Chapter 956: World War Breaks Out

The German blitzkrieg completely disrupted their plans.

Before the Polish troops deployed on the border could react, the Germans had already penetrated behind their flanks and surrounded them. Faced with the passive situation of being attacked by the enemy, the Polish army had to retreat one after another, and the mechanized massacre that the world had never seen before began.

The German lightning attack put the Polish army completely in a situation of passive beating, which was the first time that the Poles and the world experienced the taste of "blitzkrieg". The Polish high command had expected that the war would unfold as slowly as before, and that the Germans would first carry out avant-garde activities with light cavalry and then attack with heavy cavalry, unprepared for the "blitzkrieg" in which the Germans used a lot of tanks and aviation. The Polish high command was overconfident in its military strength and counted on British and French assistance, so it deployed all its troops on the German-Polish border, believing that victory could be achieved if a resolute counterattack was carried out.

This kind of deployment, which had no flexibility in advance or retreat, caused the Polish army to be either annihilated or divided and surrounded under the advance of the German army at high speed and depth, and became a lone army left behind the German army, and the resistance quickly collapsed.

The blitzkrieg against Poland was precisely the tactic developed by Guderian, which quickly penetrated the encirclement, and the reconnaissance troops rushed ahead of the armored division.

Guderian successfully put his theory of armored forces into practice and led the 19th Panzer Corps to write the best combat example for the Blitzkrieg. The 19th Armored Army is subordinate to the 4th Army of Army Group North and has 1 armored division, 2 motorized divisions and 1 infantry division. It was both the middle of the 4th Army and the offensive front of Army Group North.

In the early morning of September 1, the troops he led crossed the Polish-German border from Pomerania, attacked in the direction of the Polish corridor, penetrated the Polish "Pomerania" army, and under the command of Guderian, kept breaking through the positions of the Polish army, advancing into the depth of the Polish army, and then made a big detour, blocked the large-scale Polish troops, and then advanced to the east, continuing the roundabout encirclement, in the battle, Guderian's troops advanced 400 miles in 28 days, setting a record for the longest action of mechanized troops. update

Just as Warsaw had become the last centre of resistance to the German Army and Air Force in just a few days, Goering sent his fleet of planes to bomb the city in turn, forcing the city's resistance to succumb.

At 10 o'clock in the morning of the same day, Hitler excitedly announced to the Reichstag that the Imperial Army had invaded Poland and Germany had entered a state of war. He declared: "From now on, I am only a soldier of the German Empire, and I am wearing this military uniform, which is the most sacred and precious to me." Until the final victory, I will not take off this military uniform, or I will die for my country. ”

Hitler's speech provoked a wave of enthusiastic cheers from the parliamentarians.

At a time when Poland was in danger, the Polish government repeatedly asked Britain and France to fulfill their promises and provide immediate support. However, the 110 divisions of Britain and France on the two fronts remained immovable, and only 12 of the 30 German divisions stationed on the 300-mile defensive line were relatively combat-effective. Britain and France took the form of declaring war on Germany, and in fact did not give Poland any support.

On September 2, a debate erupted in the British House of Commons, and parliamentarians also demanded that the government fulfill its obligations under the Warsaw Pact. In a speech to the House of Commons on September 3, Chamberlain said: "Today is the most painful day for all of us, but no one is more sad than mine. In my life in public office, everything I believed in, everything I worked for, was destroyed. The only thing I can do now is to do my best to bring to victory the cause for which we must pay a great price, and I believe that I will live to see the day when Hitlerism is destroyed and Europe is liberated again. ”…,

However, Chamberlain did not see this day in the end. He died on November 9, 1940, with regret and despair.

At 9 a.m. on 3 September, Britain issued an ultimatum to Germany, demanding that Germany provide an armistice guarantee by 11 a.m., otherwise Britain would declare war on Germany. But Britain had only one army in Europe at that time, and Chamberlain's policy of appeasement was completely bankrupt.

At 11 a.m. on September 3, just after the time limit for the ultimatum to Germany, Britain declared war on Germany and declared a state of war on the whole country.

At noon, France issued a similar ultimatum to Germany, the deadline for which was 5 p.m. Germany ignored the ultimatum of Britain and France. As a result, Britain and France declared war on Germany one after another, and World War II broke out in full swing.

That night, Hitler moved his office from the elegant marble hall of the Chancellery to the Americana parked on the dusty armored train at the Pomeranian railway station, where Hitler traveled to the front to inspect and deal with the war on the Eastern and Western Fronts!

Guderian's armored unit marched into Chernò, his birthplace. The land here has long been soaked in the blood of the Germans;

After breaking through the Polish lines, the Germans galloped across Poland at a speed of 50 to 60 miles a day.

