The attack on Poland in 1939. Polish Campaign (1939)

1. Polish campaign plan of the German command and the strategic deployment of the German Armed Forces on April 3, 1939. The Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces (OKV) issued a directive "On the Unified Preparation of the Armed Forces to War" containing the following

Chapter 1 "We want war!" Home - Polish Campaign September 1 - October 6, 1939

Polish Campaign 1939.

Polish Campaign 1939

Polish campaign 1939 is our strength in mobility and cruelty. Therefore, I - so far only in the east - prepared my parts "Dead Head", giving them an order without regret and pity to destroy Poles. Poland will be suseful and inhabited by the Germans. Hitler. Obersaltsberg, 22.8.1939 1

Polish campaign

Polish Campaign English historian Hanson Baldwin noted that, despite threats and warnings, Wehrmacht presented the Poles Tactical Surprise; Many Polish reservists were even on their way to their units, and the divisions moved to points

1939 year. Polish campaign - the course of events

Invasion to Poland.

The invasion of Poland (in Germans - the Weiss Operation, in Polish historiography adopted the "September campaign") - military operation of the Armed Forces of Germany and Slovakia, as a result of which the territory of Poland was fully occupied, and its parts are annexed by neighboring states.
In response to the beginning of the operation of Britain (September 3) and France declared war in Germany, which marked the beginning of World War II. It is considered to be the date of the beginning of the war on September 1, 1939 - the day of the invasion of Poland.
During the short campaign, German troops defeated armed Forces Poland. On September 17, the USSR joined the war, occupied the eastern regions of the country. The final defeat was led to the evacuation of the Polish government and the residues of the army abroad. The Poland territory was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union (in accordance with the secret addition to the nonsense agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union), as well as Lithuania and Slovakia.

The ratio of power

Germany
In total, Germany could put 98 divisions on the battlefield, of which 36 were practically not trained and lack-complied. In the Polish Theater of hostilities, Germany involved 62 divisions (more than 40 personnel divisions were directly involved in the invidence, these are 6 tank, 4 light and 4 mechanized), this is 1.6 million people. These troops had 6000 artillery guns, 2,000 aircraft and 2,800 tanks, over 80% of which were light tanks. The combat capability of infantry at that time was estimated as unsatisfactory

SLOVAKIA
The Slovak sector was in the combat zone of the South Army Group. The ally Germany put up the Army "Bernolak" under the command of General Ferdinand Chatlosh. Bernolaca included 3 infantry divisions that supported 5 artillery regiments and 1 armored train. The total number of Slovak troops was 50,000 people.

Poland

Poland managed to mobilize 39 divisions and 16 separate brigades, (1 million people). The Polish army had 870 tanks (220 tanks and 650 TKS tanks), several WZ.29 armored cars, 4300 artillery guns and mortars, 407 aircraft (of which 44 bombers and 142 fighter). In the event of war with Germany, Poland could count on supporting the UK and France, as it was associated with them defensive military unions. Under the condition of the rapid entry into the war of Western allies and the active nature of hostilities organized by the latter, the resistance of the Polish army obliging Germany to lead the war on two fronts.

