On the eve of World War II, Poland, with a population of nearly 35 million, plus 1.5 million well-equipped army, was known as the "fourth most powerful country in Europe", second only to France, Britain and Germany (according to the ranking), and some people even believed that Poland's military strength was still above Germany, and it could rank third. So why was such a strong reinforcement against Nazi Germany so abandoned by Britain and France and allowed to be invaded by Germany?
In 1938, after Germany annexed the Sudetenland, it blatantly violated the Munich Agreement signed with Britain, France and Italy, and annexed all of Czechoslovakia, but Britain and France were bent on avoiding the outbreak of war, avoiding direct military conflict with Germany, and pursuing a policy of appeasement, resulting in the seventh largest power in Europe being taken by German soldiers without bloodshed.
Poland may be considered far stronger than Czechoslovakia in the eyes of the world, but in the minds of Britain and France, for the sake of appeasement, as long as it does not pose a direct threat to Britain and France, all interests can be abandoned, including allies.
The so-called appeasement policy is actually Chinese statement, the appeasement of the "appeasement", that is, compromise, and the "jing" means stability and peace, making concessions in some aspects, especially referring to diplomatic retreat to avoid war, so the appeasement policy is a passive act of indulging war, if in extraordinary times, it is tantamount to drinking and quenching thirst.
After the 'Munich Agreement'' British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain showed the results of the negotiations to the public at the airport - Hitler's 'Declaration of Peace''
After Czechoslovakia was annexed by Germany, Hitler's next target was another great shame for Germany — Poland, and it was the existence of Poland that had been re-established after World War I that would separate Germany's East Prussia from the Danzig Corridor, so Hitler vowed to pay the Polish blood debt.
For Poland, although the army was strong, it was only a tool for negotiations with Germany in the eyes of Britain and France, and Poland, which reappeared on the European map in 1919, would continue to receive aid despite promises from the victorious powers. In the famous "Silesian Uprising" of 1921, Britain and France secretly allowed Silesia to remain in Germany in order to obtain war reparations from Germany, without the slightest regard for Poland's wishes.
Poland, which knew that Britain and France were unreliable, began to sign defense treaties with France and Romania from 1921, thus curbing Germany and the Soviet Union, a strong neighbor in the West. Although France was Poland's most important ally, with Hitler's rise to power, Germany's expansion ambitions were well known to the world, and France, which pursued an appeasement policy, had to be concerned about Hitler's thoughts when assisting in the defense of Poland, and did not dare to act too much in Eastern Europe to further provoke a world war.
On September 1, 1939, Germany blitzed Poland, and the Soviet Union simultaneously attacked from the east. Although Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, they did not dare to send troops to assist in defense according to the treaty signed with Poland, for the simple reason that the Soviet Union was an unexpected factor - the treaty was completely proposed against Germany, and as for the Soviet Union, Britain and France did not know how to deal with it, so they simply abandoned Poland, abandoned the car to protect the marshal, and hoped that the Soviet Union and Germany would fight each other.
Germany relied on armored forces to quickly blitz Poland
Of course, what was necessary was still to be done, and in the eyes of the Poles, their great savior, the French Army, the first continental power in Europe, sent 98 divisions and 2500 tanks to advance toward the Saar region in western Germany. The spectators who thought they could enter Berlin in half a year did not expect that the French army had only advanced 3 miles, and the attack was hastily ordered to be terminated by the command, which could be described as thunder and rain. After taking care of Poland, Germany transferred elite troops from the Eastern Front and returned the front to the pre-war state , the famous "sit-in" began, and Poland, once the fourth most powerful country in Europe, no longer existed.
Why did Britain and France pursue a policy of appeasement? The main reason, of course, was that Britain and France were reluctant to go to war directly with Germany, but there were other factors, and the Leaders of Britain and France were still fantasizing about fighting with Germany against the Soviet Union, and in their eyes Germany was still counted as a country in the Western world, and it was only right to resist the Soviet Union.
In addition, Britain and France also believed that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh, and it was not surprising that Germany would rise up to resist, because the extreme oppression of Germany by the Versailles system was unacceptable to the German people, and all countries believed that Germany was only asking for what belonged to it and regaining its own interests, not to further expand the war.
However, Hitler also gave Britain and France a hard slap, and with the signing of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact in 1939 between Germany and the Soviet Union, a war to divide the world had begun, Germany aimed its next expansion at Denmark and Norway, while the Soviet Union was Finland, and the appeasement policy was completely ruined after Germany's "Yellow Action" in May 1940 after the defeat of the Low Countries and the advance into France.