"The total population of Poland is only 35 million people, of which only 22 million are real Poles, and the rest are ethnic minorities such as Germans, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Jews, all of whom are oppressed to a considerable extent."

"With the exception of the French allies, who relied on them, the Poles spent too much time dreaming of opportunities for aggression when they were still in a weak position in German and Russian affairs. Someone had wanted to raid isolated East Prussia and Upper Silesia; There are also those who want to take the shortest route to Berlin. When Germany had already built fortifications in East Prussia and in the Oder-Varta basin, and began to rearm, this dream should have been disillusioned. But Polish politicians and military men fantasized that the French would attack at the same time as the offensive on the Western Front. In their hearts, they have always refused to give up this delusion. The disposition based on this illusion from the initial stage appeared to represent a defensive mentality, but it was also possible to judge their intention to turn it into an offensive as soon as French aid had taken effect. ”

"On the other hand, the Poles also have a temper that likes to attack rather than defend. In the hearts and minds of the Polish soldiers, who still remembered the glory of the past, the newly established Polish Army was educated by the French. Because, in fact, since 1918, French military thinking has been based on the experience of static warfare, it is of course difficult to give the Poles an idea of speed and mobility. Therefore, it is very conceivable that the Polish army's deployment plan did not have any definite operational objectives other than the reluctance to give up anything, but was only a compromise between the aggressive ambitions of the past and the need to make defensive preparations in the face of a strong enemy today. At the same time, the Poles mistook the Germans for a French-style attack, which would soon degenerate into positional warfare. We once received a secret report about the schematic of the ideal Polish offensive. That's from a reliable source, it is said that the President of Poland or Liz? Marshal Smigre's cronies all advocated that the Polish army should be deployed in an offensive character, including a plan to concentrate a large number of forces in the Poznan province. What is particularly striking is that this plan is said to have actually been suggested or requested by the British. We feel that the whole situation seems impossible. Later, however, it was discovered that the Poles had indeed amassed a fairly strong force in the province of Poznan. ”

"The plan drawn up by the General Staff of the German Army was to make a large-scale roundabout movement against the Polish Army from East Prussia and Silesia. When Army Group North had driven the Polish army out of the corridor and established a link between East Prussia and Pomilania, it was to move straight behind the Vistula in order to attack the main enemy forces in the Great River Bay from the rear. ”

"Army Group South should be tasked with engaging the enemy as far as possible in front of the Vistula in order to prevent them from retreating behind the Vistula and San rivers. This meant that the tank units of the 10th Army should work together to rush through the enemy forces that might be massed near the border, and the infantry should follow closely behind as closely as possible, so that the armoured forces could be ahead of the enemy and reach the Vistula crossings from Dumblin to Warsaw. At the same time, the 14th Army, which was advancing through Grisia, was also able to reach and cross the San River with maximum speed. If the enemy's intention was to make a decisive resistance at the San and Vistula rivers, this army group could immediately sweep the river's line from the south and join forces on the eastern flank of Army Group North, which was advancing from the north, deep behind enemy lines. This allowed the 14th Army to receive considerable help. Because its right flank extends eastwards into the territory of Slovakia. Thus the concentration of the deep flanks of the enemy forces in the Krakow area posed an immediate threat, which made it impossible for them to make any effective long-term defense against Grecia. ”

"The operations of Army Group South on the territory of Poland were based on this course of action. Its purpose was to destroy the enemy's main forces in front of the Vistula. At the same time, they must try to prevent him from realizing his attempt to retreat behind the San and Vistula rivers and accept a decisive battle. ”

"The first objective of the 14th Army was to encircle the powerful enemy forces that were hypothetically concentrated in the Krakow area. The original disposition of this army group from Silesia, through Moraphoska Ostavar, to the mountains of Karpartia, is enough to hint at the intention of such encirclement. ”

"The commander of the 8th Army was General Bush, and this corps had two infantry divisions, the 8th and 28th, and the 5th Panzer Division. It was ordered to break through the fortified Polish border fortress in eastern Upper Silesia, and then advance along the northern bank of the Vistula River towards Krakow. The 17th Army, commanded by General Kinnitz and commanded the 7th and 44th Infantry Divisions, attacked from Moravia along the Vistula River to Krakow. Two other corps were assigned to carry out the task of direct encirclement of the enemy forces presumed to be in the vicinity of Krakow. The 22nd Panzer Corps, commanded by General Kleist, with the 2nd Panzer Division and the 2nd Light Division, was to break out of the valley of the Arafa River in the western Karpatia Mountains and attack Krakow from the south. The 18th Mountain Army, commanded by General Bell and under the command of the 2nd and 3rd Mountain Divisions, was to protrude from the Prade Valley, east of Gaotara, to pass through Novošáz, and then advance towards Pohenia, and to attack the enemy forces in Krakow from behind. ”