The secret mobilization of the Wehrmacht began on August 26, 1939. Fully troops were abused by August 31.
September 1, 1939 at 4 45 minutes. German troops began an offensive throughout the German-Polish border. From the first hours of war in the Polish sky, German aviation dominated. It made it impossible to organized completion of the mobilization of Polish armed forces and major operational transfers of the forces on the railway, and also seriously violated the control and communication of the enemy.
German troops crossed Poland's border for about 6 am. In the north, the invasion was carried out by a group of armies of the BOK, which had two armies in its composition. The 3rd Army under the command of Küchler applied a blow from Eastern Prussia to the south, and the 4th Army under the command of the Kite - east through the Polish corridor to connect with the troops of the 3rd army and complete the coverage of the right flank of Poles. Consisting of three armies, the Roundstedta group moved to the east and northeast via Silesia. Polish troops were evenly distributed on a wide front, did not have a stable anti-tank defense on the main borders and sufficient reserves for counterdovern on the enemy broken troops.
Plain Poland, which does not have any serious natural obstacles, besides, with soft and dry autumn weather, it was a good bridgehead for using tanks. The avant-gardes of German tank connections easily passed through the Polish positions. On the Western Front, the Allies did not accept any attempts to the offensive.
On the third day, the Polish Air Force ceased existence. The connection between the General Staff and the current army was interrupted, the further mobilization was impossible, which began on August 30. From spyware reports, Luftwaffe managed to find out the location of the Polish General Staff, and it was continuously bombed, despite frequent redeployment. In Danking Gulf, German ships suppressed a small Polish squadron, consisting of one destroyer, the Ministry of Economic and Five submarines. In addition, three destroyers have managed before the commencement of hostilities go to the UK. Together with two submarines, managed to break away from the Baltic, they took part in hostilities on the side of the Allies after the occupation of Poland.
The civilian population was completely demoralized by bombing of cities, sabotage actions, performances of a well-organized "fifth column", the failures of the Polish armed forces and anti-government propaganda, which began on the first day of the war.

In the course german offensive As of September 5, 1939, the following operational situation has developed. In the north, the Levoflangtaya Army of Boca moved to Brest-Litovsk, in the south, the Rundstedt's municipal army rushed in the northeast direction bypassing Krakow. In the center of the 10th Army, from the Randstt Group (under the command of Colonel-General Reichenau), with most of the armored divisions, it came down to the Vistula below Warsaw. The inner ring of the double environment was closed on the taste, external on the bug. September 8, 1939 Polish army applied chemical weapons - gas Iprit. As a result, two German soldiers died, twelve were injured. On this basis, German troops have taken response. Polish armies made desperate attempts to give a decisive rebuff. In some cases, the Polish cavalier attacked and successfully restrained the German motor support parts.
However, soon the Polish forces were dissected into several parts, each of which was in complete surroundings And there was no common combat task. Tanks of the 10th Army Reichenau tried to enter Warsaw (September 8), however, they were forced to move away under the fierce blows of the defenders of the city. Basically, Polish resistance from this time continued only in the Warsaw-Modlus area and a little west - around curtain and Lodz. Polish troops in the Lodz area made a unsuccessful attempt to escape from the environment, but after continuous air and ground attacks and after they have run out of food and ammunition, surrendered (September 17). Meanwhile, the ring of an external environment closed: the 3rd and 14th German armies were connected to the south of Brest-Litovsk.

Entry of the USSR within Poland (September 17, 1939)

The initial action plan of Polish troops was to retreat and reduging forces in the south-east of the country, along the border with Romania. The idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a defensive area was based on the conviction that the Allied England and France will begin hostilities against Germany in the West, and Germany will be forced to transfer part of the forces from Poland for the war on two fronts. However, the Soviet offensive made adjustments to these plans.
Polish political and military leadership realized that they would lose the war in Germany before the Soviet invasion. Nevertheless, they were not going to give up or negotiate a truce with Germany. Instead, the Polish leadership gave an order to evacuate from Poland and move to France. The Government itself and the highest military leaders switched to the border with Romania Risen the city of Zaleshiki on the night of September 18. Polish troops began to retreat to the border with Romania, while being attacked by the German troops on the one hand and from time to time facing Soviet troops on the other. By the time of the order for evacuation, the German troops defeated the Polish armies of "Krakow" and "Lublin" in the battle for Tomaszow Lubelsky, which continued from September 17 to September 20.
September 16th soviet troops Entered the limits of Poland from the East in the area of \u200b\u200bthe north and south of the Pripyat woes. Soviet government Explaced this step by the inconsistency of the Polish government, the collapse of the Polish state de facto and the need to ensure the security of Ukrainians, Belarusians and the Jews living in the eastern regions of Poland. Polish Supreme Command from Romania gave orders to the troops not to resist parts of the Red Army.

