What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
On September 1, 1939, the German army dispatched 62 divisions, a total of 1.6 million people, 2,800 tanks, 2,000 aircraft, 6,000 artillery and mortars, forming two army groups on the South Road and the North Road, which launched a lightning attack on Poland in three ways.
A hypocritical excuse
Germany's battle plan against Poland "White Plan" was approved by Hitler as early as April 1938, after which, the German army began to fully mobilize, preparing for the war, although the German war is an unjust war of aggression, but Hitler still needs an excuse to start a war, in April 1939, Germany and Poland are still in a period of superficial "peace", rushing to start a war division is also a bad influence on the military mind, in order to find a suitable excuse for the war, the German high level formulated a "special operation" 。
In April 1939, the German High Command gave the German Army Admiral Carraris a special mission to form 16 combat detachments from the German military intelligence agency Abbeville, secretly infiltrate Poland, and sabotage Polish barracks, railways, bridges, etc. on the Polish border, in order to provoke the Polish army, the squad was granted a special power, that is, within 12 hours before the declaration of war on Poland, the detachment could carry out provocative actions against the Polish army and find excuses for starting war.
According to information declassified after the war, Germany's initial plan was to launch an offensive at 4:15 a.m. on August 26, 1939, and General Carraris ordered the detachment to begin operations at 8 a.m. on August 25. The 16 combat squads were all elite of the German Army, and upon receiving the order, the squads moved quickly.
Sudden change
Shortly after General Carárres's order was issued, suddenly a lieutenant colonel in the German High Command urgently informed Carárres that the Fuehrer had postponed the attack on Poland for political reasons, and asked Carrares to do everything possible to stop the movement of the detachment. This change was like a stick on The Head of Cararis, the order had been issued, and it would be easy to take it back, not to mention that these were 16 independent squads with independent action, and it was not yet known where they had all gone.
Cararis hurriedly ordered his men to contact the detachments by radio, and finally contacted 15 of them, fortunately, they were not exposed, and immediately stopped the action after receiving the order to retreat and quietly crossed the national border back to Germany to stand by. However, the 16th squad continued its scheduled operation because it was not in contact.
The commander of this detachment, Albert Heine, was an army lieutenant, and at that time, many lower German officers were opposed to war in their hearts, for the simple reason that in the war, they were at the forefront, the mortality rate was also the highest, and they were cannon fodder for the benefit of the rulers, and no one was willing to do this stupid thing.
Lieutenant Heine was one of them, not a fanatical Nazi himself, who had his own views on the actions of the high-rankings, and hated him by various policies of ethnic cleansing in the country, but as a soldier, his mission was to obey, and when the other 15 detachments were urgently withdrawing to the country, the unsuspecting Lieutenant Heine was on the task of occupying a train passage in Poland called Galenkov.
In the early morning of 26 August, Heine and his comrades launched an attack on the police at the train passage, and after a brief exchange of fire, the Polish police surrendered, Heine successfully occupied the train passage, and the nearby temporary railway station was also controlled.
The delayed arrival of the Germans
After completing the mission, Heine and his comrades held their positions waiting for the arrival of the German troops, but after waiting for a long time did not find the shadow of German tanks, everyone thought that war had broken out, Heine grabbed a prisoner and asked him if he had received orders from the Polish side, and whether the two countries had gone to war. The Polish prisoners shook their heads and replied that there should have been no war.
Heine hurriedly found the radio station at the railway station and confirmed it with the German intelligence agencies, but the side quickly called back and ordered them to withdraw to the German border line at once!
Heine's mistaken strike thus fired the first shot of the full outbreak of the Second World War, and although Germany did not go to war as originally planned, its ambitions were already exposed to Poland, which immediately mobilized its troops to strengthen its defenses and confront Germany. But Germany did not give Poland much time, and six days later, at 4:45 a.m. on September 1, 1939, with the roar of warplanes, the German steel torrent officially crossed the border to attack Poland, and World War II broke out in full swing.