Chapter 165: Poland

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The next day, after reaching an agreement of intent with the Soviet Union, Merkel handed over all the remaining work to his subordinate diplomats. To maintain secrecy, he himself boarded a return flight that very day.

In 1937, as soon as the German Foreign Minister Merkel returned to Germany, he impatiently summoned the Polish ambassador to Germany. This summons made the Pole, a man named Lipski, feel as if he were sitting on pins and needles. The Germans had summoned the ambassador of Czechoslovakia, and the result was that Czechoslovakia was annexed. The Germans had summoned the ambassador of Austria, and the same thing had happened to the Austrians. Not long ago, the Germans had just summoned the ambassador of Hungary, and now Hungary was a German province—although Britain and France had not yet recognized this fact.

But the Poles also had reasons to be confident that they had nothing to fear from the Germans. Relations with Germany had never been so good. The ten-year non-aggression pact signed between the two countries in 1929 still had more than a year before it expired. Moreover, as part of a recently signed trade agreement, Poland still enjoyed most-favored-nation status. Therefore, Lipski still accepted this summons from Merkel.

However, the Poles themselves did not yet know that their opportunism in taking a piece of territory called Teschen during the Czechoslovakian crisis had greatly angered Britain and France, to the point of shaking their resolve to support Poland.

Nevertheless, the Poles still believed that all the trump cards were in their own hands, because although Britain and France’s determination to protect Poland had wavered, they still declared their fundamental position of supporting Poland. The new government in London issued a statement: “In the event of any action which clearly threatened Polish independence, and which the Polish Government accordingly considered it vital to resist with their national forces, His Majesty’s Government would feel themselves bound at once to lend the Polish Government all support in their power.”

However, the British statement clearly angered the Soviets. That very afternoon, Stalin responded to the British government’s statement: “How ridiculous it is that a once-glorious but now extremely weak country in distant Western Europe wants to interfere with the world’s people’s desire for communism.”

And at this time, the statement from the German Führer, Akado, was very interesting. He did not mention any issues related to Poland, but everyone knew what he intended to do: “No one can threaten the great German people. The Wehrmacht is prepared for anything. If anyone wants to use force to compete with Germany, the German people will accept this challenge.”

The next day, in order to make Germany carefully consider the Polish issue, the French government also stepped up to express its attitude. The French visited Poland and gave the Poles a clear guarantee: once war broke out between Germany and Poland, France would immediately launch air strikes against Germany, followed by a diversionary ground attack three days later, and a full-scale war invading German territory within fifteen days of the outbreak of war.

At the same time, the British also promised their Polish allies that the Royal Air Force would attack Germany and bomb important targets within German territory, and that British ground forces would implement a plan to aid Poland via the Black Sea.

Having received guarantees from both countries, Poland once again reviewed its own combat forces. The Polish generals were very optimistic that they could defeat both Germany and the Soviet Union, because they had once defeated the invading Soviet army in 1920. Their brave and well-trained infantry would hold back the enemy, using the large number of permanent fortifications on the border to make the enemy suffer, until the powerful Polish cavalry could penetrate the enemy’s rear, cutting off their supply lines and command system—all of this was almost a carbon copy of the 1920 Polish-Soviet War.

To achieve this goal, Poland carried out a full-scale war mobilization. The army had already exceeded 1.95 million men, and the reserves had reached a full 700,000. Germany’s military strength was more complex. After a year of expansion and training, Germany had 1.44 million frontline troops. This figure did not include the four divisions and 70,000 men of the SS, nor the 690,000 second-line troops that could not be used for offense.

By this calculation, Poland, fighting on two fronts, did not seem to have an advantage. But in Germany’s operational plan, the total force for the attack on Poland was limited to 900,000, with the remaining troops deployed in the homeland and on the Franco-German border.

In this way, the balance of forces on Poland’s western front was 1.2 million Polish troops and their 400,000 reserves, against 900,000 German troops and their 190,000 reserves. Poland had a numerical advantage of nearly 500,000 men.

Behind this massive numerical advantage, however, were astonishing weaknesses. The Polish army did not value the role of staff officers. As a result, not a single one of its 20 army commanders had been trained in modern warfare. In terms of communications, the Polish army relied on a small number of civilian telephone and telegraph networks, which were very old and backward.

In terms of equipment, the Polish armored forces, with 800 tanks, seemed powerful, but they were all old French models or Polish-made knock-offs of British tanks. Moreover, these tanks were not organized into tank groups but were dispersed among the infantry units.

Poland’s field artillery was its best-equipped branch, with copies of the excellent French 75mm cannon, but its other heavy artillery was unfortunately long since obsolete. The modern 105mm and 155mm howitzers were very slow to transport and could hardly keep up with the pace of the troops. Even more tragically, none of these artillery regiments had a complete transport system.