Opinion is common, mainly in Western historiography that the entry into the War of the USSR was agreed in advance with the German government and was held in accordance with the Secretary Additional Protocol to the nonsense agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union. There is information and direct assistance to the USSR of Germany during the Polish campaign. For example, the signals of the Minsk radio station were used by the Germans to guide bomber at the bombardment of Polish cities.

The foci of the resistance of the Poles was suppressed one by one. September 27 Pala Warsaw. The next day - Modlin. October 1 capitulated Baltic naval base Hel. The last focus of organized Polish resistance was suppressed in Kotske (north of Lublin), where 17 thousand Poles surrendered (October 5).
Despite the defeat of the army and the actual occupation of 100% of the state of the state, officially Poland did not capitulate in Germany and the countries of the axis. In addition to the partisan traffic within the country, the numerous Polish military formations in the army of the Allies continued to war. Even before the final defeat of the Polish army, its command began organizing the underground. One of the first partisan detachments on the territory of Poland created a personnel officer Henrik Dobjan, together with 180 soldiers of his military unit. This squad fought with the Germans for several months after the defeat of the Polish army.

Losses of Party


Germany
During the Campaign, the Germans for different sources lost from 10 to 17,000 killed, 27-31 thousand wounded, 300-350 people missing.
The Slovak army led only the fighting of regional importance, during which he did not meet serious resistance. Her losses were small - 18 people killed, 46 wounded, 11 people were missing.

the USSR
The fighting losses of the Red Army during the Polish campaign of 1939, according to the Russian historian Meltyukhov, amounted to 1,173 people killed, 2,002 wounded and 302 missing. As a result of the fighting, 17 tanks are lost, 6 aircraft, 6 guns and mortars and 36 cars. According to Polish historians, the Red Army lost about 2.5 thousand soldiers killed, 150 armored cars and 20 aircraft.

Poland
According to post-war research of military loss bureaus, more than 66 thousand Polish servicemen (including 2,000 officers and 5 generals) died in battles with the Wehrmacht (including 2,000 officers and 5 generals). 133 thousand were injured, and 420 thousand were in German captivity.
Polish losses in battles from the Red Army are definitely not known. Meltyukhov calls numbers of 3,500 killed, 20,000 missing and 454,700 prisoners. According to the same Polish military encyclopedia, 250,000 military personnel fell into the Soviet captivity (most officers were shot by the NKVD soon). About 1,300 also got into Slovak captivity.
In 2005, the Book of Polish Military Historians Cheslav Gzhelyak and Henric Stanki, who held their research - "Polish Campaign of 1939. The beginning of the 2nd World War. " According to their data, about 63,000 soldiers and 3,300 officers were killed in battles with the Wehrmacht, 133,700 were injured. About 400,000 fell into German captive, and 230,000 in the Soviet. About 80,000 Polish servicemen managed to evacuate into neighboring neutral states - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (12,000), Romania (32,000) and Hungary (35,000)
Polish Navy were destroyed during the coastal defense (except 3 destroyers and 2 submarines). It was also possible to evacuate 119 aircraft in Romania.

According to the generally accepted opinion, on September 1, 1939, the Second World War began - the Third Reich attacked Poland, although in China, he refers from 1937. At 4/50 minutes at the mouth of the river Vistula, the old German armadiole "Schleswig-Holstein" opened fire on the Polish military warehouses Westerplatte in Danzig, the Wehrmacht moved to the offensive over the entire boundary line.

Poland at that time was pretty artificial state Education - Created from the actual Polish territories, wreckage Russian Empire, German Empire and Austria-Hungary. In 1939, out of 35.1 million people of Polakov Polakov were 23.4 million people, Belarusians and Ukrainians -7.1 million people, 3.5 million Jews, 0.7 million Germans, 0.1 million . Lithuanians, 0.12 million Chekhov. And the Belarusians and Ukrainians were on the position of oppressed kestops, and the Germans sought to return to Reich. Warsaw, since the case was not averse to the territory at the occasion of neighbors - in 1922 he seized the Vilensky district, in 1938 the Teshin region in Czechoslovakia.