On September 3, the Germans advanced to the line of the Vistula River and completed the encirclement of the Polish Army Group "Pomerania" in the "Polish Corridor" area. During the encirclement and annihilation of the Polish army, the encircled Polish army obviously did not understand the performance of the tank, and thought that the armor of the tank was nothing more than a camouflage made of tin plates, which was used to bluff people. So the Polish cavalry swarmed up and attacked the German tanks with their sabers and spears. The Germans were taken aback at this, but soon came to their senses and mercilessly fired at the Polish troops with tank guns and machine guns, crushing them with their tracks. The battlefield duel imagined by the Polish knights turned into a massacre of disparity.

On 5 September, the German 4th and 3rd armies met in the Grujonc area, cutting off the Polish corridor. German Admiral Reichenau's 10th Army advanced 60 miles into the Polish border and only 60 miles from Warsaw, and its 2nd and 3rd Panzer Divisions broke through the perimeter of Radom to encircle Warsaw from the southeast through Vistula.

On the same day, Hitler visited the 19th Panzer Corps, and Guderian told Hitler about the main experience of the operation: "The bravery and strength of the Poles cannot be underestimated, even astonishing. But the reason why our losses in this battle were so small was entirely due to the high power of our tanks. ”

At the same time, Guderian reported that in the battle of the "Polish Corridor", only 150 men were killed and 700 wounded in the four divisions under his command; Hitler was amazed and then said that when Hitler himself participated in the last world war, his regiment suffered more than 2,000 casualties in the first battle. ancient

Derian's use of tank concentration impressed Hitler.

On September 6, the commander-in-chief of the Polish army, Smigli. Field Marshal Leeds ordered all troops to withdraw to the east of the Vistula to form the Vistula-San line. Feng. Colonel Volman said to Hitler: "All that remains is to beat a rabbit, and from a military point of view, the war is over." ”

On September 6, the Polish government moved to Lublin. On September 7, the General Staff of the Polish Army was transferred to Brest. By September 7, the German Army Group North had inflicted heavy losses on the two armies "Pomerania" and "Modlin", occupying Lodz, the industrial center of Poland, and Krakow, the second largest city, and the 16th Panzer Corps, the vanguard of the 10th Army on the road, reached the southern outskirts of Warsaw on September 8, cutting off the retreat of the Polish Army "Poznan" from the south. Bauk's Army Group North completely annihilated the Polish Army Group "Pomerania" and inflicted heavy losses on the Polish Army Group "Modlin", occupied the "Polish Corridor", and then forcibly crossed the Vistula River and seized the positions covering the road to Warsaw from the north. …,

On 8 September, Küchler's 3rd Army and Kruger's 4th Army, which belonged to Army Group North, launched a surprise attack from the north and northwest in the general direction of Warsaw, and on 11 September, Guderian's 19th Panzer Corps crossed the Narev River and began a rapid advance towards the Bug River in the rear of Warsaw, advancing to the Warsaw-Brest railway, only 30 miles from Warsaw.

On 14 September, Reichenau's 10th Army and Blaskowice's 8th Army, which belonged to Army Group South, surrounded the retreating Polish forces from Poznan and Lodz west of the Vistula River and occupied central Poland, leaving Warsaw in a semi-encircled state.

By 15 September, Guderian's 19th Panzer Corps had encircled Brest, and its 3rd Panzer and 2nd Motorized Divisions continued to advance south in order to complete the final deep encirclement with Lister's 14th Army, the right flank of Army Group South. At the same time, Kleist's 22nd Panzer Corps, the vanguard of the 14th Army, continued to advance north after encircling Kovow, and on the 16th joined up with Army Group North in the area of Vhuodava, and encircled the Polish army that had retreated in the triangle of the Bug, San and Vistula rivers, forcing all the Polish troops encircled by a part of the Fourth Army Corps and a part of the Tenth Army Corps of the Southern Army between the Vistula and Buchula rivers to surrender.

On 17 September, the Germans, having completed the siege of Warsaw, ordered the Warsaw authorities to surrender within 12 hours. The Polish government and the Polish high command had fled across the border to Romania on the 16th.

After the defeat of Poland, the Western Front fell silent. The French held the Maginot Line, the Anglo-French forces held along the Belgian border, and the Germans were busy expanding their forces and adjusting their deployments. This kind of situation of declaring but not fighting is known in history as a "fake war" or a "strange war"!

With the beginning of the Polish War, World War II broke out in full force.

And at this time, China also began to move.

As their president predicted, a world war will break out sooner or later, and once a war breaks out, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for this country and this nation!

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