Germany Invades Poland
The invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 was the point at which the policy of settling German grievances by negotiation ended. The grievances used were Danzig, a German-speaking free city under League of Nations administration, and the corridor of Polish territory separating East Prussia from the rest of Germany, both created at Versailles. Hitler had spent the summer demanding them and had already demonstrated at Munich and in Prague what a concession bought. Britain and France gave Poland a guarantee on 31 March 1939, after the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia showed that the Sudeten claim had not been about Germans. The guarantee was strategically empty and politically decisive: neither power could reach Poland, and both were now committed. The pact with the Soviet Union on 23 August removed the last obstacle, giving Germany a partition agreement and the certainty of no eastern front. Hitler told his generals on 22 August that the destruction of Poland was the object and that they should close their hearts to pity. The attack began without a declaration of war, preceded by staged incidents on the frontier. Britain and France declared war on 3 September after two days in which Chamberlain's cabinet nearly broke over the delay, and then fought no land campaign for eight months. The eight months are the reason the guarantee has been criticised since — it committed two powers to a war they were not ready to fight, over a country they could not save, and left them fighting it anyway.
- Year: 1939 CE
- Category: Military
