Schleswig-Holstein shelling the Polish ammunition depot at Westerplatte, 1 Sep, 1939
Although most Americans consider the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 as the beginning of World War II, that war has actually started years earlier. Even if we discount the 1937 Japanese invasion of China, the universally accepted start of World War II was almost 70 years ago, at 4:45 am on September 1, 1939, when German battleship Schleswig-Holstein on a “courtesy visit” to the Free City of Gdansk – which the Germans called Danzig – opened fire on a small, company-sized garrison of the Polish ammunition depot on Westerplatte.
The heroes of Westerplatte held out for a full week in the face of naval, land and aerial bombing and repeated infantry attacks by the Germans.
France and England declared war on Nazi Germany on September 3, 1939, but did nothing to help Poland, whose forces attacked from the west, north and south by the Germans, kept fighting, while retreating eastwards, planning to establish a more viable defensive line east of Warsaw.
Victim of a Luftwaffe attack on Warsaw, 1939
Despite a crushing German numerical, strategic and materiel superiority the Polish forces fought bravely and inflicted considerable losses on the invaders. As a matter of fact, the Polish armed forces held longer against the Germans that the combined French-British ones in the spring of 1940. The Polish air force was not destroyed on the ground as the popular, German-inspired myth holds, but despite being relatively small and equipped with antiquated planes, had probably the best-trained pilots anywhere, who managed to either destroy, or damage several hundred German airplanes.
Another German-perpetrated myth, which for some reason seems to be holding up even to this day is that the Polish cavalry attacked German armor with sabers and lances.
This is of course a totally ridiculous notion. During the inter-war years the Polish army had begun to slowly incorporate tanks and tank units into their infantry and cavalry as did most armies of the world at that time and further, Polish cavalry regiments were equipped with anti-tank guns. At instruction centers, soldiers and their commanders were trained in the appropriate tactics to defend against enemy armored units. Cavalry units used horses for moving troops and weapons quickly and fought largely on foot – as infantry.
Polish 303 Squadron fighter pilots during the Battle of Britain, 1940
In any case, the Polish plans to establish a new defensive line east of Warsaw were shattered by the Red Army invasion on September 17, 1939. At that point, the often-isolated units either fought until their ammunition run out, or if they could, escaped the Polish territory into Romania, from where thousands managed to make it to France, subsequently fought in the poorly planned French-British operation in Norway, took part in the fighting of 1940 in France and then many escaped to England. Afterward, Polish airmen and pilots were instrumental in helping the British win the Battle of Britain, fought in Tobruk, a Polish destroyer actually caught up with the battleship Bismarck and held the contact under fire until Royal Navy heavies arrived. Later, the Second Polish Corps, composed mainly of prisoners released by the Soviets was the first to plant their flag on the ruins of the abbey at Monte Cassino, where German forces held the Allied advance towards Rome for several months.
The Polish First Armored Division was credited with bottling up and helping to destroy a large part of the SS divisions surrounded in the so-called Falaise Pocket and afterward liberated large sections of Holland.
Soldiers of the Polish Home Army (AK)
The Polish Home Army (AK) fought the occupying Nazi forces almost from the very beginning and to the very end of the war, even took on the occupying Soviets after WWII officially ended. And unlike in most other countries, occupied by the Nazis, Poland did not produce any measurable number of collaborators. At the same time, the Polish nation lost in the process some six million of its citizens, about half of them Jewish. The Home Army fought the occupying German forces during the Warsaw Uprising for 63 days, while the Soviet forces were held by Stalin just on the other shore of the Vistula River. The city was subsequently almost completely destroyed on Hitler’s orders.
The numerous German atrocities on the civilian population of occupied countries merit a separate post.
The AK has transferred parts of the German V-1 flying bombs and the V-2 rockets to England. Even before the war, Polish mathematicians have made great strides in deciphering the operation of the German coding machine, known as Enigma. Final work on the Enigma was conducted later at Blechley Park, in England and it helped the Allies to a great degree in finally defeating the III Reich. After the horrors of WWII, Poland was de facto occupied by the Soviet Union and didn’t regain its independence until 1989.
Signing of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact in Moscow, 26 Aug 1939
All of the above facts are indisputable. But on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II, just before many countries’ leaders, including Russia’s PM Vladimir Putin and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel gather in Gdansk, Poland, Russian state television ran a long documentary essentially arguing that Stalin was justified in ordering the 1939 invasion of Poland and the Baltic states – and also in making a secret deal with Hitler – on the grounds that Poland itself was in a “secret alliance” with the Nazis. What total crap and what gall! As a matter of fact, the Russian mass indoctrination seems to be working quite effectively, as according to a recent poll, the majority of the Russian populace do not even know that their country invaded anyone in 1939.
The strangest thing is that while on September 1, 2009 Vladimir Putin, speaking in Poland was calling the Ribbentropp-Molotov pact “immoral”, the Russian intelligence services were presenting in Moscow translated “documents”, supposedly proving that Poland was in cahoots with Nazi Germany. What gives?!
Maybe the Russians will go back to their earlier assertions that they didn’t murder thousands of Polish officers in the Katyn forest and other places in 1940 and will continue on their path of justifying almost everything that their monstrous “hero” Stalin did. We wish luck to the Russian historians in wiping the blood of at the very least tens of millions of people murdered in all kinds of ways both in “The Gulag Archipelago” and other places, the conquest of distinctly non-Russian Caucasus, including Chechnya and also Siberia. The efforts to reverse the course of rivers, the creation of deserts around the Caspian Sea and other “achievements.”
The Westerplatte Monument, 1 Sep, 2009
A state, which is incapable of facing the facts of its own history and not having enough confidence and pride in itself cannot even remotely be considered as strong, brave and most of all – honorable.
And one more thing: The Obama administration doesn’t appear to be particularly interested in Eastern Europe, which is a huge mistake, in our opinion. Despite the fact that the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II in Gdansk will be attended by at high-level representatives of at least 12 countries, including Putin and Merkel, at this moment it appears that the U.S. is sending the National Security Advisor James Jones, not the vice president, or the secretary of state.
On September 1, 2009, Helle Dale had an excellent commentary on this subject in the Washington Times. Take a look.
Technorati Tags: invasion, lies, poland, putin, rewriting history, Ribbentrop-Molotov, russia
There are probably numerous reasons to both like and hate Russia.
Vice President Biden is trying hard to convince the NATO allies to contribute more to fighting the terrorist threats in Afghanistan and Pakistan, while continuing to suck it up to Russia. There is less and less likelihood of building the missile shield in Europe, which the Bush administration has pushed so hard. After all, we want Russia to help us in “curbing” Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which Moscow was of course very much instrumental in enabling. Some European countries actually would like to have a viable anti-missile shield, but at the same time much of the continent depends on deliveries of Russian gas and oil for their survival. Sounds a bit like a Catch 22 situation.
