Blitzkreig Poland (Images of War).pdf

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First published in Great Britain in 2010 by
PEN & SWORD MILITARY
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd,
47 Church Street,
Barnsley,
South Yorkshire.
S70 2AS
Copyright © Jon Sutherland and Diane Canwell, 2010
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978184 884 3356
eISBN 978178 303 8343
The right of Jon Sutherland and Diane Canwell to be identified as Authors of this work has been
asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.
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Printed and bound by CPI
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Contents
Introduction
Chapter One
Signals Collection
Chapter Two
The German Medical Service in Poland
Chapter Three
SS Officer’s Album
Bibliography
Introduction
he German Army began a highly secret mobilisation on 26 August 1939.
It was to launch Operation
White,
the invasion of Poland. Full
mobilisation would be completed by 3 September. The invasion of
Poland, which triggered the Second World War after a series of threats, counter
threats and declarations of war, began on 1 September.
The Germans mustered over 1.5 million men in two army groups,
amounting to some fifty-three divisions. They attacked Poland from three
different directions;
Generaloberst
Fedor von Bock’s 3rd and 4th Armies,
known as Army Group North, struck from north-east Germany and east Prussia.
Generaloberst Gerd von Rundstedt’s 8th, 10th and 14th Armies, or Army Group
South, invaded from southeastern Germany and northern Slovakia. They were
supported by the 1st and 2nd Slovak Divisions. The Germans had mustered
thirty-seven infantry divisions, four motorised divisions, six panzer divisions,
three mountain divisions and three light divisions.
Ranged against them was the Polish Army of 1.1 million men. Many of
these divisions were positioned very close to the German border and found
themselves quickly outflanked and out-manoeuvred. In all, the Poles had forty
infantry divisions, eleven mounted cavalry brigades and two mechanised
divisions.
The Germans had sought an excuse for launching their assault on Poland.
One such incident had taken place on 31 August, when German agents, dressed
in Polish uniforms, had attacked the German radio station at Gleiwitz, in Upper
Silesia. This incident was part of Operation
Himmler,
to simulate Polish
aggression against Germany and thereby give the Germans a reason to launch
an invasion of Poland and carry out other reprisals.
The German invasion of Poland was a short but hard fought affair. Polish
forces tried to withdraw and set up better lines of defences to the east. On 17
September 1939 an even more decisive hammer blow fell on Poland when
Soviet forces invaded from the east. By 6 October the Polish Army had been
T

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