Warsaw Surrenders

On September 27, 1939 the defenders of Warsaw surrendered to the Germans. The resistance of the defenders had been long and determined but by this time all reasonable means of defense were exhausted. Any realistic hope of relief from their western allies or their own Polish forces had disappeared well before this date. For the Germans there remained only mopping up operations which were completed by October 6th. Polish soldiers persisted in their efforts to escape across neutral borders to the very end. Expect a mini-essay on the results of the campaign and another on the Polish army of 1939 soon.

Massive German Bombing Raid on Warsaw

On September 24th, 1939 the German Luftwaffe (air force) conducted a massive bombing raid on Warsaw. A common figure given for this raid is an attack by 1,150 bombers. I was skeptical because the first source that gave that figure also gave the Germans only 850 bombers for the entire campaign. The book “Men of the Luftwaffe” by Samuel W. Mitcham Jr. (Presidio, 1988) confirms the 1,150 figure and gives the Germans barely enough bombers to mass that many in an attack if you count Stuka dive bombers and planes assigned to the western front with France. It helpfully adds that the “bombers” included 30 Ju-52 transports carrying 2 pound incendiaries that were literally shoveled out the door by two men in each plane equipped with potato shovels. In part because of the smoke from the resulting fires, german ground troops were killed by stray bombs provoking an argument between army and air force that had to be settled by Hitler himself. Hitler said keep on bombing as before.

In “The Luftwaffe War Diaries” ( Doubleday, 1968) Cajus Bekker states that the Germans made 1,176 bombing sorties (one flight by one aircraft). He also gives the date for the attack as September 25th and gives it credit for the subsequent surrender of Warsaw. I am inclined to believe Bekker on the sorties (the Stuka’s e.g. could easily have attacked multiple times in the same day) but not on the date or the raid’s impact. So this was probably not the first “thousand bomber raid” nor a raid that decisively broke an enemy’s resistance. Warsaw had been bombed and shelled for days as well as subjected to ground attacks. Food, ammunition and even drinkable water were in increasingly short supply. There is no doubt that this and other bombing attacks contributed to the end of Polish resistance but Bekker is hogging all the credit for the Luftwaffe and possibly distorting the chronology to bolster his case.

Chinese Counteroffensive at Changsha

On September 21, 1939 the Chinese counterattacked at Changsha. The timing of the attack appears to have been based on the fact that on the previous day the Japanese had begun breaking through the fourth and last Chinese line of prepared defensive positions. With the Japanese fully extended and the Chinese having extracted the last ounce of advantage from the prepared defenses, the counterattack cut the Japanese supply lines and forced a retreat. I will go on to say that a second Japanese attack, begun from the north on the 18th, was similarly dealt with starting on the 25th. By October 6th the Japanese had been forced back to their original positions.

The Japanese will try again and as a result the above operations became known to history as the first battle of Changsha. Meanwhile more and more observers including many Japanese believe this battle demonstrates that the Japanese have reached the limit of their ability to win territory in China.

Soviets Invade Poland

On September 17, 1939 Soviet troops crossed the border into Poland to claim their portion of Poland under the secret protocol of the Nazi – Soviet nonaggression pact.. Polish troops were ordered not to resist except in direct self defense or to avoid capture. Soviet troops initially did not go out of their way to attack the Poles where it was possible to advance without doing so. Later, however they did become more aggressive and sought to prevent Polish troops from escaping across Polish borders with neutral countries attacking and capturing Polish troops in order to do so.

By now, Warsaw was encircled by the Germans. Another Polish army in the South was on the brink of surrender. Remaining Polish units were either holding out in small pockets, most notably on the Baltic coast, trying to escape into Rumania, Hungary or Lithuania or trying to join up with the defenders of Warsaw or Modlin for a last stand.

Back in my high school days I hadn’t paid attention to the date of the Soviet invasion and had casually assumed it was on more or less the same date as the German one. However, upon further review it seems that the situation was attended by some confusion on the part of the Soviets. They intended to keep as low a profile as possible by coming in after the Germans had invaded. They would try and obscure the true nature of their actions with a cloud of propaganda about protecting Soviet nationalities such as Ukrainians and Byelorussians and providing civil order.

In fact, the Germans at least were concerned about a power vacuum in eastern Poland and on September 3rd their Foreign Minister Ribbentrop had cabled his Soviet counterpart Molotov urging the Russians to commence their attack from the east. The Soviets however were surprised by the speed of the German advance and Molotov was forced to send a series of cables providing assurances and promises of action. During this time the Soviet army was frantically completing logistical preparations. They did not use the army units located nearest the Polish border which contained large percentages of troops with an ethnic affinity to some of the peoples of eastern Poland. Moving troops from the Soviet interior increased the scale and complexity of the logistical task. Hence, September 17th.

