Posted on 08/31/2009 8:37:27 PM PDT by Dubya
A day of commemorations has begun in Poland to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II.
The first ceremony took place at dawn on Westerplatte peninsula near Gdansk, where a German battleship fired the first shots on a Polish fort in 1939.
Poland's president and prime minister led the ceremony at the fort.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
At the same time, the German Wehrmacht invaded Poland over three frontiers.
The attacks triggered Britain and France's declaration of war against Germany two days later.
I’ve never served, but I’ll stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any Pol, any day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wizna
ping
My God bless the Polish people!
Oh Gdansk, also known as Danzig
The beginning of 50 years of darkness for the Polish people.
Polish Resistance Fighters prepare a machine gun...
"To Arms! United We Will Defeat the Enemy!"
Although the outcome may have been a foregone conclusion, the Wermach found it tougher going by the day in Poland. The Poles who did not mobilize at the insistence of England and France so as to avoid antagonizing the Germans, began to organize their resistance. The Wermach had been unable to reduce Warsaw or consolidate their initial gains. There was hope that if the initial drives stalled, Warsaw might hang on until England and France could attack from the West. The Wermach was not yet truly the well-oiled machine it was perceived to be and later would become. Then, Russia drove several divisions across the Bug and the Poles had no choice. An attack in the west was not ready and the Wermach was able to quickly rush his troops back to the western borders. WWII had settled into a long bloody affair.
Liberals seem to have a selective memory when they try to remind us that we were “allies” with the Communists. Not for the first three years of the war! The Russian attack on Poland guaranteed that it would be a “World” war.
Oldplayer
Poles were regrouping in Romania at the time, and may have been able to launch a counter-attack to at least gain part of the country back, had the Soviets not come in.
I saw a few days ago that there had been no word yet from the administration regarding who would represent the U.S.
I didn’t see any mention in this article about U.S. involvement so I’ll just guess for now that we’ve snubbed another one of our allies.
Stalin was going to start the war by 1943, if Hitler didn’t. He just needed more time to get the Red Army ready.
Stalin counted on a long war in the West between Germany, England and France. And if all sides spent their resources, the Red Army would just sweep right in and pick up the pieces.
Of course, Stalin never counted on France falling in six weeks.
I guess that's why nobody really counts on France anymore.
Actually, hostilities began August 26, 1939 when a German-Slovak unit occupied the Jablonka Pass. No one remembered to tell the commander that the date for commencement of operations had been postponed.
“may have been able to launch a counter-attack to at least gain part of the country back, had the Soviets not come in.”
Wishful thinking....
By the time the Soviets invaded, Guderian was already driving south to Lvov via Lublin, the Reserve Army had pretty much dissolved, and the Poles were desperately trying to cob together ad-hoc Divisions from remnants.
They couldn’t move by day because the Germans had control of the air. Communications and Tactical Control of the Polish Army was almost impossible.
The Battles of Bzura and Wizna were the last large-scale Polish attempts to drive back the Germans, and they were already pretty much over when the Soviets invaded, and the Carpathian Army had been pushed in to two small enclaves and destroyed near Lvov by the 18th Army.
The Poles had little intelligence of German movements, and were basicly blind to whatever the Armour and Motorized units were doing.
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