Germany Invades Poland
At 4:45 a.m. on 1 September 1939, German forces crossed into Poland from three directions, deploying the Blitzkrieg combination of armoured columns, motorised infantry, and close air support that would define the early years of the Second World War. Hitler staged a false flag operation — dressing SS men in Polish uniforms to 'attack' a German radio station — to provide a pretext. Britain and France had given Poland a formal security guarantee in March 1939 following Hitler's occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia, and on 3 September both declared war on Germany. Poland fought bravely — its cavalry did not charge tanks as myth has it — but was overwhelmed by the combined German invasion from the west and Soviet invasion from the east on 17 September. Warsaw fell on 27 September; formal Polish resistance ended on 6 October. The Second World War had begun, the direct consequence of two decades of failed peace-making, appeasement, and collective security that had proven inadequate to contain an ideology of conquest.
- Year: 1939 CE
- Category: Military