In the 1930s, the Polish Air Force had the most powerful fighters in the world, which had once given the Germans sleepless nights. But they were now completely obsolete. These PZL P.11 fighters had a pitiful top speed of only 400 kilometers per hour, just over half that of the German Fw-190D fighter. Therefore, the Polish Air Force’s 1,000 fighters were no match for the German Air Force.

In terms of numbers, the Polish Air Force also seemed to have fallen behind. The German Air Force had a full 813 Fw-190Ds and 411 Me-109A fighters; a full 702 Stuka dive bombers, as well as over 500 Do-217 bombers. Two-thirds of the German Air Force’s 2,400 aircraft would be transferred to the Eastern Front to participate in the Polish campaign.

And the Polish army’s defense plan was not so perfect either. The generals hoped to block every direction of attack from the German and Soviet armies, using their troops to plug every possible route of attack. They had prepared a large number of cavalry, ready to counter-attack when the German army was forced to retreat under pressure from the British and French.

Thus, the Poles dispersed the forces of seven army groups along the German-Polish border, and another five army groups along the Soviet-Polish border. This defense plan left no impression on the French Chief of the General Staff, General Maurice Gamelin. He tried to persuade Poland to give up some areas to strengthen the defense of more important sectors, but this effort ultimately failed completely due to the Poles’ stubbornness.

The Poles did not want to give up their densely populated western agricultural regions and industrial cities within the first few hours of the war. They were worried that doing so would cause the nation’s will to resist to be completely extinguished. And Britain also preferred Poland’s determination to fight for every inch of land.

On the night of July 18, 1937, the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact was formally signed. The Soviet Union finally made a concession, in accordance with the German opinion: for one month after the Soviet Union attacked Poland, Germany would not attack Poland. With this guarantee, the Soviet Union decided to launch the war first to redeem its defeat in 1920. The two countries kept the contents of the treaty strictly secret, agreeing not to acknowledge its existence before 1938.

On July 20, 1937, with the guarantee of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, the Soviet Red Army, after ten months of preparation, began a full-scale invasion of Poland’s eastern border. This move caught Britain and France completely off guard. Their original fear of Germany acting rashly was instantly replaced by the fear of the Red Army entering the heart of Europe.

However, in a stunning turn of events, the first full-scale offensive was easily repulsed by the Poles. The Soviet Red Army encountered stubborn resistance from the defenders after advancing seven kilometers into Polish territory. The brave Polish army even launched local counter-attacks. The 400,000-strong first echelon of the Soviet Red Army was routed, suffering heavy losses.

The Soviet army had never suffered such huge losses. Approximately 40,000 were killed in action, and over 70,000 were wounded. Most of their weapons were lost. Half of the 200 tanks that participated in the attack were destroyed, and most of the seemingly invincible new KV-1 tanks were abandoned due to mechanical failures.

The inexperienced Soviet Air Force engaged in a bloody struggle for air superiority with the Polish Air Force at low altitude. Within three days, the two sides had engaged in seven large-scale air battles involving dozens of aircraft. The Polish Air Force suffered heavy losses due to its old planes, but the Soviet Air Force did not gain much of an advantage either. The loss ratio between the two sides remained at one-to-one.

Subsequently, an enraged Stalin mobilized the reserves of the Red Army. 700,000 troops marched into Poland in a mighty torrent. The war escalated completely. With the support of Britain and France, the Polish defenders fought with the rhythm of the 1920 Polish-Soviet War, using flanking maneuvers to crush the Red Army’s second offensive in one go.

Just as Poland was full of confidence and the Red Army was in disarray, an event occurred that angered Britain and France. The German Führer, Akado Rudolph, gave a public speech on the radio, hoping that Poland would give up the Danzig Corridor region to allow Germany to complete its formal unification.

“Germany should not let others do as they please on its own territory! Although we have experienced shame, we will not let that shame accompany us forever! Every single German has the sacred duty to defend the territorial integrity of the fatherland! The Danzig Corridor is a sacred and inalienable part of German territory,” Akado said passionately in his radio address.

His response was the unified cry of 300,000 citizens marching on the streets of Berlin: “Long live Great Germany! Long live the great Führer Akado Rudolph!”

The next day, perhaps because the war on the eastern front was going exceptionally well, or perhaps influenced by the imminent arrival of large-scale aid from Britain and France, or perhaps due to blind confidence in Britain and France’s promise to protect Poland, the Polish government flatly rejected the German Führer’s unreasonable demand, stating that the Danzig Corridor issue was not up for negotiation.