78 Years Ago, The West Went to War, For Poland

German infantry march into Poland
(Source)

(

On the 1st day of September, 1939, the German military attacked Poland. Naval, air, and ground forces launched the invasion which is traditionally considered the beginning of World War II.

But the night before, at the Silesian town of Gleiwitz (today, Gliwice in Poland) a group of Germans, acting under the orders of Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Müller (chief of the Gestapo), seized the radio station. Masquerading as Poles, the point of the mission was to provide a pretext for the actual invasion the next day.

A Silesian* man, who was known to be a Polish sympathizer and who had been picked up by the Gestapo earlier, was given a lethal injection, then shot. His murder, along with a number of inmates from the concentration camp at Dachau, dressed in Polish uniforms, were the first casualties of the Polish campaign.

On such pretexts do nations go to war.

For Poland, a long nightmare began which would not end until 1989 with the triumph of the Solidarity labor movement and the first democratic elections since before the war. One thing people often forget, or just don't know, is that about two weeks after the German military crashed over the western Polish border, the Soviet army crashed across the eastern border.

The Poles did not surrender, though organized resistance within the country collapsed. The government fled to Great Britain and many Polish fighting men left the country to fight on for both the British and the Russians.

As you can see by the map, the Soviets seized a rather large chunk of Poland, the area shaded in pink. The Curzon Line stems from just after World War I, the idea was that Poland would be to the west of that line, Soviet Russia to the east. No, the Poles didn't buy that idea from the British Foreign Secretary. They fought the Russians, and won at the Battle of Warsaw in 1920. They kept the land shaded in pink until Hitler and Stalin made their little deal on the eve of the invasion of Poland by the Nazis in 1939.

Near the end of the war, at Tehran and at Yalta, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin agreed that when the Nazis were defeated, the Soviets could keep their piece of Poland. Not a proud moment for Sir Winston, but by that stage of the war the British were treated as junior members of the Grand Alliance, a step above the French yes, but still junior. Stalin and Roosevelt held all the aces.

So when the Nazis were done for, the Poles were compensated with the area shaded in yellow, Silesia, Posen, Pomerania, West Prussia, and the southern part of East Prussia. (The Soviets kept the northern part.) Much of that area had been populated by Poles over the centuries. Poland, due to it's topography, was divided up between Prussia, Austria, and Russia three times over the years. While the Polish nation might have come and gone over the centuries, the Polish people remained.

Modern Poland
( Source)

My hometown had a large population of folks of Polish descent, good people, damned good to have by your side in a fight. Looking at the Islamic refugee issues overwhelming Germany, it's good to know that Poland is having none of that nonsense.

They've been invaded enough.

Polish F-16s
(Source)

* Silesia was part of Germany in 1939.
** "For our freedom and yours" - Motto of Polish soldiers, exiled from partitioned Poland, fighting in various independence movements throughout the world.