In Germany, the territorial losses in the East were forced to take the territorial losses in the East - Western Prussia, part of Silesia, the district of Poznan, and mostly populated Danzig was declared free city. But public opinion regarded these losses as a temporary loss. Hitler initially did not focus on these territories, believing that the problem of the Rhine Region, Austria, the Sundaan region is more important, and Poland even became an ally of Berlin, receiving crumbs from the Barskaya table (Tehshin region Czechoslovakia). In addition, Warsaw hoped in alliance with Berlin to go to the east, dreaming of creating "Great Poland" from the sea (Baltic) to the sea (Black Sea). On October 24, 1938, the Polish Ambassador in Germany, Lipovsky, was transferred to the consent of Poland on the inclusion of the free city of Danzig in the Reich, and Poland was offered to join the Anti-Comintern Pact (directed against the USSR, it was included in it Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary), during the following Later negotiations, Warsaw promised territories in the East, due to the USSR. But Warsaw showed his eternal stubbornness and constantly refused Rehih. Why were the Poles so self-confident? Apparently, they had complete confidence that London and Paris would not throw them and help in the event of war.

Poland at that time led extremely not wise politics, climbing almost with all neighbors: did not want help from the USSR, although Paris and London were trying to agree on this expense, there were territorial disputes with Hungary, they were captured by Lithuania, even with the resulting 1939 The year of Slovakia (after the occupation of Germany of the Czech Republic) was guessed - trying to seize some of her part of the territory. Therefore, in addition to Germany in September 1939, Slovakia was attacked Poland and put up 2 divisions.

France and England gave her a guarantee that they would help, but the Poles had to hold out for a week or two, so that France would complete the mobilization and concentrated forces to strike. It is officially, in reality in Paris and London were not going to fight with Germany, thinking that Germany would not stop and go further, in the USSR, and two enemies are clips.

Plans, Power Parties

Poland He began hidden mobilization from March 23, 1939, managed to mobilize the war: 39 divisions, 16 separate teams, only 1 million people, about 870 tanks ( most of Matters), some number of armored cars, 4300 guns and mortars, up to 400 aircraft. In addition, the Poles were confident that from the very beginning of the war they would support the entire power of the Aviation of the Allies and the Fleet of Great Britain.

Planned for two weeks to lead defense, to restrain the Wehrmacht on the entire border - almost 1900 km, against Eastern Prussia, in favorable conditions, even expected to conduct an offensive. Plan offensive operation Against Eastern Prussia was called "West", it was supposed to hold operational groups "Narev", "Highway" and the army "Modlin". In the Polish Corridor, separated by Eastern Prussia and Germany, focused on the army "to do", it, in addition to defense, should capture Danzig. Berlin direction defended the "Poznan" army, the border with Silesia and Slovakia covered the Lodz army, the Army "Krakow" and the Carpathians army. In the rear, the south-west of Warsaw unfolded the auxiliary army "Pruses". The Poles stretched out their orders along the entire border, did not create a powerful anti-tank defense at the main directions, did not create powerful operational reserves for flanking strikes on the opponent who broke.

The plan was designed for a few "if": if the Polish army lashes two weeks at the main positions; If the Germans concentrate a small part of their forces and means (especially aviation and tanks) - the Polish command extended that Berlin will leave a significant grouping in the West; If in two weeks the English-French forces will begin a major offensive. Another weak point of the Polish army was leadership, it was almost from the very beginning of the war only about her skin. It is worth surprising that with such command, the Polish army lasted for almost a month.

Germany, against Poland, the Third Reich involved 62 divisions (of these, 40 personnel divisions of the first strike, of which 6 tank and 4 mechanized), only 1.6 million people, about 6,000 guns, 2,000 aircraft and 2,800 tanks (of which more than 80% of the lungs , wedges with machine guns). The German generals themselves evaluated the combat capability of the infantry as unsatisfactory, moreover, they understood that if Hitler was mistaken and the Anglo-French army would hit in the West, the catastrophe is inevitable. Germany is not ready to fight with France (her army at the time was considered the strongest in the world) and England, they had superiority on the sea, in the air and on land, defensive structures were not prepared ("Siegfried Line"), the western front is ceremony.