The World War II Game

As I have mentioned before on this blog, when I was in high school and college I designed a world war II game that my friends and I actually played. We played it several times with a new iteration of the design after each play and near the end we had at least the European Theater in very good shape if I do say so myself. We also played many commercial wargames on World War II battles and campaigns and part of the purpose of this blog is to recall and revive that experience and perhaps to design another iteration – one that would take advantage of fresh research on a wider variety of more accessible and higher quality sources. It also might take advantage of computer capability e.g. by using some of the concepts and techniques of the Civilization series of computer games.

For those of you who don’t want to wait for that I want to mention some commercial non-computer games that would allow you to play out some of the campaigns I have mentioned so far. The Wargamer magazine #37 had a game called “China Incident” that covered the fighting between China and Japan from 1937 to 1941. Strategy & Tactics magazine # 152 had a game on a hypothetical German invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Suffice it to say that the victory conditions turned on when as opposed to whether Germany could defeat Czechoslovakia. S&T # 158 had a game on Nomonhan/Khalkin Gol. The game rules note that Conflict magazine also had a game on the July battles published in 1973. The S&T game (published in 1993) seems to me to be the more comprehensive and higher quality product. Finally the Europa Series on WW II had a game on Poland called “Case White” and there was a second edition called “First to Fight”.

Although these games are long since out of print, I suspect they turn up for sale on the internet from time to time. If anyone knows of other commercially produced games on these campaigns, please let people know about them in the comments section.

Polish Counteroffensive Defeated

As noted earlier, Poland launched a counterattack on September 9th against the northern flank of the German Army Group South i.e. a portion of the German eighth army advancing from the west. The initial attack met with some success as it hit a relatively thin screen of German infantry on flank protection duty. The Germans committed more and more troops first to stem the Polish advance and then to cut off and surround the attacking Polish forces. By September 12th the Polish attack had been halted and by the 15th Polish forces were attempting to avoid encirclement and break out toward Warsaw and Modlin. Only a few made it and the remaining Polish forces were destroyed or captured in the following few days.

The Polish attack did temporarily take the pressure off of Warsaw. 29 German divisions were committed in whole or in part to the defense and subsequent encirclement operations. German air power was committed on a large scale as well. Now Warsaw is on the brink of encirclement as the Germans regroup to focus on Warsaw.

Battle of Changsha

After months of sporadic and indecisive fighting, hampered by the need to battle the Russians in the north and continued and undiminished Chinese resistance to the south, the Japanese resume their offensive in China. On September 13th, 1939 the Japanese launched a major attack aimed at the capture of the Chinese city of Changsha. Changsha was the capital of Hunan Province and was a major agricultural, transportation and population center.

Fortunately for the Chinese the city was protected by an extensive area of hill country of the type that the Chinese had already shown themselves to be adept at using for defense. The Chinese concentrated fifty divisions and built multiple lines of defense. The Chinese are running out of space to withdraw and are determined to make a stand. In theory this is an opportunity to strike a crushing blow against an enemy which though superior in numbers lacks airpower and artillery and which has always ultimately been forced to abandon the battlefield in the past. We’ll see what happens.

Germans Reach the Outskirts of Warsaw

On the ninth day of their attack the Germans reached the Warsaw suburbs. An initial effort to attack into the city was driven back with heavy losses including a number of tanks. Still, the Germans had plenty to be optimistic about. By the second day they had achieved general air superiority. Their Panzer forces, previously untested in actual combat on this scale, were performing well. They had broken through the Polish linear defenses and overrun Danzig and the Polish corridor.

On this day the Poles mounted a counterattack against the left flank of the German 8th army. This army was covering the flank of the German 10th army which was carrying out the main drive on Warsaw from the west. The Poles considered the 8th army’s left flank exposed but by the same standard the attacking Polish forces could be considered threatened with encirclement. The developing situation made clear, to the extent it wasn’t so from the beginning, that Poland could not hold out for long without help from her allies.

What help did the allies provide? British naval forces could only influence the land war over a long period of time via blockade and convoy. Early British air operations consisted mostly of leaflet drops and attacks on German shipping. The British expeditionary force, only two divisions at this time, was still in transit to France and the front. The French had 85 of their soon to be over 100 divisions on the Franco-German border. Two days earlier they had launched an “offensive” in the Saar region. Using nine divisions they advanced five miles on a 15 mile front capturing 20 deserted villages and stopping 3 miles short of the German Siegfried line fortifications. By September 12th the French had stopped the advance and by the 20th they were withdrawing. Total German casualties were about 200.

The French were too embarrassed not to declare war in the face of open German aggression but this attack demonstrates their ambivalence. A persistent French war weariness in the face of their losses during World War I, fear of German air attack and reluctance to provoke and fight a major ground campaign against the Germans without British help (including absorbing their share of the resulting casualties) all combined to drain the offensive spirit out of an already slow, cautious and defensive minded French high command. As a practical matter, the Poles were on their own.