Further east, Slovak troops were also ordered to attack through the Dukla Pass, a site once famous in the First World War. Later, a brave and combative Bavarian Mountain Division and two reserve divisions were also ordered to join the flank encirclement. ”

"The 14th Army's initial fighting was quite difficult, especially the 8th Army's attack on the Polish border fortresses was the most intense. But from a combat point of view, the roundabout movement from the Karpatia side had already decided the fate of the border area. It is clear that the supposed plan to encircle and annihilate the enemy around Krakow did not materialize as expected, because the enemy, aware of the danger of his situation, withdrew from the western part of Grisia of his own accord. However, most of its forces had been shattered in these early battles, and then the 22nd Panzer Corps caught up with its prey. The right flank of the army, the Mountain Army, together with the 17th Army, captured the fortresses of Lviv and Prizimensl. Its left flank, which included the Panzer Corps, the 8th Army, and the 7th Army, which was assigned to the army group with Army Group, crossed the San River to the south of the point where the San and Vistula rivers meet. Although the Polish troops were still fighting valiantly in the ensuing battles, and some of the battles were fierce, they were swept away, and some of the enemy forces were moved from Warsaw or Army Group North frontally. By this time, we had already made contact with the left flank of Army Group North. By September 15, Lviv and Prizisl had been conquered. ”

"The objective of the 14th Army, in addition to the annihilation of the enemy forces in western Grisia, was to pursue and capture the retreating enemy forces so that they could not establish a new line of defense in the area behind the Vistula River. The other two armies attacking from Silesia had the goal of forcing the enemy to accept a decisive battle in front of the Vistula. The main task of rushing all the way to the Vistula was carried out by the stronger 10th Army, which also had a relatively strong armored force. The weaker 8th Army was responsible for covering the northern flank of the operation against enemy forces in the assumed positions in the Kariz, Lodz and Poznan provinces. ”

"In the first few weeks, the outcome of the battle was determined by two factors, one of which was the breakthrough of the tank units to the enemy's front, which penetrated deep into the enemy's rear, while our infantry divisions were forced to follow with a rapid advance. Another factor is that the enemy's air force has been almost annihilated, and their communication and transportation networks have been cut off by effective attacks by our air force. For these reasons, the Poles never had any centralized control over the war. ”

At this point, Manstein's eyes seemed to be filled with a torrent of steel made up of German tanks and a swarm of German attack planes in the sky.

"The 10th Army routed the enemy forces in the Radom area in the mountains of the Lisagora Forest, while the 15th Motorized Army rushed to Abbator and Dumblin to occupy the Vistula River crossing, while the 14th Motorized Army of the Left Wing Army cut off the enemy's retreat to Warsaw from the north. By 9 September, the first 'pocket' of the war was filled with one of the enemy's army groups. ”

"Because the enemy forces wanted to break through, the fighting in the area of Kiels-Radom did not stop until September 12, but their fate was already decided before then. By the end of the battle, we had captured 60,000 men and 130 artillery pieces, and the enemy had lost a total of 7 divisions. Even if they were able to retreat across the Vistula, it would not help the big picture, because on the day of the Battle of Radom, the 14th Army had already reached the gates of Lviv, and the left flank of this army had already crossed the lower reaches of the San River, and could sweep away all the defensive deployments of the Vistula. ”

"At the same time, the 16th Panzer Corps in the left flank of the 10th Army had rushed all the way to Gorakavaria, south of Warsaw, which was also a crossing of the Vistula River. One of the armored divisions had already stormed the southwestern outskirts of Warsaw. These forces were too weak to capture a fortified city like Warsaw, so the panzer division was later forced to withdraw. In any case, the road to the west of the Polish capital has been blocked. ”

"During the first nine days of the offensive, everything went very smoothly, and the enemy's last escape route was blocked."

"The enemy first tried to break south, then to the southeast, and finally to the east, and after fierce fighting, their resistance finally broke down completely on September 18. By September 20, the 10th Army reported that it had captured 100,000 prisoners, 320 artillery pieces, 130 aircraft and 40 tanks, and the 8th Army reported that it had captured 90,000 men, and the number of equipment was yet to be calculated. The enemy lost 9 infantry divisions, 3 cavalry brigades, and part of the strength of another 10 divisions. ”

"In order to prevent the remnants of the enemy from escaping from the fortress of Modlin to Warsaw, another series of battles took place in the area south of Modelin, and our army group was ordered to capture the capital of Poland. What struck us most strangely was that, up to this point, Britain and France had sat idly by and watched Poland accept its destruction. ”