The Polish army was planned (white plan) to destroy a powerful blow to the maximum number of troops and funds for two weeks (the idea of \u200b\u200bBlitzkrieg), due to the dedication of the Western border. Poles wanted to defeat earlier than in the West be able to go to the offensive, creating a strategic fracture in the war. At this time, the Western border was covered with 36 miscurrent, almost unsaught divisions devoid of armored vehicles and aviation. Almost all tanks, armored vehicles were concentrated in five buildings: 14th, 15th, 16th, 19th and mountain. They should have found weak points in the defense of the enemy, overcome the defense of the enemy, to go to the operational space, entering the enemy in the rear, at this time the infantry divisions were shot by the enemy on the front.

The Army Group "North" (4th and 3rd Army) beat from Pomerania and East Prussia in the general direction to Warsaw, so that, connecting with the parts of the South Army Group, east of Warsaw, to close the environment over the remaining Polish troops north of the Vistula. The Army Group "South" (8, 10, 14th Army) beat from the territory of Silesia and Moravia in the general direction to Warsaw, there was to connect with the parts of the North Army Group. The 8th Army Bila in the direction of Lodz, the 14th should have taken crawling, step on Sandomira. In the center there were weaker forces, they had to sow the battles of the Polish army "Poznan", imitate the direction of the main strike.

Occasion

To comply with the visibility of allegedly response actions, German security services organized a provocation - the so-called "Gleivitsky incident". On August 31, the SS fighters and specially selected criminals in the Polish form attacked the radio station in German Gleivice. After capturing the radio station, one of them read on the radio specially prepared Tex, provoking Germany to the war. Then the criminals were shot by SS (one of the names of the operation - "canned"), threw them on the spot, they discovered German police. At night, German media stated that Poland attacked Germany.

War

Luftwaffe destroyed most of Polish aviation during the first day, and also violated the connection, the management, the transfer of troops by railways. German shock groups quite easily broke through the front and went on, which is not surprising when spraying the Polish parts. Thus, the 19th mechanized case (one tank, two mechanized, two infantry divisions), who broke from Pomerania, struck the defense of the 9th Division and Pomeranian Cavrbrigada, by the evening of September 1, passing 90 km. In Danking Gulf, the German Navy destroyed a small Polish squadron (one destroyer, one destroyer and five pl), before the beginning of the war, three destroyers went to England, and two pls were able to break through from the Baltic (they were then fought as part of the UK Navy).

Already on September 1, the president left Warsaw, the government was followed by the Government 5, and their movement began in Romania. The last order of the "heroic" commander of the Polish Army, Edward Rydz-Smigla, published the 10th, after the connection did not go out, then appeared in Romania. In his last orders, he ordered Warsaw and Modliner to keep the defense surrounded by the residues of the army to keep defense at the border with Romania and wait for the help of England and France. Rydz-Smiglas on September 7th arrived in Brest, where in case of war with the USSR had to prepare a bet, but it was not prepared, the 10th arrived in Vladimir-Volynsky, the 13th in Mlynov, and September 15 - closer to Romanian The border, in Kolomyu, where the government and the president were already.

The 2nd Army "Support", defeated the "Polish corridor", was dissected by counter blows from East Prussia and Pomerania, its most, Primorskaya, was surrounded. In the southern direction, Wehrmacht found the junction of the army "Lodz" and "Krakow", the 1st tank division rushed into a breakthrough, leaving for the rear of Polish parts. Polish command decides to remove the army of "Krakow" on the main border of defense, and the "Lodz" army is east and southeast behind the line of the Rivers of Nida and Dunac (about 100-170 km). But the border battle was already lost, from the very beginning it was necessary to defend not the whole border, but to concentrate troops on the main directions, to create operational reserves for counterdovern. The Defense Plan of the Polish Command is Torn, in the north of the Wehrmacht, who advancing from Eastern Prussia, was broken by the resistance of the army "Modlin" to the 3rd day, her remnants were leaving for Wovel. And there was no other plan, it remained only to hope for allies.

