How was Poland Invaded?

Prelude - Operation Himmler

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Heinrich Himmler, leader of SS.
On the eve of the second world war, Nazi forces were busy undertaking an infamous propaganda campaign. On August 31, 1939, Operation Himmler, named after its inventor, was underway. The goal of this project was to set the stage for Germany's blitz on Poland scheduled to take place the following day. 

In the months leading up to the invasion of Poland, Hitler's counsel carried out a propaganda movement.  In order to create the illusion of Polish aggression towards Germany, they had German newspapers report that Polish officials were organizing the genocide of ethnic Germans in Poland. Hitler told his generals, "I will provide a propagandistic casus belli. Its credibility doesn't matter. The victor will not be asked whether he told the truth."


During the evening of August 31, twenty-one separate operations took place, including attacks on the forest service in Pitschen, the German customs station in Hochlinden, and most notably at the German radio station at Gleiwitz. That night, a small squadron of German soldiers dressed in Polish garb and in Polish broadcast an anti-German message. In order to make the attack look even more like it was done by anti-German Polish saboteurs, prisoners were dressed in Polish uniforms and left on the scene, dead, with bullet wounds. This gave Germany the excuse of self-defense.

German Aggression

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Poland after the blitzkrieg
World War II began at 4:40 AM, September 1, 1939, when the Luftwaffe attacked the Polish city of Wielun. This act killed nearly 1200 and destroyed over 3/4 of the city. Five minutes later, Germany ordered one of their battleships to open fire on Poland's enclave Westerplatte. At 8:00 AM, German forces engaged in the Battle of Mokra, where Poland enjoyed one of their few victories. Later that day, German soldiers on the ground invaded from Poland's north, south, and west borders while German aircraft started raids on Polish cities. This fast-paced form of attack using crushing force in order to break through enemy lines is called blitzkrieg.

The governments of the Allied countries officially declared war on Germany on September 3, but did not provide Poland with any support. From this time until the Battle of France in May of 1940 was known as the Phoney War, or Sitzkrieg, because of a lack of military confrontation despite an official declaration of war.


Within the first week of the campaign, as the siege continued and showed no signs of slowing, Polish forces abandoned regions of PomeraniaGreater Poland and Silesia. The Polish plan of border defense failed, giving the Germans an even greater advantage. At this point their only option was to retreat towards the Southeast to reorganize and defend later.

Soviet Aggression

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With the Polish now reorganized in the Southeast, the 800,000 strong Soviet Union strategically invaded eastern parts of Poland, previously not involved with the war, on September 17, 1939. This invasion was in violation of several treaties, including the  Soviet-Polish Non-Aggression Pact. While the Soviet Union claimed that the invasion was a reaction to Poland's imminent collapse and the necessity to protect the Ukrainian and Belarusian minorities living there, in reality the attack was part of a secret deal with Gemany. The objective of this pact with Germany was to allow Soviet and German spheres of influence to expand throughout Europe.

When the Soviet army broke through the Polish border, Polish forces were ordered to fall back and to not engage the Soviets. Now facing two powerful enemies, Poland decided that the war was lost. The final unit of the Polish army surrendered on October 6, 1939. Poland was divided among Germany, the Soviet Union, and Slovakia.