Hitler Invades Poland

On September 1st, 1939, under the command of Adolf Hitler, Germany launched a coordinated attack on Poland from the west, south and north, in clear violation of the Post World War One Treaty of Versailles, Treaty of Locarno, and the Kellogg-Briand Pact intended to maintain peace in Europe. Employing Hitler’s blitzkrieg or “lightning war” strategy, the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe at first laid down an extensive bombing campaign to destroy Poland’s air and rail infrastructure, along with communication lines and munitions dumps, before deploying a massive land invasion by troops, tanks and artillery, incapacitating resistance as they pushed across the country.

Large, Poorly-equipped Army

Although Poland fronted a million-man army, antiquated equipment coupled with outmoded thinking by Polish commanders, who chose to take the Germans head-on instead of falling back to more geographically-defensible positions, in the end, proving to be no match for Germany’s modern-mechanized forces. Civilian resistance remained defiant throughout the early days of Hitler’s blitzkrieg, with citizens in Warsaw engaging in guerilla-style warfare tactics, leading to a German bombing campaign that left 95% of the city destroyed, before Warsaw’s surrender on September 28th of that same year.

No Hope For Salvation

All hope of salvation vanished after the Soviets signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov Nonaggression Pact with Germany, which further intensified the suffering inflicted on the Poles. On September 3rd, Great Britain and France declared war against Germany, effectively marking the start of the Second World War, at the same time prompting England to respond on the same day with bombing raids over Germany. As the Nazis deepened their hold over Poland, Hitler established operational bases that employed SS “Death’s Head” regiments intent on annihilating any Poles who opposed his Nazi ideology, quickly establishing concentration camps to house slave laborers and to exterminate Jews and political dissidents. Hitler’s invasion of Poland also demonstrated the impotence of the League of Nations and the collapse of its collective security system, setting off one of the darkest periods in recent human history, while taking the lives of an estimated 45 million people.