The long river of history is running endlessly, there are calm waves, there are also waves, let Xiaobian take you into history and understand history.
Poland was the First European country invaded by Germany in the first war of World War II, and was the first victim under the policy of "appeasement", but looking at the entire Polish War, it can be summed up in four sentences: those who want to win are too fast, those who do not want to lose are too miserable, what should not come is not coming, what should not come is coming again, this is undoubtedly a war that exposes the greedy nature of European countries.
Regardless of interests, we are still good friends
Before Germany invaded Poland, Germany and Poland had always had a very good relationship, and before Hitler came to power, Germany and Poland signed a 10-year German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact, and the two sides also had a rather pleasant "honeymoon period", such as Poland's support for the German-planned "German-Austrian amalgamation" time, which was later promoted and abetted by the "Sudetenland Crisis Incident" that broke down Czechoslovakia, of course, the Germans also gave the Poles enough benefits, until this time The two countries got along quite happily.
The only difference between Poland and Britain and France in the question of "appeasement" was that the Poles were "unprofitable", and he divided about 650 square miles of land in Czechoslovakia, but Poland forgot that the "Danzig" region, like the "Sudetenland", Germany's biggest problem, would never be forgotten by Hitler.
In 1938, Germany offered to exchange Poland's accession to the German-led Alliance of The Agreements against the Communist International on the condition that Danzig be assigned to Germany and the establishment of a highway linking East Prussia in the corridor area, which was another "encroachment" on the issue of the "Sudetenland" that Germany emulated Czechoslovakia, and if Poland agreed, then Germany would not only redeem the Danzig region but also connect East Prussia with the mainland, which would undoubtedly be a great benefit to Germany.
But Poland saw through Hitler's trick and sternly rejected the German proposal, the two sides broke up unhappily, and the set of German encroachment lost its effect in front of Poland for the first time.
Neither Germany nor Poland is reliable about finding "allies."
Since danzig could not be obtained by encroachment, Germany planned to use a war to gain all of Poland, but Poland at that time was also known as the third largest military power in Europe, and there were millions of british and French troops behind it, and Germany did not dare to risk alone; Poland felt the threat of war, although it did not take it seriously, but also embarked on the road to find foreign aid; so in 1939, Germany and Poland carried out intensive diplomatic activities for a period of time.
In April 1939, Poland signed the Anglo-Polish Treaty of Security Assurances after consultation with Britain; in May, France reaffirmed its commitment to the Locarno Convention to guarantee the territorial integrity of Poland, and signed a protocol on military action, verbally guaranteeing Polish interests.
Poland had received verbal guarantees of support and had the ability to compete with Germany.
The first thing that came to mind on the German side was his Nazi "teacher" Italy, but Mussolini was reluctant to get involved easily in a war that did not benefit him enough, and he did not agree with Germany's decision that Italy would attack France from the Italian-French border if France attacked Germany after the polish war broke out.
Mussolini's attitude said bluntly, "Lao Tzu is not sure that he can overthrow France, you are now doing three alone, don't you pull me into the water?" ”
Hitler reluctantly asked Mussolini what kind of material preparations the Italian army needed if Italy was needed to participate in the war, and the implication was, "If you can help, what do you want, give a price!" ”
Mussolini was also unambiguous, and opened a "luxury version" of Hitler's military supplies demand list, which Mussolini's son-in-law, Foreign Minister Ciano, commented, "This list is enough to kill a cow, if it can read." Hitler was not stupid, knowing that Italy could not do anything, so Hitler could only look for other "partners", such as the Soviet Union.
Relations between Germany and the Soviet Union were very bad from before Hitler came to power, and the early "Reichstag arson" was a good example of the Nazi Party's fight against German communism, and after Hitler came to power, Germany dominated the Anti-Comintern Pact alliance aimed at containing the Soviet Union.
But in the national mind, there are no eternal enemies and no eternal friends, only eternal interests.
