Chapter 180: The Danzig Corridor

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“I hear you all have to personally go to the Alps to find a white edelweiss flower to be considered a qualified paratrooper?” Rein asked the paratrooper, Borol, who was beside him. He was leaning against a broken piece of wall, watching the dancing flames of the campfire.

Borol smiled and pointed to a withered, yellowed flower pinned in the buttonhole of his collar. He grinned. “When the 1st Parachute Division was formed, the Führer personally set this rule. But this year, we’ve expanded to three divisions, so not everyone has to go to the Alps to pick this flower themselves. Most of the time, the platoon leader goes once as a representative, and that completes the ceremony.”

After speaking, Borol took a deep drag from his cigarette, blew a smoke ring, and then asked, “Where is your home?”

“Home?” The word was very unfamiliar to Rein. “I don’t have a home. The Führer said his hometown is my hometown, and Germany is my hometown. I have to kill for this hometown, kill many, many people, to exchange for happiness.”

As he spoke, he fumbled in his breast pocket for his small tin box. He opened the lid and tipped it twice before remembering that he had already eaten the last two chocolate candies today. He gave a helpless, bitter smile and put the tin box away again.

“I’m sorry for asking about that unpleasant matter,” Borol said.

“It’s alright. I’m used to it,” Rein said. He glanced at the sleeping tank driver, Baumann, beside him, then turned his gaze back to the campfire, which was sputtering with sparks and crackling softly. He sniffled. “Killing makes me feel that I’m still alive. In my heart, I really enjoy the feeling of finishing off an enemy… It’s like you smoking. It’s very comfortable.”

His reply made Borol very uncomfortable, but before Borol could speak, Rein had already changed the subject to something completely different. “The song you all sang on the march was very nice. Would you be willing to sing another verse?”

“Of course!” Borol chuckled. “That’s our paratrooper’s anthem.”

“Come on, sing it for me,” Rein said with a smile.

Borol wasn’t shy. With a few paratroopers beside him, he began to sing softly:

…The engines roar, accompanied by one’s own private thoughts,

Everyone’s mind quickly flashes to their loved ones at home.

In an instant, comrades, the signal to jump is given,

We fly toward the enemy, there to light the warning fires on the beacon towers.

Descend quickly, descend quickly!

Comrades, it is a journey of no return.

There are dark clouds in the distant east,

Come, do not lose heart, come!

Our numbers are few, our blood is boiling,

We fear neither the enemy nor death.

We know only one mission: Germany is in peril,

To fight, to win, to struggle to the death with death itself.

Pick up your rifle, pick up your rifle!

Comrades, it is a journey of no return.

There are dark clouds in the distant east,

Come, do not lose heart, come!

“Well sung!” a general at the entrance said, leading the applause. Behind him were a staff officer and a guard carrying a Mauser 98K rifle.

“Attention!” the guard shouted.

Everyone scrambled up from the ground. The sleeping tankers also groggily got to their feet. They all patted the straw and dust from their backsides, stood at attention, and raised their right arms. “Heil Führer!”

“Long live the Reich!” Guderian returned their salute with a standard military one. “Gentlemen, your performance today was very satisfactory! Please continue to bring glory to the Reich! And win honor for yourselves.”

“Yes, General!” everyone replied at attention.

“Beef for dinner tonight? The food’s not bad, eh?” Guderian kicked a bone on the ground with his shiny leather boot.

Everyone present scratched their heads and smiled sheepishly.

“I’ve brought some canned food! But you probably don’t have much of an appetite now. Save it for the march tomorrow morning,” Guderian said with a smile. He had his staff officer leave a bag of tins and then walked out. Behind him was a chorus of cheers from the soldiers.

On another front, the German northern attack group had not yet gathered its forces. Rommel was even more adventurous in his use of troops than Guderian. He completely ignored the telegrams from Army Group command ordering him to halt his advance. His 7th Panzer Corps, comprising the 6th and 7th Panzer Divisions, attacked westward like madmen, taking out two divisional headquarters of the Polish Pomeranian Army in one go before finally stopping their offensive.

Rommel himself drove around in a car, searching for his wildly advancing troops to give them detailed combat missions. Several times, he encountered scattered Polish forces. The most frightening incident was when he saw a traffic jam of Polish soldiers blocking the road. He got out of his car and, for a full three minutes, helped the panicked Poles direct traffic, until his own guard unit caught up and captured them.

