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| Polish September Campaign | |||||||||||||||||
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| Conflict | World War II | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | 1 September 1939 - 6 October 1939 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | Poland | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | Decisive German and Soviet victory | ||||||||||||||||
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The Polish September Campaign refers to the conquest of Poland by German and Soviet armies, and a small contingent of Slovak forces, in September 1939. The German plan was codenamed Fall Weiß ("Fall Weiss" or "Case White") by the German Wehrmacht. Polish historians call it Wojna obronna 1939 ("Defense War of 1939"). This military operation marks the start of World War II in Europe.
Recent research by the Polish National Remembrance Institute (IPN) indicates, that after staging a number of false provocations (Operation Himmler), the first regular act of war took place on on September 1, 1939, 04:40 local time, when Luftwaffe attacked the town of Wieluń. Five minutes later, on September 1, 1939, 04:45 local time, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Polish enclave of Westerplatte in Gdańsk by the Baltic Sea. At 08:00 local time, German troops attacked Poland near the town of Mokra. Later that day the front was opened along Poland's Western, Southern and Northern borders, while German aircraft started raids on Polish cities.
Despite some Polish successes in minor border battles, German technical and numerical superiority forced the Polish armies to withdraw towards Warsaw and Lwów. Westerplatte garrison capitulated on September 7. The largest battle during this campaign (Battle of Bzura) took place near the Bzura river west of Warsaw from September 9 to September 18 - it was the Polish attempt at a counterattack, which failed after an initial success. Warsaw, under heavy aerial bombardment from the first hours of the war, was first attacked on September 9 and was put under siege from September 13 until its capitulation on September 28.
From September 17, 1939, the Red Army occupied the Eastern regions of Poland that had not yet been involved in military operations. The fortress Modlin north of Warsaw, capitulated on September 29.
Polish defenders on the Hel peninsula on the shore of the Baltic Sea held out until October 2. The capitulation of the town of Kock near Lublin on October 6, after a 4-day Battle of Kock, marked the end of the September Campaign.
Tanks and aircraft (particularly fighters and ground attack aircraft like the famous Junkers Ju 87 Stuka) played a major role in the fighting. Bomber aircraft also attacked cities and civilian targets causing huge losses amongst the civilian population in what became known as terror bombings.
Invading forces:
At the end of the September Campaign, Poland was divided between Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, Lithuania and Slovakia.
About 65,000 Polish troops were killed and 680,000 were captured by the Germans (420,000) or Soviets (240,000). Up to 120,000 Polish troops withdrew to neutral Romania and Hungary and 20,000 to Latvia and Lithuania, with the majority eventually making their way to France or Britain.
The invasion of Poland led to Britain and France declaring war on Germany on September 3, however they did not come to their ally's help (see Poland's betrayal by the Western Allies). Poland, fulfilling her alliance with them, did not surrender in 1939, but rather set up a government-in-exile and underground civil authorities as legal successors to their pre-1939 government. During the German occupation, the Poles continued their struggle as one of the most extremely restive populations under Nazi rule.
There are some common myths about the Polish Campaign. Although Poland had 11 cavalry brigades, the Polish cavalry never charged on German tanks.
Secondly, the Polish airforce, though obsolete, was not destroyed on airfields and remained active in the first two weeks of the campaign, causing some harm to the Germans. Skilled Polish pilots who escaped to the United Kingdom after the German occupation were employed by the RAF during the Battle of Britain. Fighting from British bases, Polish pilots were also, on average, the most successful in shooting down German planes.
For more information about Poland during the Nazi occupation, see:
| Campaigns and Theatres of World War II |
| Europe |
| Poland | Denmark & Norway | France and the Low Countries | Britain | Balkans & Greece| Eastern Front | Italy | Western Front |
| Asia Pacific |
| South-East Asian Theatre | Pacific Theatre of Operations |
| North Africa |
| Libya-Egypt Campaign | Tunisia Campaign | East African Campaign |
| Other |
| Atlantic Ocean | Mediterranean Sea | Strategic Bombing |
| Contemporaneous Wars |
| Chinese Civil War | Sino-Japanese War | Winter War | Continuation War |
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