"As soon as Russia had begun its actions on 17 September and had decided to take the Vistula River as the demarcation line, Mr. Strassel wished to seize the city as soon as possible, and ordered that it must be conquered by the end of September. Politicians want the generals to win a victory, which is certainly not abnormal, but I think that the allotted time is undoubtedly beyond the course. ”

"Despite this, the headquarters of Army Group decided that casualties should be kept to a minimum during the attack. The only reason for attacking the city was that the enemy had deployed an entire army group to defend the city, and the Polish Supreme Commander had declared that the city was ready to defend to the end. Army Group Headquarters knew that in this environment there was no hope of a surprise attack on the city, and on the contrary, it did not want to engage in street fighting in Warsaw anyway, because it would inevitably cause heavy losses to both the attacking troops and the civilian population. Therefore, the 8th Army, which was ordered to capture the city, confined its attack to a tight and continuous blockade of the city along roughly the circular railway line. The combined effect of artillery bombardment and bombardment was then used to force the city to surrender, and if these were not effective, the means of starving the city of water and food were used to achieve the final goal. ”

On September 25, the Germans began shelling Warsaw's outlying fortresses, strongholds, and important supply centers. At the same time, in order to reach the predetermined siege line, the attack of local surnames began. On 26 September, the Luftwaffe distributed leaflets to the city, warning of the imminent bombing of the city and asking the inhabitants to surrender. Because the Polish army continued to put up stubborn resistance, the bombardment began that afternoon. ”

"At noon on 27 September, while Admiral Lundstedt and I were inspecting, we suddenly heard the message that the enemy was willing to surrender. The shelling then ceased immediately. The following day, a surrender treaty was signed between the commander of the Polish garrison and the commander of the German 8th Army, General Blaskowice. It is stipulated that the civilian population and wounded enemy troops shall be provided with immediate relief, and that the honor of the valiant enemy shall be preserved as far as possible. Officers were allowed to keep their sabers, and soldiers were freed after completing the necessary forms of disposition. According to Polish reports, the total number of Polish officers and soldiers who surrendered in Warsaw was 120,000. ”

"Although the main forces of the enemy in front of the Vistula have been annihilated in the Battle of the Buchula River and the fall of Warsaw. But in the area of the 14th Army, on the eastern part of Grecia and on the other side of the lower San River, we still had many battles with the remnants of the enemy. Some of them are also intense. At the same time, the 10th Army also sent a corps at Dumblin, crossed the Vistula River, and advanced to Lushilin. In the course of this battle, we suddenly received an order from the High Command to hand over the city of Lviv, which had just surrendered to the 14th Army, to the Russian army, and to withdraw the forces of the entire army group to the rear of the demarcation line drawn by Ribbentrop in Moscow. The line runs from the Uzozok Pass to Prizimensl, then along the San and Vistula rivers to the north of Warsaw. So for Army Group South, the battles fought on the other side of those two rivers were actually a waste of energy, and only for the Russians to sit back and reap their benefits! ”

"In order to retreat across the San River, we must again get out of the battle against an enemy army group, whose strength is estimated to be still 2 to 3 infantry divisions and 1 to 2 cavalry brigades. Although the remnants of the Poles now showed great courage, they were completely ignorant of the full picture. They attacked desperately to prevent our 7th and 8th armies from reaching the river. Here again, the political negotiations between Germany and Russia were protracted, and fierce fighting continued to take place. ”

"On 1 October, a new adjustment was made to the demarcation line. This time we were again ordered to reoccupy the province of Lublin. So the 14th Motorized Army crossed the Vistula River again and accepted the surrender of the last remnants of the enemy, who were putting up a heroic resistance in the face of the advancing Russian army. ”

"The Polish campaign is finally over. In the process, Army Group South captured a total of 523,236 enemy troops, 1,401 artillery pieces, 7,600 machine guns, 274 aircraft, 96 combat vehicles, and countless other pieces of equipment. There is no doubt that the enemy suffered heavy casualties, for they fought valiantly and were determined to fight to the end, even in the most hopeless of circumstances. ”

"The losses of the army group were: 505 officers killed, 759 wounded, 42 missing. Soldiers were killed 6,049, wounded 19,719 and missing 4,022. ”

"The Polish campaign was quickly described as a 'blitzkrieg'. Admittedly, in terms of the speed and results of its execution, it is indeed an unprecedented masterpiece. However, in order to make an impartial assessment, we must conduct a comprehensive analysis. ”

"As a matter of fact, the Germans not only had the advantage, but also had many more favourable conditions for the start of the war, as the Western countries did not take advantage of this opportunity to render proper assistance to Poland. Had the West been able to launch an offensive on the Western Front as early as possible, the outcome of the war would have been very different. ”

(To be continued)