The Invasion of Poland
World War IIA Manufactured Pretext
On the evening of August 31, 1939, German operatives staged a fake attack on a radio station at Gleiwitz, near the Polish border. Dressed in Polish uniforms, they broadcast a brief anti-German message and left behind the body of a prisoner murdered for the occasion. This false-flag operation, code-named Operation Himmler, gave Adolf Hitler the propaganda excuse he wanted. The next morning he told the German Reichstag that Poland had fired first and that Germany was simply 'returning fire.' In reality, the invasion had been planned for months, and the Gleiwitz incident was a calculated deception designed to cast Germany as the victim of aggression.
Blitzkrieg Unleashed
At dawn on September 1, 1939, German forces poured across the Polish frontier from three directions. The world got its first full demonstration of Blitzkrieg, or 'lightning war'—a coordinated assault combining fast-moving Panzer tank columns, motorized infantry, and overwhelming air power. The Luftwaffe struck Polish airfields, rail lines, and cities, while dive-bombers known as Stukas terrorized roads clogged with refugees. The German battleship Schleswig-Holstein, anchored in the harbor at Danzig, opened fire on the Polish fortress at Westerplatte, whose small garrison held out for days against staggering odds before surrendering. Poland's army fought hard but was outmatched in equipment, communication, and mobility.
The Soviet Knife in the Back
Poland's situation, already dire, collapsed entirely on September 17, 1939, when the Soviet Union invaded from the east. This move was no surprise to Berlin and Moscow: just a week before the war, on August 23, the two powers had signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression treaty containing a secret protocol that divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. Poland was to be split between them. Caught between two invading powers, the Polish government and high command crossed into Romania to escape capture, intending to continue the fight from exile rather than formally surrender.
Britain and France Respond—On Paper
Britain and France had pledged to defend Poland, and they kept their word in form if not in force. On September 3, 1939, both nations declared war on Germany, transforming a regional conflict into a world war. Yet meaningful military help never came. French troops made only a brief, cautious advance into the Saar region before withdrawing, and the period that followed on the Western Front became known as the 'Phoney War'—months of waiting with little fighting. Poland, abandoned to its fate, was overwhelmed. Warsaw, battered by relentless bombardment, surrendered on September 28, and organized resistance ended in early October.
Occupation and Aftermath
The conquest of Poland was only the beginning of its ordeal. The country was carved up: Germany annexed western regions and governed the center as the so-called General Government, while the Soviet Union absorbed the east. Both occupiers targeted Polish elites, intellectuals, and officers. The mass killings of captured Polish officers by Soviet forces at Katyn in 1940 became one of the war's most infamous atrocities, long denied by Moscow. For Poland's large Jewish population, German occupation marked the start of ghettoization and, later, genocide. The invasion of Poland thus opened not only the Second World War in Europe but also a chapter of occupation and mass murder that would define the conflict.
Key Dates to Remember
- August 23, 1939 — Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, secretly agreeing to divide Poland.
- September 1, 1939 — Germany invades Poland, launching Blitzkrieg and beginning World War II in Europe.
- September 3, 1939 — Britain and France declare war on Germany in response to the invasion.
- September 17, 1939 — The Soviet Union invades Poland from the east, sealing the country's fate.
- September 28, 1939 — Warsaw surrenders after sustained bombardment and siege.