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“German Casualties in East Put at 150,000”
Polish propoganda? The over-reaching of the Times Correspondents? Or just the wishful thinking of the Times Editors?
The German Army suffered a total of 8,082 officers and men killed, 27,278 wounded, and 5,029 missing in its 36 days of operations in Poland.
The Germans took 694,000 prisoners of war, out of some 800,000 who had served in Poland’s defense. By their own count, they captured a total of 3,214 field pieces, 16,500 machine guns, 1,700 mortars, and enormous quantities of small arms and ammunition.
Romania is one of my least studied areas of this time; I’d like a referral to any really good materials about how events transpired there.
What I am led to believe:
Everybody had designs on Romania of one sort or another, and she was pretty much manipulated as a pawn. Romania was large and relatively agrarian, but possessed significant resources such as grain and oil, and had strategic location at the mouth of the Danube between Germany and the USSR. The Soviets coveted Bessarabia/Moldavia and the Germans coveted her oil, grain and later her peasant infantry. The British were even players for a while, trying to prop her up as an eastern bulwark against Germany.
It will be interesting to see how things play out for Romania in the coming months. The Brits will never be in serious contention because their “guarantee” to Romania was as worthless as that offered Poland. Once France fell, the offer was even less than worthless. Germany already gave the USSR a green light regarding Moldavia, and the Romanians had every justifiable fear of Stalin’s Red Army as did Poland.
That left Nazi Germany as the only acceptable “suitor” by default, and Romania became an axis co-belligerent. This despite the fact Germany appears to have had a hand in the Iron Guard coup, that Germany “gave” a slice of her land to the USSR, and despite Ribbentrop’s “Vienna Award” giving Transylvania to the hated Hungarians. Further, during the war with Russia, the Germans expected the Romanian peasant infantry to march deep into the Soviet Union and fight the Red Army, despite German industry’s unwillingness or inability to equip the Romanians with any modern weapons. The Germans then treated the Romanians like red-headed step-children for failing to stand up to the Red Army T-34 tanks with obsolete 37mm antitank guns and a few broken-down Czech T-38 tanks. They were weapons that every Russian, German and Romanian soldier knew were crap.
Such became the fate of Romania, and it appears to be a fascinating story about which a lot more could be learned.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1939/sep39/f23sep39.htm
Saturday, September 23, 1939
Germans claim Poland defeated
In Berlin... The German government issues a statement claiming that all organized fighting in Poland has ended. It states “The Polish Army of a million men has been defeated, captured, or routed. No single Polish active or reserve division escaped this fate. Only fractions of individual groups were able to avoid immediate destruction by fleeing into the swamps of eastern Poland. They succumbed there to Soviet troops. Of the entire Polish army only an insignificant remainder still is fighting at hopeless positions in Warsaw, in Modlin and on the Hela Peninsula.”
In Germany... Wireless sets are confiscated from all Jews.
On the Western Front... German forces are reported to be counterattacking with no success.
In Rome... Mussolini restates the Italian intention to remain neutral unless attacked, following a policy to “strengthen our army in preparation for any eventualities and support every possible peace effort while working in silence.” He also suggests that the “liquidation” of Poland presents an opportunity for a European peace settlement.
In Poland... In Warsaw, food supplies are running out although the determination to resist remains among the Polish garrison surrounded in the city.
In the North Atlantic... Two Finnish steamers carrying cellulose are sunk by German submarine forces.
In Panama... American states agree to a 300-mile (480 km) neutral zone off the coast of the the Americas.
In Tokyo... Admiral Nomura becomes foreign minister in General Abe’s recently appointed government. Between now and their fall in January 1940, some conciliatory moves are made toward the United States. These are not reciprocated and this strengthens the beliefs and standing of the more bellicose Japanese politicians.
In Britain... Sigmund Freud, the famed Austrian psychoanalyst, dies at 83 years of age.
I found #7 to be pretty sad. Was their mayor executed?