In fact, before Germany and the Soviet Union came into contact, Britain and France began negotiations with the Soviet Union to contain Germany, because Germany dominated the "anti-communist" alliance to contain the Soviet Union, so Britain and France used this as a basis for communication to ask the Soviet Union to reach a war agreement with Britain and France, that is, when Britain and France were attacked by Germany, the Soviet Union needed to provide assistance to Britain and France, but it did not say anything about the assistance of Britain and France when the Soviet Union was attacked, so the One-sided agreement The Soviet Union was not stupid and would not agree.
Hitler seized the opportunity to send German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop to the Soviet Union for consultations, and on the same day the two countries signed the "German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact", this "instantaneous" agreement put the whole of Europe in a state of "ignorance", the original two countries that were completely opposite became allies overnight, this is how it was achieved, did you meet "true love"?
Of course, what can make The Soviets reckless is not the sudden outbreak of "love" but the real interests. The most important agreement of the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact was the division of Europe between the two sides, and Hitler and Stalin cut Eastern Europe very well on a plate.
Thus, before the war in Poland began, Poland gained "official protection" from Britain and France, but lost the help of the Soviet Union; Germany saw the tricks of Italian opportunism, but gained a temporary ally, the Soviet Union.
According to this situation, after the outbreak of the Polish War, Germany first attacked Poland, Britain and France attacked Germany, and the Soviet Union attacked Poland. But the actual result was that Poland was put in the "pocket of lies".
It should be said here that just after Poland refused Germany's demands on Danzig, British Prime Minister Ne Chamberlain once again instilled in Poland the attitude of "appeasement", believing that only an agreement on Danzig with Hitler was needed, then the best way to avoid war.
Poland also planned to hold further consultations with Germany on the danzig question (meaning, yes, I will step back, Danzig to you), but At this time Hitler, who was holding the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, was no longer satisfied with this small part of Danzig (the European cake was divided, my plate was ready, would I care about your three melons and two dates?). War was inevitable by this time.
The bizarre war moves of the Polish War
At 4 o'clock on September 1, 1939, the German army invaded Poland and the Polish War broke out.
After the Polish War, countries began a series of "riot operations", the initiator of the war, Germany, for the first time put the "Blitzkrieg" into practice, the effect was remarkable; the war participants polish antiquated strategic, tactical, and combat thinking under the guidance of the First World War army was passive throughout the whole process; Britain and France, simply put, did not come; the Soviet Union, simply put, should not have come!
Victory came too quickly – Germany:
This was the second time since the end of World War I that the German armed forces had entered a state of war, and yes, you read that right, it was the second time, the first time was in the Spanish Civil War, where Germany improved the tactical use of tanks and upgraded tank performance.
The Luftwaffe, the Luftwaffe assembled 1900 aircraft, at the beginning of the war on the polish airfields carried out a surprise attack, the unprepared Polish Air Force handed over the air supremacy in one day, the German reconnaissance aircraft, bombers flew freely in Polish airspace as if into no man's land, not only controlled the movement of the Polish army but also caused great confusion to the Polish army with bombers during the withdrawal of the Polish army.
Army: The German army's 2,800 tank units broke through the Polish army's first-line defense with little effective resistance, and the armored unit penetrated directly into the Polish hinterland to divide and encircle the main Polish army "Kraków" and "Łódź" army.
At this time, the only thing that could stop the German armored forces was the fuel supply that could not reach the front line, and the Polish command system, the transportation system, almost completely collapsed.
Germany's performance throughout the war was not perfect, because new tactics were applied in the war and the Slovak army was added to the army system, so there was inevitable chaos in the course of the battle, but fortunately their opponents were more chaotic.
The said good counterattack did not come - the Polish army:
It is not true to say that the Polish army did not have any preparation for the German-Polish war, but when Germany showed its war fangs, the Polish army also made war predictions and made war preparations, but such war preparations were divorced from reality.
Poland formulated the "Western Plan" to prepare for future operations against Germany, which deployed the main Polish army along the German-Polish border and built a strong defense to block the German invasion to achieve the strategic goal of "keeping the enemy out of the country".
In addition, in this plan, once britain and France attack Germany on the western front, the Polish army will counterattack the German army from two directions, and the main force in Poznan can take Berlin directly from Berlin. (Well, where does this come from?) ）
In the battle, the Polish army lacked the tactical application ability of tanks, subject to the tank tactical theory of the support tanks of the First World War, the number of Polish tanks was not only insufficient, poor quality and extremely scattered, but often destroyed before they could play a role in the face of German armored groups.
