Fall Weiß, September 1939 - The Second World War Begins

Prologue

In March of 1939 immediately after the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, Hitler told Colonel General Keitel, chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces and Colonel General von Brauchitsch, commander in chief of the Army, that the time had come to settle the Polish problem by military means. A week later Hitler set forth a strategic outline for an attack on Poland no later than September 1st, 1939. On April 28th Hitler abrogated the Polish-German nonaggression treaty of 1934 and declared that the Danzig question must be settled. On march 31st, the British, in an effort to forestall the dictator, had given a unilateral guarantee of Poland’s territorial integrity. France had a military alliance with Poland dating back to 1921. It was the Soviet Union that held the trump card in the game Hitler was playing. The German Army feared a two front war and even Hitler would not risk fighting both the western powers and the Soviet Union at this early date. Stalin, cynically, opened negotiations with both sides in mid April, 1939. Britain and France courted the Soviet Union but Stalin feared Germany and did not wish trouble with her. The Russians made overtures to the Germans suggesting that ideological differences need not prevent general agreement and hinting darkly that perhaps Poland could be yet again dismembered. Hitler realized that the Russians were using Germany to raise the price they would extract from the Allies for making common cause with them. Hitler’s position however was strong. The Soviet Union would have to fight for Britain and France but all it needed to do for Hitler was to remain neutral and gather in the spoils. The Russians signaled how well they appraised the situation on May 3rd when Maxim Litvinov, a Jew and longtime advocate of restraint in foreign affairs was suddenly dismissed as commissar of foreign affairs and was replaced by Vycheslav Molotov.

Molotov signs the non-aggression pact. Behind him are Ribbentrop and Stalin.

On the night of August 23rd, German Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop agreed to the final revision of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Treaty. A secret protocol placed Finland, Estonia and Latvia in the Soviet sphere of influence while Lithuania went to the Germans. Poland was to be divided along the Narew, Vistula and San Rivers. The treaty went into effect as soon as it was signed.

In July 1939 under the fiction of conducting summer maneuvers, strong German forces moved into assembly areas near the Polish Frontier. Other forces were dispatched to East Prussia ostensibly to participate in the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Battle of Tannenburg. In a last minute attempt to intimidate Hitler, the British announced on August 25th that they had entered into a full military alliance with Poland. It was of no avail however as on August 31st, Hitler signed Directive No.1 for the Conduct of the War. That night SSSS - Schutzstaffel [GER]

SS - Submarine [ENG]

units staged incidents along the border including a phony Polish raid on a German radio station at Gleiwitz. Before sunrise the next morning, September 1st, 1939 World War Two began.

War Plans

Poland’s strategic position was weak as she lay between Germany and the Soviet Union. She was further hampered by fact that more than ten million of her thirty-seven million people were non-Poles, her industrial base was weak and she included in her boundaries on the north and east, territories to which Germany and the Soviet Union had strong historical claims.

Dispositions of opposing forces, August 31, 1939, and the German plan of operation.

Polish commanders had two options, a forward defense of the borders, or an interior defense based on the major rivers. The forward defense would protect industry, communications and major population centers but it left the army vulnerable to being outflanked, surrounded and destroyed in detail. An interior defense avoided the potential loss of the covering forces but cost Poland most of its industrial areas and some major cities. In the end the Polish High Command decided on a compromise. The Army would deploy forward but only long enough for mobilization to be completed. Once that had occurred the Army would fight a delaying action to the south-east. The purpose of this was to preserve the Polish Army long enough for France to attack and defeat Germany in the west. The Poles counted on France to begin her attack within the two week time frame established in the treaty. Based on France’s performance at Munich, Poland had deep fears that France might abandon them just as they did the Czechs. This caused the Army to position itself even farther forward so that any German attempt to seize disputed territory would trigger the military treaty and bring France into the war.. The fundamental concept of the German war plan was to fight a short war that would be over before France or Britain could put their forces in the field should they decide to fight for Poland. The plan was given its final form in an order issued June 15th by Army High Command (OKH. This order provided for two army groups, Army Group North commanded by Col. General Fedor von Bock, and Army Group South, commanded by Col. General Gerd von Rundstedt.

Army Group North was to attack eastward into the Polish Corridor with one of its two armies, the 4th, while the other, the 3rd Army, would strike west from East Prussia into the corridor. After the armies had made contact in the corridor they would turn southward in the general direction of Warsaw. Army Group South with three armies, the 8th, 10th and 14th was to advance from the Silesia and Slovakia toward the Northeast. The 10th Army, strongest of the three, would strike directly toward Warsaw while its flanks were covered by the 8th Army on the left and the 14th on the right. The junction of the 10th Army with elements of Army Group North at Warsaw would complete the encirclement and destruction of any enemy units not destroyed before then. The meeting of these two forces would presumably end the campaign. General von Bock suggested extending the arms of the encirclement east of Warsaw to prevent the escape of Polish troops into the Pripet Marshes. This suggestion was acted upon in phase two of the actual campaign..