October 4, 1939 – World War II: The last Polish units surrender to German and Soviet forces
Facing both German and Soviet invasions, the remaining Polish units continued to engage in desperate fighting. On September 20, 1939, at Tomaszow Lubelski, the Germans annihilated two Polish armies, the Krakow and Lublin Armies. Two days later, September 22, Lwow was taken. In Warsaw, on September 28, the Polish defenders who had withstood relentless German air and artillery attacks, and German ground assaults, finally capitulated after a 20-day siege, with 140,000 Polish soldiers captured. The next day, the Modlin Fortress located north of the capital also fell after two weeks of fighting. Isolated Polish pockets held off until as late as the first week of October 1939, which were overrun, ending the six-week war.
(Taken from German Invasion of Poland – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)
Background In March 1938, with the Anschluss (political union), Germany gained control of Austria. Six months later, September 1938, with the Munich Agreement, Germany annexed the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia; then after another six months, in March 1939, the dissolution of Czechoslovakia was complete. German leader Adolf Hitler had achieved these feats using only forceful diplomacy and threats of invasion. He then turned his eyes on Poland, intent on using the same aggressive diplomatic tactics.
At the end of World War I, the Allies reconstituted Poland as a sovereign nation, incorporating intothe new state portions of the eastern German territories of Pomerania and Silesia, which containedmajority Polish populations. In the1920s, the German Weimar Republicsought to restore to Germanyall its lost territories, but was restrained by certain stipulations of theTreaty of Versailles, which had been imposed on Germany after World War I. Polish Pomerania was known worldwide as the“Polish Corridor”, as it allowed Polandaccess to international waters through the Baltic Sea. The German city of Danzigin East Prussia, as well as nearby areas, alsowas detached from Germany,and renamed the “Free City of Danzig”, administered by the League of Nations,but whose port, customs, and public infrastructures were controlled by Poland.
In 1933, Hitler came to power and implemented Germany’smassive rearmament program, and later began to pursue his irredentist ambitionsin earnest. Previously in January 1934,Nazi Germany and Poland hadsigned a ten-year non-aggression pact, where the German government recognizedthe territorial integrity of the Polish state, which included the Germanregions that had been ceded to Poland. But by the late 1930s, the now militarilypowerful Germanywas actively pushing to redefine the German-Polish border.
In October 1938, Germanyproposed to Poland renewingtheir non-aggression treaty, but subject to two conditions: that Danzig berestored to Germany and thatGermany be allowed to buildroad and railway lines through the Polish Corridor to connect Germany proper and East Prussia. Poland refused, and in April 1939,Hitler abolished the non-aggression pact. To Poland, Hitler wasusing the same aggressive tactics that he had used against Czechoslovakia, and that if it yielded to theGerman demands on Danzig and the Polish Corridor, ultimately the rest of Poland would be swallowed up by Germany.
Meanwhile, Britainand France, which hadpursued appeasement toward Hitler, had become wary after the German occupationof the rest of Czechoslovakia,which had a non-ethnic German majority population, which was in contrast towhat Hitler had said that he only wanted returned those German-populatedterritories. Britainand France were nowdetermined to resist Germanydiplomatically and resolve the crisis through firm negotiations. On March 31, 1939, Britainand Franceannounced that they would “guarantee Polish independence” in case of foreignaggression. Since 1921, as per theFranco-Polish Military Alliance, France had pledged military assistance to Poland if thatlatter was attacked.
In fact, Hitler’s intentions on Poland was not only thereturn of lost German territories, but the elimination of the Polish state andannexation of Poland as part of Lebensraum (“living space”), German expansioninto Eastern Europe and Russia. Lebensraum called for the eradication of the native populations in theseconquered areas. For Polandspecifically, on August 22, 1939 in the lead-up to the German invasion, Hitlerhad said that “the object of the war is … to kill without pity or mercy allmen, women, and children of Polish descent or language. Only in this way can we obtain the livingspace we need.” In April 1939, Hitlerinstructed the German military High Command to begin preparations for aninvasion of Poland,to be launched later in the summer. ByMay 1939, the German military had drawn up the invasion plan.
In May 1939, Britainand France held high-leveltalks with the Soviet Union regarding forming a tripartite military allianceagainst Germany, especiallyin light of the possible German invasion of Poland. These talks stalled, because Poland refused to allow Soviet forces into itsterritory in case Germanyattacked. Unbeknown to Britain and France,the Soviet Union and Germanywere also conducting (secret) separate talks regarding bilateral political,military, and economic concerns, which on August 23, 1939, led to the signingof a non-aggression treaty. This treaty,which was broadcast to the world and widely known as the Molotov RibbentropPact (named after Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and German ForeignMinister Joachim von Ribbentrop), brought a radical shift to the European powerbalance, as Germany was now free to invade Poland without fear of Sovietreprisal. The pact also included asecret protocol where Poland,Finland, Estonia, Latvia,Lithuania, and Romania weredivided into German and Soviet spheres of influence.
One day earlier, August 22, with the non-aggression treatyvirtually assured, Hitler set the invasion date of Poland for August 26, 1939. On August 25, Hitler told the Britishambassador that Britain mustagree to the German demands on Poland,as the non-aggression pact freed Germany from facing a two-front warwith major powers. But on that same day,Britain and Poland signed a mutual defense pact, whichcontained a secret clause where the British promised military assistance if Poland was attacked by Germany. This agreement, as well as British overturesthat Britain and Poland were willing to restart the stalled talkswith Germany,forced Hitler to abort the invasion set for the next day.
The Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) stood down, except forsome units that did not receive the new stop order and crossed into Poland,skirmishing with the Poles. These Germanunits soon withdrew back across the border, but the Polish High Command,informed through intelligence reports of massive German build-up at the border,was unaware that the border skirmishes were part of an aborted German invasion.
German negotiations with Britainand Francecontinued, but they failed to make progress. Poland had refused tonegotiate on the basis of ceding territory, and its determination wasstrengthened by the military guarantees of the Western Powers, particularly inthat if the Germans invaded, the British and French would attack from the west,and Germanywould be confronted with a two-front war.
On August 29, 1939, Germanysent Poland a set ofproposals for negotiations, which included two points: that Danzig be returnedto Germany and that aplebiscite be held in the Polish Corridor to determine whether the territoryshould remain with Poland orbe returned to Germany. In the latter, Poles who were born or hadsettled in the Corridor since 1919 could not vote, while Germans born there butnot living there could vote. Germanydemanded that negotiations were subject to a Polish official with signingpowers arriving by the following day, August 30.
Britaindeemed that the German proposal was an ultimatum to Poland, and tried but failed toconvince the Polish government to negotiate. On August 30, the German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop presented theBritish ambassador with a 16-point proposal for negotiations, but refused thelatter’s request that a copy be sent to the Polish government, as no Polishrepresentative had arrived by the set date. The next day, August 31, the Polish Ambassador Jozef Lipski conferredwith Ribbentrop, but as Lipski had no signing powers, the talks did notproceed. Later that day, Hitlerannounced that the German-Polish talks had ended because of Poland’srefusal to negotiate. He then orderedthe German High Command to proceed with the invasion of Poland for thenext day, September 1, 1939.
