Five Brothers and a War
Poland
With Germany on its western and southern border and Russia on its northern and eastern border, Poland became completely isolated. Hitler had long planned to invade Poland in September, and he had everything he needed to do so. On August 30, Poland mobilized its army, though they were pressured by the French to rescind that order the same day, as the French, unaware that Germany was fully prepared to invade, were still hoping for a diplomatic resolution. By the time Poland could react to the actual invasion, they could only muster 50% of its million man army. On August 31, some SS troops, dressed in Polish uniforms, staged attacks on Germany. This supposedly gave Hitler the needed pretext to invade Poland, which occurred the following morning, on September 1. Blitzkrieg was born when the armored German forces meshed with the Luftwaffe and army in blazing speed. Once they punched a hole in Polish defenses, they pushed all of their might through the opening, then circled some forces back in each direction (clockwise and counterclockwise) to take down the Poles from behind their own defenses. Poland was the last nation to use horseback cavalry, among its other forces.
nazi germany
Five Brothers and a War
Page 262
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