Humpday History Highlight
By Wyatt Earp | September 1, 2010
September 1, 1939 – Germany Invades Poland
The German invasion of Poland was a primer on how Hitler intended to wage war–what would become the “blitzkrieg” strategy. This was characterized by extensive bombing early on to destroy the enemy’s air capacity, railroads, communication lines, and munitions dumps, followed by a massive land invasion with overwhelming numbers of troops, tanks, and artillery. Once the German forces had plowed their way through, devastating a swath of territory, infantry moved in, picking off any remaining resistance.
The Polish army made several severe strategic miscalculations early on. Although 1 million strong, the Polish forces were severely under-equipped and attempted to take the Germans head-on with horsed cavaliers in a forward concentration, rather than falling back to more natural defensive positions. The outmoded thinking of the Polish commanders coupled with the antiquated state of its military was simply no match for the overwhelming and modern mechanized German forces. And, of course, any hope the Poles might have had of a Soviet counter-response was dashed with the signing of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Nonaggression Pact.
It’s September 1. The decision to post this story was an easy one.
Topics: HHH | 3 Comments »
September 1st, 2010 at 7:19 pm
Minor Correction: 9/1/1939
September 1st, 2010 at 9:15 pm
LFH – Dammit. Typo. Sorry.
September 2nd, 2010 at 12:13 am
It was definitely Springtime for Hitler in those early days, winter for Poland and France (9 months later).