The 4th Poles in the center moved to the Varta River, but they could not keep them there, almost immediately flank strikes were shot down, already the 5th remnants of parts depart to Lodz. The main reserve of the Polish Armed Forces - the Army "Pruses" - was disorganized and simply "dissolved", by the 5th of September the war was lost, the Polish army was still fought, retreated, tried to entrenched on some turns, but ... Polish parts were Dissected, lost control, did not know what to do, they got into the environment.

On September 8, the battle of Warsaw began, her defenders fought until September 28. The first attempts to take the city from the go, September 8-10, the Poles beat off. The vermhtak command decided to abandon the plan to take the city from the go and continued to close the ring of the blockade - the ring was closed on the 14th ring. The Germans offered to capitulate, the 17th Polish military asked to resolve the evacuation of civilians, Hitler refused. The 22nd began the general assault on the 28th, having exhausted the possibility of defense, the remains of the garrison capitulated.

Another grouping of Polish forces surrounded West Warsaw - around curtain and Lodz, they lasted until September 17, surrendered after several breakthrough attempts and when food and ammunition ended. On October 1, the Baltic Naval Base Hel, the last defense center was eliminated in Kotske (north of Lublin), where 17 thousand Poles were capitulated on October 6.

Myth about Polish Cavalry

From the filing of Guderian was created a myth about the attacks of the Polish cavalry on the tanks of the Wehrmacht. In reality, horses were used as vehicles (as in the Red Army, in the Wehrmacht), there was an intelligence in horseback, the fighters of the cavetas joined the fighters. In addition, the cavalrymen because of their mobility, excellent training (were the elite of the army), good weapons (they were enhanced with artillery, blurred, armored vehicles) were among the most combat-ready divisions of Polish troops.

In this war, only six cases of attacks in the equestrian system are known, in two cases on the battlefield there were armored vehicles. On September 1, under the lines of part of the 18th Pomeranian Ulansky regiment, the Battalion of the Wehrmacht was met and using the factor of surprise, attacked. Initially, the attack was successful, the Germans were caught by surprise, they cut them, but the German armored vehicles intervened, who did not notice the Polish intelligence officers, as a result, the battle was lost. But Polish cavalryrs, which have lost losses, moved into the forest and were not destroyed.

On September 19, under the street of Highlovoy, the commander of the 14th regiment of Yazlovetsky Uran Colonel E. Godlevsky (the division of the 9th regiment of Malopolski Ulan) decided to break through through the German infantry in the horseman, hoping a factor of surprise, to Warsaw. But it turned out to be the position of motorcycle tank division, besides, artillery and tanks were not unpleasant. Polish cavalrymen broke through the positions of the Wehrmacht, losing about 20% of the composition of the regiment (at that time - 105 people killed and 100 wounded). The battle lasted only 18 minutes, the Germans lost 52 people killed and 70 wounded.

Results of war

Poland, as a state, ceased existence, most of its territories were divided between Germany and the USSR, some lands received Slovakia.

On the balances of the lands not attached to Germany, a Governor-General was created under the control of the German authorities, with the capital in Krakow.

Lithuania departed the Vilnius region.

Wehrmacht lost 13-20 thousand people killed and missing, about 30 thousand wounded. Polish army - 66 thousand killed, 120-200 thousand wounded, about 700 thousand prisoners.

Sources:
Galder F. Military Diary. Daily records of the Chief of the General Staff Ground Forces 1939-1942 (in 3 volumes). M., 1968-1971.
Guderian G. Memories of the soldier. Smolensk, 1999.
Kurt von Tippelskirm. World War II, St. Petersburg, 1998.
Meltejukhov M. I. Soviet-Polish wars. Military political confrontation 1918-1939. M., 2001.
http://victory.rusarchives.ru/index.php?p\u003d32&sec_id\u003d60
http://poland1939.ru/