland counted over 1.8 million soldiers armed with 1.3 1000 aircraft, 2.8 1000 tanks and 11,000 guns. Our borders were defended by little than 1 million soldiers with 4.8 1000 guns, 400 aircraft, and 880 tanks. So the disparity of forces was enormous. – Mobile and heavy armed Wehrmacht troops won the border conflict on 3 September, but Poland defended itself for more than a month," said Dr. Małecki. He adds that the German strike was even stopped for any time thanks to the conflict of Bzura, where Polish troops under the command of the Gen. Tadeusz Kutraby hit the Wehrmacht.
On 3 September, the United Kingdom and France entered the war with Germany in accordance with their alliance commitments to Poland. Unfortunately, no armed action has been followed by diplomatic procedures. “The Allies have decided that they are not yet ready to face III Things,” explains the historian.
Eventually, he decided on the campaign's destiny Soviet attack on Poland 17 September. The Red Army entered our country from the east, breaking the Polish-Soviet non-aggression pact and implementing the findings of the secret protocol concerning the 4th partition of Poland Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, concluded between the USSR and the 3rd Reich on August 23, 1939.
On the night of 17 to 18 September president Ignacy Mościcki along with the government and march. Edward Riga-Smigler, chief chief chief, crossed the Romanian border where they were interned. About 90 1000 Polish soldiers followed, who entered Romania, Hungary, Lithuania and Latvia.
Alone fighting 2 invaders Poland had to endure defeat. On 22 September, he surrendered to the Lviv, 28 September – Warsaw, and on 2 October the defenders of the Fortified Hel territory laid down their arms. As the last regular Polish arms division, the “Polesie” Operational Group of Gen. Francis Kleeberg was deposited, surrendering on 6 October after the conflict of Kocek.
More than 70,000 Polish soldiers were killed in the September battles, more than 150 000 were injured and more than 600 000 were taken prisoner. Of the Wehrmacht soldiers, about 45,000 were killed and wounded during the Polish campaign, and more than 10,000 were killed and wounded from the russian side.
The top Conflict in History
The attack on Poland began the six-year planet War II, the largest and bloodiest armed conflict in human history. After Poland, Germany occupied Denmark, Norway, the Benelux States, France, and besides joined the air offensive to the UK and together with Italy took over the Balkans. The russian Union occupied the Baltic countries and seized part of Romania.
The breakthrough occurred in 1941. On 22 June III, the Reich struck a erstwhile ally – the ZSRS, and on 7 December the United States entered the war against the Axis states attacked by Japan in Pearl Harbor. The battles covered almost all of Europe and part of Asia, Africa and the mediate East.
– During the conflict of Stalingrad between August 1942 and February 1943, the ZSRS forces stopped and repelled German troops and gradually went on to counteroffensives," says Dr. Małecki. In the summertime of 1943, the Allies landed in Sicily, and a year later on the beaches of Normandy and set off to fight deep into Europe.
The Axis, destroyed by war and struggling with increasingly many opponents, lost. On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide in Berlin, 2 days later the capital of the 3rd Reich capitulated before the Red Army. On May 8, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signed an unconditional surrender of the 3rd Reich in Berlin. The battles continued in the Far East, but after being dropped by the United States in August atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on September 2, Japan surrendered, yet ending planet War II.
1.7 billion people participated in the conflict, including over 110 million soldiers. According to various estimates, 50 to 80 million people died. Poland lost nearly 6 million people, or over 16% of the pre-war population of the country. So she suffered the highest percent failure among the countries active in the fighting. Technically, our country is among the winners. “However, according to the findings of the leaders of the large powers, Poland has become under russian influence for 50 years, which brought her another enslavement,” emphasises Dr. Małecki.
