Germany Invades Poland

SEP 01 1939 · 12:00

German troops parade through Warsaw following the invasion of Poland, September 1939. Place: The German-Polish border; Wieluń, Danzig, Mokra, the Mazury Figures: Adolf Hitler, in the Reichstag at ten · Edward Rydz-Śmigły, Polish Commander-in-Chief · Major Henryk Sucharski, Westerplatte garrison · Reinhard Heydrich, planning Operation Himmler · Neville Chamberlain, declaring war on 3 September Operation Himmler and the Border On the night of 31 August, SS men in Polish uniforms stage seven false-flag attacks along the border, the largest at the Gleiwitz radio station. Concentration-camp prisoners are killed, dressed in Polish uniforms, left as evidence. At 04:45 on 1 September the battleship Schleswig-Holstein opens fire on the Polish garrison at Westerplatte, near Danzig. Wieluń is bombed in the same minutes; sixty-five percent of the town is destroyed and roughly twelve hundred civilians killed. German armoured columns cross from East Prussia, Pomerania, Silesia, and Slovakia in coordinated lines. Hitler addresses the Reichstag at ten a.m. in field-grey uniform: seit 5:45 Uhr wird jetzt zurückgeschossen, fire is being returned since 05:45. The time is wrong by an hour and the verb's voice (passive, defensive) is a lie. The substance, that war has begun, is true. The Guarantees Honoured Britain and France issue ultimatums on 1 September demanding withdrawal. When they expire on 3 September, both states honour their guarantees to Poland and declare war on Germany. France will fight no serious offensive for eight months. The Soviet Union invades eastern Poland on 17 September per the secret protocols of [[ribbentrop-molotov-1939]]. Polish resistance ends formally on 6 October. The Second World War in Europe begins. By the time it ends in 1945, roughly sixty million people are dead, the continent is occupied by two non-European powers, and the Westphalian system requires (see [[un-charter-1945]] and [[yalta-conference-1945]]) a wholesale redesign. The interwar attempt at collective security through the League is over (see [[league-of-nations-founded-1920]]); the second attempt will be drafted at San Francisco within six years. Video: Episode 001 of the TimeGhost real-time WW2 series. Indy Neidell on the Wehrmacht crossing the Polish frontier at dawn on 1 September 1939.