History Forgotten on Purpose

Everyone likes to think they know the date Hitler decided to invade Poland and with that starting the the road to World War II...

The invasion of Poland on 1st September 1939 surely? Or 3rd September when Britain and France declared war on Germany? Or 7th September, when the French actually invaded part of Western Germany (the Saarland), before deciding it was not such a good idea and heading home again the following month?

No!

In practice, Britain kept on wobbling on whether it would or would not actually commit to a full scale war with Nazi Germany and at the same time risk war with Stalin and the Soviet Union, alongside whom Hitler jointly invaded and genocidally started dividing up Poland.

Molotov, the Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs, speaking before the Supreme Soviet on 31st October 1939, six weeks after the Soviets had launched its invasion of Poland stated; 'A single blow against Poland, first by the Germans and then by the Red Army, and nothing remained of this misbegotten child of the Versailles treaty.' He went on to urge Britain and France to seek terms with Germany rather than pursue ‘childish and unrealistic objectives’ against Germany with regard to Poland. Molotov mocked the Allies for their impotence and made it clear they'd have to fight both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to re-establish a free Polish state.

There was no World War until 1941 when Nazi Germany got the jump on Stalin and broke its alliance with the Soviet Union before the Soviets were ready to do exactly the same to them. And of course the United States, despite Roosevelt's countless breaches of his own neutrality laws, and increasing belligerence, would not have joined the war in Europe, even after Japans attack on Pearl Harbor, had Hitler not made his catastrophic decision to declare war on the US. Therefore there was no World War until Dec 1941. It was simply another European war and a phoney war in the West at that, which was all but over as soon as it started. 

The leftist historical establishment still spout the same neverending total nonsense and utter indefensible falsehood that Stalin was not preparing for War with Nazi Germany. Or that the German attack came as a complete surprise! The story of Stalin locking himself in his dacha after the start of operation Barbarossa remains oft repeated. Despite the fact that after the Russian archives were thrown open post 1991, Stalin's office logbooks show a virtually unbroken string of visits and appointments from the day of the invasion throughout the weeks that followed. With Stalin meeting Molotov, Beria, Timoshenko, Zhukov, Voroshilov and many others. Meetings lasting anywhere from five to twelve hours! Many in the historical establishment never fail to find excuses for the failings and crimes of the most murderous psychopath in European history. A man who accepted no challenge to his authority, whom no one dared to contradict for fear not only for their lives, but those of their entire families, whose favourite activity was writing death lists before bedtime, and scribbling 'not enough names' on the lists for execution and destined for the Gulags. The second worst mass murderer of the 20th Century - the first being his fellow Communist Mao Zedong.

There is no shortage of speeches by Stalin and his stooges that made no secret of their desire for wars plural, and the continued expansion of the Soviet Union. At the August 1939 meeting of the Politburo Stalin stated 'A war between the capitalist countries for the re-division of the World... We see nothing wrong in their having a good hard fight and weakening each other...We can manoeuvre, pit one side against the other to set them fighting each other as fiercely as possible!'

Molotov, Stalin's foreign minister was even more explicit on Soviet intentions 'Lenin was not mistaken when he assured us that the Second World War will help us gain power throughout all Europe , just as the First World War helped us gain power in Russia'. Lenin having established the Comintern with the aim of achieving a 'World Soviet Socialist State' in Moscow in 1919.

There was a very specific reason the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) did not name Russia in the official title of the state. The state was to continually expand in an endless genocidal class war to eventually subjugate and include all of the World's nations. Putting Soviet Socialism on a Par with radical Islamism in seeking by any and all means of permanent Jihad to establish a global caliphate. Therefore, the radical left and Islamists have always posed a threat to democracy and the West and should never be accommodated nor appeased period.Thankfully a few hardy souls are calling out selective histories for what they've purposely forgotten, or wilfully left out. That's the first job of every historian to look for a colleagues' biases and then to run through their chapter list selection before even beginning to look for the holes in those chapters. Where they chose to start and end their narratives is also always a reason to either pick up or put a book back on the shelf!

That the Soviet Union was moving from a defensive to offensive position politically and militarily over the Spring/Summer of 1941, there can be no doubt. In May 1941 Stalin called up a further 800,000 reservists to bring the Red Army's divisional strength close to full combat readiness. On 5th June 1941 in a lecture given to the V.I. Lenin Military Academy, by Mikhail Kalinin, one of Stalin's leading henchman and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet stated, “The Germans intend to attack us...We are waiting for it! The sooner they do that, the better, since we will wring their necks once and for all.' (for more on this see chapter on Stalin's War(s) in my book link at the end of this article.) Stalin's peace loving, paranoid and unprepared Soviet Union! The country that wasted no time after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact (where Hitler got half of Poland) Stalin going on without hesitation to invade Finland, the Baltic States and Bessarabia as well as the eastern half of Poland. Virtually all of which Stalin insisted on keeping and after the Second World War and Putin has made no secret of the fact he'd like to retake all over again. The woke, lefty, lovey Marxist and Trot historians need to give this broken rubbish record of 'Hitler's crimes and Stalin's mistakes’ a rest!

What is also forgotten are the early stages, if not the entire Polish campaign. In part because it was over so quickly. Roger Moorehouse, the ever excellent historian of German and Central European history,brought back to life an incredible episode (one of many) in his book First to Fight – The Polish War 1939. If not the most balanced account of the Polish campaign but then it is squarely focused on the Poles valiant resistance, suffering, failings and the utterly crushing nature of their defeat.

