- 80 YEARS OF THE BEGINNING OF THE II WORLD WAR. Poland, first victim of the Nazi lightning
- Poland: Museums, battlefield of Polish history
British historian Roger Moorhouse, one of the few foreigners who has dealt in depth with the invasion of Poland by the Nazis and Soviets in 1939, presents First to fight , a comprehensive study of the military offensive that is now being met 80 years.
Question.- What is true about what they have told us about the German invasion of Poland?
Answer.- There is a lot of mythology. The reason is that this episode has not been subjected to a proper historical investigation outside the Polish sphere, so war propaganda narratives have persisted and proliferated. An example of this is that story of Polish cavalry carrying sabers against German tanks. It is an invention of German propaganda and originated with a report by an Italian war correspondent, who wrote about the consequences of a confrontation during the battle of Bzura, the largest of the campaign, and described the dead horses that covered the field of battle That report was collected by German propaganda and became the source of the stereotype of German tanks attacked by Polish cavalry: a very useful way to demonstrate technological, military and, by extension, racial, German superiority. Of course, it was not true. The Germans actually had more cavalry than the Poles, and the Poles also had tanks (although much less than the Germans). In addition, the Polish cavalry fought dismantled, with artillery and anti-tank weapons, and used their horses only to move to the battle zone. In this way, they could actually be remarkably effective, as in the battle of Mokra, and in fact they aroused fear in many German units in 1939. 80 years later, this propaganda lie still seems to be valid.
Q.- Was the implementation of the lightning war so important in the German victory?
R. - The legend of the lightning war or Blitzkrieg is another one of those aspects that has been quite exaggerated by the propaganda. It is true that the Germans enjoyed great numerical and technological superiority, as well as superiority in the tactical doctrine they had developed, that Blitzkrieg that used spearheads with rapid armor and coordinated air attacks to break the enemy front.
However, it is important to note that the Blitzkrieg was still under development in 1939, and that it was not implemented by all German units. In addition, there are other reasons that help explain the German victory: the geographical situation and the attack of Poland from three sides; the comparative shortage of Polish defenses and airplanes, in addition to the weakness of Polish communications, which made many of its units blind and deaf.
Q.- Did Poland have any chance of surviving the attack?
A.- The Poles were in a very difficult situation in 1939. Although their army and air force were not all bad compared to other European countries, against the German Wehrmacht and the Stalin Red Army they were outnumbered . Polish armies and aviators fought bravely, but could not win. However, what made their situation even worse was the fact that their Western allies, the British and the French, despite signing treaties that committed them to help Poland, did little to fulfill those commitments. The French carried out a little enthusiastic incursion into Saarland and the British threw pamphlets instead of bombs on German cities.
If the British and the French had tried to fulfill their commitments to help Poland in 1939, it is possible that some German forces had withdrawn westward from the Polish front, which could have allowed the Poles to join temporarily and cause Hitler He will reconsider his war. However, shamefully lacked political will in London and Paris, which left her alone. Poland was doomed.
Q.- Is Poland one of the countries most hit by World War II?
A.- Poland was one of those countries that endured the worst part of World War II. Not only was she subjected to German and Soviet invasions of 1939, but she was divided between these two brutal totalitarian regimes during the next 22 months before Hitler's attack by the USSR, which left her alone under the German boot. After that, the brutal depravity of the Third Reich's racial ambitions affected the Polish populations, who were classified, deported and oppressed and culminated in the genocide against the Jews of Europe, about half of whom, by the way, were citizens Polish Despite creating the largest and most effective clandestine opposition movement in the history of the war, the country was crushed in 1944 when it tried to stand up against the German occupation. Then came the Soviet occupation and endured more than 40 years of communism. Around six million Poles, almost 20% of the pre-war population, one in five, were killed in the contest. For that sacrifice, Poland deserves much greater recognition than it receives.
Q.- Are there physical traces of that German offensive of September 1939?
A.- There are relatively few traces of the 1939 war in Poland. The war ravages and the postwar communist regime, which had little interest in commemorating the battles of 1939, have left a few monuments: in Mokra, Kock, Westerplatte and elsewhere, but little else. It remains to be seen if modern Poland will be able to rectify this specific deficit, but it can certainly boast some world-class museums in Gdansk and Warsaw to commemorate its broader past in times of war.
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