Page 17 - "a German declaration of war against Poland probably will lead France and Great Britain to take new military measures"
Uh, if you call fortifying behind a World War I defense in a World War II world then yes, otherwise I think that reporter is going to be disappointed.
Page 11 - "Much was being made of alleged deficiencies in the German Army equipment and the the condition of German airplanes, which according to a source close to the government is far from what 'German propaganda' has represented."
There is a degree of truth to this point. Keep in mind that at this point the best tank in the German army is the Panzer IV and there are not that many of them. The bulk of armor is the Panzer II with a small 2 cm gun and the Panzer I which only had twin machine guns. But that was still more than enough for the Polish equipment and training.
Page 4 - "The new bridge joining the cities of Lunde and Sandoe across the River Aangermann, which has could have had the larges concrete span in the world, collapsed today, killing thirty-two workers who were completing the structure.
There, I fixed that.
In general I'm taken by how the newspaper articles seem to emit a "long war" mentality. This should not be surprising since they had no idea that within two weeks this will all be over (for the most part). But notice how there is talk of "skirmishes" and scattered artillery fire. The true scope of that fight and how efficient the German war machine is to be in this battle is about to be realized. I will be very interested as to the "flavor" of the reporting as this reality comes to light.
As we move forward here I will continue to post links to radio broadcasts from the Old Time Radio web site as well as headlines from the U.K. Telegraph from the time. I also will occasionally be giving analysis based on Frieser's "Blitzkrieg Legend" as well as Gurderian's "Auchtung Panzer" to give a better feel to the tactical aspects of these events.
Blitzkrieg. The original shock and awe. We took the same concepts and principles and applied them to Airland Battle doctrine just in time for Desert Storm.
I am curious to see how the war reporting develops over time. I would expect a rapid divergence of reality and reporting and then a gradual return to accuracy as war correspondents learn the ropes. That is aside from government censorship, of course.
I also look forward to learning who those war correspondents are. I once saw a story written by Frank Kluckhohn in 1945 datelined Saipan. In 1938 he was writing from Mexico City. Next month he will be in Washington. He will be putting on boots and a steel hat to do his writing in a few years.
That gets me thinking in big picture terms. How would people in this country have reacted if they knew what it would take to get from 1939 to 1945 - from Poland to Saipan? Did they have any idea what these strange and scary reports from Poland portended? I have a page full of letters to the editor from the Sept. 10 issue to post. Maybe that will provide a hint.
Don’t recognized the CBS announcer. Maybe Robert Trout?
Cougar, I can’t remember which German mentioned this in his memoirs, but he said that when war came, in his opinion “only the infantry was ready to fight.” Your points about the inadequacies of the Panzerwaffe were shared by it’s commanders. The victory over Poland was as much a victory by the initiative and aggression of small unit leaders throughout the infantry arm as it was with the Panzers and the Luftwaffe.
The Poles were really no match for the Germans. The Germans had EVERY advantage. The Germans had the better strategic and operational positions. The Germans had the Poles outnumbered. The Germans were fully mobilized and deployed, the Poles had only just begun full mobilization. The Germans had a large industrial base to rely upon if the war went on, the Poles had no means of replacing lost weapons or re-supplying their troops in any quantity. The Luftwaffe and German panzers were technologically and numerically far superior to the Polish equivalents. The German officer and NCO corps were vastly superior. I could go on but why bother?
There is a degree of truth to this point. Keep in mind that at this point the best tank in the German army is the Panzer IV and there are not that many of them. The bulk of armor is the Panzer II with a small 2 cm gun and the Panzer I which only had twin machine guns. But that was still more than enough for the Polish equipment and training.”
Unfortunately the Poles had Tankettes (yes that really is a term) deployed to fight German tanks.
Some time this week, I’m going to try to post some armor comparisons on the tanks of the 1939 campaign. It’s not exact, I’m going to pull the stats from the “Command Decision 3” World War II miniatures rules, but it will provide relative comparisons in an easy to understand format.