Britain and France Declare War; SS Athenia Torpedoed & Sunk

On September 3, 1939 Britain and France declared war on Germany. Australia, New Zealand and India did the same. It is worth noting what a wonderful thing the British Empire was for Britain even at this date. These countries had a rapidly evolving “dominion status” within the empire. Their foreign policies were independent as of 1931 or perhaps a few years earlier although there were still some who argued about this. Still, these countries for the most part wanted the benefits of being allied with what they still thought of as a great power and the head of the greatest empire in the world. Canada and South Africa also declared war within a week. Ireland remained neutral.

12 hours after the declaration of war, the German U-boat U-30 torpedoed the British passenger liner SS Athenia. Athenia became the first British ship to be sunk in World War II with a loss of 118 lives including 28 Americans. What looked like a German leap into unrestricted submarine warfare was actually a mistake. Hitler was still hoping for ultimate reconciliation with the British provided he was recognized as master of continental Europe. Accordingly, he had placed substantial restrictions on German submarine attacks in accordance with international law which remained very burdensome to a country wishing to wage an effective submarine campaign against merchant shipping. The attack on the Athenia was a clear violation of Hitler’s orders.

An account of the whole affair can be found here . An account more oriented to the perspective and challenges of the German U-boat commanders can be found here .

Germany Invades Poland

On September 1, 1939, seventy years ago today, Germany invaded Poland. By this act, Germany launched Europe in a quick descent into the bloodiest six year period in its history. Many countries outside of Europe, not least the United States, were also drawn into the conflict.

By this time the German army had been built up to the level of 102 divisions. These included six panzer (armored) divisions, four light divisions, four motorized infantry divisions and three mountain divisions. The rest were infantry divisions which relied on walking men and horse-drawn transport for artillery and supplies. Many of the infantry divisions were composed of reservists and lacked a full complement of heavy weapons and equipment such as artillery and transport. I will be saying more about German army organization and what each type of division looked like in a later post. For now though I will just note that the “light” divisions were composed of a reduced amount of motorized infantry supplemented by light tanks plus a full complement of artillery, recon, signals etc. These four divisions were later upgraded to panzer divisions.

For the invasion the Germans used all their panzer, light, motorized and mountain divisions and 38 of the best of their infantry divisions. They added five more infantry divisions during the campaign for a total of sixty divisions of all types. The remaining divisions manned the western border with France. The Germans planned to defeat Poland quickly before any Anglo-French offensive could make serious progress in the west.

The Germans divided their invasion force into two army groups. Army Group North (two armies) attacked out of East Prussia (3rd army) and Pomerania (4th army). Army Group North had 3 panzer divisions, two motorized infantry divisions and 17 infantry divisions. Army Group South composed of the 8th, 10th, and 14th armies, attacked from the west and south on a front that ran from south of the Warta river on into the now German allied puppet state of Slovakia. (Slovakia also contributed a small force to the invasion for which it was rewarded with a small slice of Polish territory.) Army Group South had three panzer divisions, two motorized infantry divisions, the four light divisions, the three mountain divisions and the other 21 infantry divisions. A quick look at a map such as this one will show that the Germans were able to attack from three sides and on a very broad front.

To defend themselves the Poles had a standing army of 28 infantry divisions, two mountain divisions, 11 cavalry brigades and a small amount of mechanized cavalry and additional mountain infantry. All of these units were understrength during peacetime and relied on reservists to bring them up to strength. As noted in my previous post, the Polish mobilization did not begin until August 28th. it is probably the case that most of the reservists headed for the standing army divisions made it to their units. However, the Polish mobilization plan included the mobilization of 15 reserve infantry divisions. Despite extensive planning, forming whole divisions by linking up stored equipment, officer and technical cadres and thousands of reservists requires time and reasonably orderly circumstances. This effort was substantially broken up by German air attack and the rapid pace of the German ground advance.

Another bad choice the Poles had to make was whether to defend their entire border up front (making them vulnerable to armored breakthroughs and motorized encirclement) or defend farther back (giving up production, food and population resources as well as reserve mobilization capabilities). National pride meant that the Poles adopted the broad front forward defense. Thus the Poles were outnumbered by a better equipped enemy and deployed in a way that played into his hands.

The situation was no better with respect to the air forces. The Germans possessed 4,300 first line aircraft. These included 1,180 bombers, 336 dive bombers and 1,179 fighters. The rest were transports, reconnaissance, naval and miscellaneous types. The Germans used 2,300 aircraft against Poland including the great bulk of their bomber and dive bomber forces. The Poles had 900 aircraft but only 600 of these were usable for anything other than training purposes. These included 300 fighters and 150 bombers. Polish aircraft were generally less modern,slower and less well armed than their German counterparts.

Suffice it to say for now that even on the first day the Germans made territorial gains and substantial progress toward gaining and maintaining air superiority. Surprise and German quantitative and qualitative superiority weighed heavily from the start. More on the campaign as time goes on including the ways in which the still combat inexperienced Germans did not have everything their own way. Also a little, and later more still, on the myths and oversimplifications embodied in the term “Blitzkrieg”.