Eastern Front
Poland
The invasion of Poland by the German Army on September 1, 1939 precipitated World War 2. Within days of the invasion, both France and Britain had declared war on Germany. Many people had foreseen the conflict, but few could guess as to the success of the Wehrmacht, or the Soviet Union's treachery.
At the beginning of April 1939, after the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia, Hitler ordered the General Staff to begin making plans for an invasion of Poland. This operation would be called Fall Weiss .
Poland was an ideal theatre for the kind of war being developed by the Wehrmacht. Polandf was fairly flat, dry and hard-surfaced, ideal for lightning war, "Blitzkrieg". Its borders were also too long to be defended, and flanked on three sides - Germany to the west, East Prussia to the north and the newly annexed Czechoslovakia to the south. Poland's army was very much outdated, it lacked armour or mobile forces. The bulk of the army was made up of thirty divisions of infantry and 11 brigades of horsed cavalry.
On the other hand, the German invasion was spearheaded by six panzer (tank) divisions and eight motorised infantry divisions. This was backed up by 27 infantry divisions, whose primary role was to draw the attention of the Polish troops while the more mobile forces raced around the flanks and attacked command and control centres in the rear.
Click here to view more information on the weapons used by the Wehrmacht.
1st September One hour after the initial airstrikes, von Runstedt's Army Group South attacked: 8th Army on the left wing drove for Lodz, 14th Army on the right aimed at Krakow and the armour of 10th Army pierced the gap between the Lodz and Krakow armies, linked with 8th Army and raced for Warsaw. Army Group North under von Bock attacked at the same time, and 3rd Army drove south from East Prussia. The Panzers of Guderian's 19th Corps struck east across the Polish corridor.
3rd September
4th September 5th September 6th September 7th-10th September On 9th September, 4th Panzer Division troops reached Warsaw and attempted to storm the city, but was held off. By now, the bulk of the Polish army had been surrounded, but the Poznan army launched a counter-attack down the line of the Bzura River, beginning the biggest battle of the campaign. Other Polish troops wondered aimlessly inside the cauldron, trying to make contact with either their troops or the enemy.
On 10th September, Warsaw came under attack from Luftwaffe air raids, and the Polish government ordered a general withdrawal to the south-east.
The German troops trained all through the summer and in August they were moved to their start points. At 4.45 on September 1 ,without warning, Germany's Luftwaffe crossed the Polish frontier. Its 1400 bombers, dive bombers and fighters systematically destroyed Polish airfields and aircraft, and everything else that could have helped the Polish defence. This surprise attack eliminated most the air threat and gave Germany control of the skies for the invasion.
As the tanks in the 10th Army crossed the river Warta, France and Britain demanded the withdrawal of all German forces. While Germany remained silent, the Allies consulted about how best to keep their promises to Poland. A final ultimatum was sent and ignored, and at 11pm on 3rd September 1939, Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister broadcast the news that Britain was now at war with Germany.
By the 4th of September, the panzers of 10th Army had invaded 80 kilometers into Poland, having isolated the Polish Lodz army from its supplies. 14th Army troops reached the River San on both sides of Przemyl. Army Group North continued its drive south from Pomerania and East Prussia, while 4th Army pushed east across the Polish corridor, cutting off Danzig and Gydnia and then followed the Vistula River towards Warsaw, the Polish capital. 3rd Army followed the Bug River towards Brest-Litovsk, Lvov and a linkup with 14th Army. The main goal of this was two huge encirclements, one meeting at Warsaw and the other at Brest-Litovsk. The encirclement at Brest-Litovsk was designed to block any escapes from the ring meeting at Warsaw.
4th Army took Bydgoszcz, and broke through the forward Polish defence line and crossed the Vistula River. Luftwaffe planes bombed the town of Sulejow near Warsaw.
Soutern Army Group's 8th Army captured Tomaszow and outflanked the bulk of the Polish army retreating from the north. The Polish government fleed from the capital and the immediate confusion of battle masked the extraordinary success of the German Army.
The ancient German dreadnought Schleswig-Holstein shelled the Polish naval base at Hela near Gydnia. The Polish air force was all but wiped out, apart from a few successful early counter-attacks. German Stukas were free to attack any target without fear of interruption.
On 8th September, the Polish entrenched themselves in Warsaw, as the Wehrmacht continued its attack towards Warsaw. Since the start of the war, 4th Panzer division had advanced 225 km, an average of 30 km per day. Guderian's corps continued eastward and turned south, the spearhead of the German attack towards Brest-Litovsk.