At this time, the Polish army put all its hopes on its own reinforcements, and when Britain and France declared war on Germany, Poland rushed to tell each other, thinking that the war had ushered in a turnaround, but until the end of the war, such a turnaround did not come.
What should have come is not coming - England and France:
On September 1, Germany attacked Poland, but it was not until 11 a.m. on September 3 that the British government officially declared war on Germany, while France was six hours later than Britain, and Britain and France were not even willing to give a "blank check" such as a declaration of war in time.
The French Soviet-German border originally had hundreds of thousands of main troops, and after the outbreak of the Polish War, the French army added troops to the border, which made the French army have a total of 86 French divisions in the German army to look at the German western front, at this time the German army placed on the "Siegffield Line" on the western front Only 33 divisions (one said 29 divisions), including 22 reserve divisions.
But in the face of such a German army, France has been looking at the tiger, yes, just look. The French quietly watched the Polish water on the eastern front almost destroyed, while on the western front, the French quietly watched the German army on the opposite side has been brewing.
Finally, on September 7, seven days after the start of the Polish War, the French launched a seven-day-long battle operation on the German-French border, the so-called "Saar Offensive". The French sent 15 divisions in the direction of the Germans, but the Germans did not fight with it but retreated to the "Siegfried Line", and the "victorious" French army once again stopped before the German line, and then did not fire a single shot until the end of the Polish War.
Here must focus on the British, when their four divisions rushed to the Western Front was already after the defeat of Poland, but this is the first time that the British pit their teammates in World War II, but not the last, and later we will see that including, Including France, the United States, and China, there is no British who dare not pit.
The Undeserved Coming - the USSR:
The question of the division of Poland was already clear as early as the supplement to the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, so when the main German army was directly inserted into Poland, according to the agreement between the two sides, the Soviet army should also march into Poland, but the Soviet Union did not intend to hold the Polish army on the Eastern Front for Hitler to guard against the main force of the Soviet Union.
Although Hitler tried his best to invite Stalin to join him in the attack on Poland, the Soviet Union preferred to sit back and reap the greatest results with minimal losses, especially when the results were agreed upon before the war.
On 15 September, the Polish army had collapsed completely, and the center of the country, Warsaw, was surrounded by German regiments, and it was only a matter of time before it fell. Because of the threat of a "symbolic offensive" by the French army on the Western Front in Germany, Hitler once again asked Stalin to send troops.
Two days later, the Soviet Belorussian and Ukrainian fronts entered Poland, and the fragile Polish army could no longer make an effort to stop it, and only a day later the Soviets and Germans met in Poland.
The addition of the Soviet army dealt a heavy blow to the confidence of the Polish army to resist, and even more hit the already weak will to fight of the British and French armies on the Western Front.
On 5 October, the polish army surrendered to Germany and the Soviet Union, and the combat phase of the Polish campaign ended. The Battle of Poland, which lasted four weeks, defeated Poland with small casualties (more than 40,000 casualties); Poland paid the price of 200,000 casualties and the fall of the country for its blind confidence. The Soviet Union became the biggest winner of the Polish war, gaining not only large tracts of land but also losing lightly.
After the end of the Polish War, the European continent gained a brief calm, which was short-lived, and before Hitler began the next war, such a calm would be precious for Europe for the next five years!
The Polish War was the beginning of Germany's "war desire", so that Hitler could not have imagined the success of the Nazi confidence to start a series of war reasons and finally led to the abyss of war leading to the final collapse; Poland, as a victim of the idea (to fight back against Germany with Britain and France) and the lack of strength (backward war potential), was overconfident and over-trusted in his allies, which eventually led to a tragic defeat; Britain and France, the slogans were shouted loudly, and the "empty checks" flew all over the sky, but when the war really came, it became a "paper tiger". The Soviet Union was undoubtedly the biggest winner of the Polish War, but in the next Finnish War, we will talk about how the Soviet Union was taught a lesson by weak Finland.
Well, today's sharing ends here, and we'll see you next time