In one day of offensive, the German army’s losses were minimal. The Army Groups R and S, attacking on the main front, suffered 13 and 19 killed in action, respectively. Rommel’s force lost one tank, one truck, and 37 soldiers. Guderian’s force suffered the heaviest losses, a total of 119 killed in action, most of whom were soldiers from the 3rd SS Panzer Division—a lack of training and fearless bravery being the best explanation for this loss. The total number of tanks lost by the entire German army was two, both of which were destroyed by Polish infantry with anti-tank guns.

Losses on the paratrooper side could not yet be tallied, but the reported number was 172 missing and 12 confirmed dead. The air force had two bombers shot down by ground fire, one plane crashed due to mechanical failure, and four planes were shot down by the Polish air force, with only nine pilots killed. Even including the missing, the German army’s losses on the first day did not exceed 400 men.

In exchange for these losses, the German army had captured 110,000 Polish soldiers and killed another 7,590. Three Polish division commanders, including Garokov, became German prisoners. In addition, the German army destroyed or captured 100 Polish tanks, over 900 cannons, over 300 trucks, and over 400 aircraft—nearly a third of Poland’s heavy equipment inventory.

The Poles, to this day, were still unclear about what had happened on their border. The information was vast and chaotic, and most critically, there was no one to process this information. Everyone wanted to figure out one thing: just how many Germans had attacked the Polish defensive line, and with what methods.

One of the most bizarre reports was the capture of a German soldier 110 kilometers behind the border, but this German soldier eventually escaped because his captors were five Polish farmers. However, there were widespread reports from the army that they had been attacked by German forces, and these attacks had occurred about 70 kilometers inside the border.

Subsequently, the Polish commanders received another piece of stunning news. German tanks and armored cars had broken into the Polish defensive line in one go, routing the Polish army that was preparing to attack Germany. These German forces, equipped with a large number of vehicles, had advanced with divine speed, pushing a full 40 kilometers forward (on average) on that day alone.

The first to react was the Pomeranian Army, which was on the verge of being encircled in the Danzig Corridor. Its commander, Bortnowski, clearly judged Rommel’s operational intent and made a very correct but disgraceful decision: abandon all materiel and flee.

Cannons were abandoned on the highways to serve as roadblocks. Polish cavalry on horseback galloped south past the chaotic infantry. Units with vehicles rushed even more frantically, hoping to exit the huge encirclement before Rommel could cut them off from the rear. But as they retreated in the front, the German army pursuing them from behind was like a shadow that could not be shaken off.

This led to the rout of the Polish Pomeranian Army. The three divisions that Bortnowski had left behind as a rearguard were surrounded and annihilated by the Germans without putting up any resistance. The slowest-moving artillery units were caught up and captured by the pursuing German army. But their intention was ultimately successful. The prisoners and equipment piled on the roads slowed the pace of the German attack. Ironically, these prisoners and equipment were more effective than their resistance had been.

To evade responsibility for the rout, Bortnowski sent a telegram to Warsaw, claiming that he was heading south to rendezvous with the Poznań Army and then would counter-attack north to retake the Danzig Corridor. This excuse sounded very tempting, but it was full of holes. With the collapse of the Pomeranian Army deployed in the Danzig Corridor, the Modlin Army left in northern Poland became an isolated force. This isolated force was still holding its positions, but now they had to face the German Army Group P from East Prussia alone.

And the Poznań Army, which Bortnowski claimed to be rushing to meet, had already been routed by the attack of the German army on its front. The main force of this unit had given up its defensive line and was heading south to rendezvous with the Łódź Army. Most of the infantry and cavalry were in a disorderly retreat, throwing away their arms and armor as they fled into the Polish heartland.

On another front, the Łódź Army was also retreating. But because the opposing German army was not pressing too hard, they were the best-performing unit in the entire Polish defensive line. However, when they heard that German forces had been spotted near Kraków, their morale was also shaken for a time.

On this quiet first night of the war, the German Air Force did not relax its attacks on the Poles. Kesselring ordered the air force to take off for combat to accumulate experience in night attacks. Although the results were not obvious, it provided valuable combat experience for the newly born German Air Force. More than 700 sorties kept the Poles on edge and made for a sleepless night.

In any case, the blitzkrieg that the German Wehrmacht had been secretly testing for a full decade had finally made its debut on the stage of history. And as soon as it appeared, it had beaten the newly born European power, Poland, to a pulp.