Everyone is fully versed in the opening salvos of the old German battleship the Schlewig Holstein at the Westerplatte, or the Gleiwitz border false flag incident in Silesia. As well as Hitler's infamous pronouncement following German special ops Gleiwitz border operation on 1st September 1939 'Seit 05:45 wird zurueckgeschossen' ('Since 05:45 we are returning fire!') 

An error in accuracy as due to a time zone oversight the firing had actually started from the German side at 04:45 on the 1st September, or did it!?

Enter the German James Bond of the Polish campaign; a tall blond, thin lipped, 32 year old Lieutenant Dr Hans Albrecht Herzner based at the Abwehrstelle Breslau. Herzner brought 

together an elite special force of on the evening of 25th August 1939. Crossing the Polish border to seize key strategic objectives at 00.30 hours on 26th August! All but starting the invasion of Poland single-handedly. 

Herzner’s special combat group were tasked with seizing the vital strategic railway station and more importantly its railway tunnel that ran under the Jablonkow Pass at Mosty (5km inside Poland). The shortest route for the southern advance from Silesia and Slovakia (along with the often overlooked 50,000+Axis troops from Slovakia). Seizing this key objective gave the Wehrmacht the shortest route as the crow flies from Vienna to Warsaw. It was therefore essential the tunnel and the railway station be captured intact, so as not to slow down the German advance on the Polish capital. Herzner took the tunnel with only a dozen men at dawn on 26thAugust. Despite reinforcements not arriving all objectives were achieved on time by 04:00 a.m. with the full German invasion expected to begin within the hour!

So how on Earth with this and similar incidents happening along the Polish border could there be any doubt left anywhere by midday on 26th August 1939 that an invasion of Poland by Germany, Slovakia (and obviously in short order the Soviets) was not only likely but was already in progress. 

It's been forgotten just how chaotic the last week in August 1939 since the signing of the Hitler-Stalin Pact really was. The sands were constantly shifting. Hitler furious but should not have been surprised at Mussolini calling the Reich Chancellery to apologise profusely for being unready to assist his ally in the Polish campaign and on-going continued confusion over whether the British would make good on their last minute commitments to Poland. The Brits were still pondering Hitler's latest offer delivered by Sir Nevile Henderson (British ambassador to Germany) while repeatedly expressing through him the British governments desire for a lasting settlement with Germany, once an amicable settlement on Poland had been reached! Forgotten on purpose also the role played by James Lonsdale Bryans and his diplomatic efforts sanctioned by Lord Halifax and the British Foreign Office with continued high level meetings with the Nazi leadership, which clearly lead Hitler believe Britain would continue to appease his expansionist policies in Eastern Europe. All details released from long-held secret MI5 files. With all this going on Hitler issued a recall order but this only reached most but not all front line positions as late as 22:00 on the 25th August. Amidst a host of border incursions, Herzner’s Dirty Dozen, failing to receive the recall order, effectively proceeded with achieving their objectives. Herzner upon informing his superiors of the total success of operation Jablunka/ Jablonkow pass, was not congratulated but tersely told to release his prisoners and now high tail it back across the border ASAP! This he did hotly pursued by the tunnel guards and Polish police his unit had just released! Herzner's combat group crossed back the Slovak border at 01:30 pm on 26th August. A remarkable operation where Herzner achieved daring and challenging objectives plus escaped without the loss of single man.

The Poles now fully apprised, and who had been secretly mobilising since mid August, went into full mobilisation on 29th August. Remaining confident, despite the Mosty debacle of rebuffing any and all opponents in a classic show of bravado and over confidence that had served Poland no better at previous junctures in its so often unfortunate history. The Poles hubris was made abundantly clear to Hitler by the German Ambassador to Warsaw on the eve of the invasion proper when Hans Adolf von Moltke (son of Friedrich von Moltke the former Prussian Interior Minister) wrote to Hitler on the Polish view and Polish morale writing “The old hatred of everything German and conviction that it is Poland's destiny to cross swords with Germany...was too deep for passions to abate easily.” The Poles move to full mobilisation only resulted in their severe castigation by their British and French Allies (ostensibly its cancellation) so as not to provoke Hitler further! Irony was rapidly becoming farce. With Allies like these it is not surprising that many Poles don't regard Britain or France with enthusiasm, because they were left to their fate not once, but twice in 1940 and again in 1944/5.

As for the Wehrmacht’s stunning campaign to conquer continental Europe, we simply no longer seem capable of stating the facts. Krakow fell without a fight in six days (saving one of Europe's greatest cities from Warsaw's fate of total destruction). The war in Poland was effectively over in little more than three weeks, bar the Poles' brave but pointless continued last stand at the battle of Warsaw.

Hitler issued orders for 'Case White' the effective re-invasion of Poland at 12:40 p.m. on 31st August. Herzner’s operation and the often largely overlooked Polish campaign, are brilliantly covered in Roger Moorehouse's First to Fight – The Polish War 1939. If not a balanced account, it is nevertheless still a very worthwhile read.

As for the broader historical picture, not least on Polish vs German enmities and the pivotal role the Soviet Union played yet again attempting to destroy Poland, wipe out its inteligencia and remove the nation from the map, then read my book Death of a Nation – a New History of Germany or follow my blogs on www.stephenrabarrow.com

Main Sources:

Stephen Robert A’Barrow – Death of a Nation – A New History of Germany

And Roger Moorehouse – First to Fight – The Polish War 1939