GERMAN ARMY ATTACKS POLAND (9/1/39)

Microfiche-New York Times archives, McHenry Library, U.C. Santa Cruz | 9/1/39 | Otto D. Tolischus, Jerzy Szapiro, Ferdinand Kuhn Jr., Frederick T. Birchall, P.J. Philip

[BelegStrongbow]

ping to listen at home.

[BroJoeK]

"What a half-assed way to enter a war! You can clearly see from this response, as if we didn’t need any more evidence, that France was not going to go “all-in” for this war."

IIRC, in 1914, Germany declared war on Russia, Belgium and France, none of whom ever declared war on Germany. Only Britain did.

In 1919, the Versailles victors took note of Germany's culpability (or was it just stupidity?) and made them pay.

Well, the Germans might have been slow, but 20 years is a long time to mull things over, so beginning in 1939, Hitler declared war on nobody except, IIRC, the United States.

But didn't France and Britain both declare war in 1939 -- a "phony war" as it turned out, until Hitler got good and ready to punish them for it?

[henkster]

Not sure where you are going with that post. To continue with the juxtapositions, for Germany and the USA the declarations of war were reversed from 1917 to 1941.

My point was that the French had publicly and repeatedly declared their support of Poland. But on September 1, 1939, when Poland had clearly been massively attacked, what should have been an automatic declaration by the French government was instead a prevarication. You cannot be a “little bit at war” any more than you can be a “little bit pregnant.” Either you are at war or you are not. As will become quite evident, the French never really considered themselves to be at war with the Germans because from the outset they really didn’t want to be.

[PureSolace]

Wow... just... wow.

[BroJoeK]

"He lost a dear relative in a concentration camp, he fell out of the guard tower."

Took some doing, but found Buchanan's article.

In it he asks a lot of silly questions, which I'm certain many posters here could answer... ;-)

[BroJoeK]

"Not sure where you are going with that post. "

Certainly not to disagree with you. Just to point out that where Declarations of War had previously been considered diplomatic necessities, by 1939 it was apparently strictly optional, and often not so desireable, and sometimes didn't even mean real war -- as your example of the French demonstrates.

Even Roosevelt in 1941 did not ask for a straightforward "Declaration of War" on Japan, but instead the rather curious turn of phrase he asked for was: Congress to declare "that since the...attack... a state of war has existed."

I conclude, the declarations themselves, when they even happened were meaningless, and that may explain why we've seen none since?

[henkster]

OK, I get it now (you can visualize me smacking myself on the head).

Back in the day a “Declaration of War” had meaning. Up through the Napoleonic Wars it took months to get the armies in position to fight. Up to World War I, the doctrine of mobilization meant it would take weeks to get the armed forces ready to fight.

By the time of World War II, with modern transport and communications equipment, and the fact that so many countries were democracies with deliberative forms of government, the idea that you would “debate a declaration of war” just invited a quick attack on your forces before they were ready. The lesson of World War II, carried through the Cold War, was that you were always ready because in the era of ICBM’s equipped with thermonuclear weapons, war was going to come very quickly and without warning.

I guess the “Declaration of War” has become obsolete by the pace in which we now live. Any modern country that has to go through the motions of “Declaring War” doesn’t really have the stomach for one. France 1939 invented the axiom.

[red irish]

You got that! Just this morning I was watching the History channel about Hitler and Hitler with the Occult, it was chilling to see true comparisons with Obama and Hitler. I suppose there is so much talk about Hitler because of all the serious evil he brought to the world and everyone wants to use it to throw out against their enemy,but there really are things about Hitler and Obama that are similar. I am so excited to see the American people have found their voices. I am praying for more people to see the truth and light about Obama and especially those around him.

[GeronL]

I decided to redesign the Wash Times as a tabloid, not the square kind -I hate those, but a tall one, I think their called Berliner..

I put the nameplate into a box on the top lefthand side and I'd shrink a story like an entertainment story for the biggest part of the rightside.

I would still have news on the front page instead of just a large photograph. I could probably do it better if I took more time but this is basically what I'd do to the WashTimes.

[CougarGA7]

Sorry I'm late today. Busy day at work. To start off with here are the radio broadcasts for today. I see abb had gotten some of these.

BBC - Alvar Liddell Reports on Evacuation of Children

BBC - Alvar Liddell Reports on the Invasion of Poland

BBC - Ignace Paderewski Reports on the War Looming before Poland

BBC - S.J. deLotbini Reports on Evacuation of School Children

BBC - S.J. deLotbini encourages the children as they evacuate

CBS - Reports Adolf Hitler's Declaration of War with Poland

FDR Speaks on U.S. Neutrality

Herbert Hoover Speaks at the Onset of War

PPR - Radio Warsaw Reports on German Invasion

Polish Ambassador to U.S. on War with Germany

Another Audio of Hitler's Speech Untranslated (Even if you don't speak German you will understand the meet bombs with bomb portions

Singing of the Nazi National Anthem at the Speech

I'll post the U.K. Telegraph article as soon as I get home tonight. I'm out at a test facility and I cant seem to get that page to load for me to link it up.

[CougarGA7]

Ok. Now that I've finally had time to read this and take it all in a few things stand out.

Page 17 - "a German declaration of war against Poland probably will lead France and Great Britain to take new military measures"

Uh, if you call fortifying behind a World War I defense in a World War II world then yes, otherwise I think that reporter is going to be disappointed.

Page 11 - "Much was being made of alleged deficiencies in the German Army equipment and the the condition of German airplanes, which according to a source close to the government is far from what 'German propaganda' has represented."

There is a degree of truth to this point. Keep in mind that at this point the best tank in the German army is the Panzer IV and there are not that many of them. The bulk of armor is the Panzer II with a small 2 cm gun and the Panzer I which only had twin machine guns. But that was still more than enough for the Polish equipment and training.

Page 4 - "The new bridge joining the cities of Lunde and Sandoe across the River Aangermann, which has could have had the larges concrete span in the world, collapsed today, killing thirty-two workers who were completing the structure.

There, I fixed that.

In general I'm taken by how the newspaper articles seem to emit a "long war" mentality. This should not be surprising since they had no idea that within two weeks this will all be over (for the most part). But notice how there is talk of "skirmishes" and scattered artillery fire. The true scope of that fight and how efficient the German war machine is to be in this battle is about to be realized. I will be very interested as to the "flavor" of the reporting as this reality comes to light.

As we move forward here I will continue to post links to radio broadcasts from the Old Time Radio web site as well as headlines from the U.K. Telegraph from the time. I also will occasionally be giving analysis based on Frieser's "Blitzkrieg Legend" as well as Gurderian's "Auchtung Panzer" to give a better feel to the tactical aspects of these events.

[dfwgator]

For anyone who can read Polish, this is the September 1, 1939 edition of the “Kurier Warszawski”, the Warsaw newspaper.

http://www.rzeczpospolita.pl/pliki/var/kurier/kurier_warszawski.pdf

[TADSLOS]

Blitzkrieg. The original shock and awe. We took the same concepts and principles and applied them to Airland Battle doctrine just in time for Desert Storm.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I will be very interested as to the "flavor" of the reporting as this reality comes to light.

I am curious to see how the war reporting develops over time. I would expect a rapid divergence of reality and reporting and then a gradual return to accuracy as war correspondents learn the ropes. That is aside from government censorship, of course.

I also look forward to learning who those war correspondents are. I once saw a story written by Frank Kluckhohn in 1945 datelined Saipan. In 1938 he was writing from Mexico City. Next month he will be in Washington. He will be putting on boots and a steel hat to do his writing in a few years.

That gets me thinking in big picture terms. How would people in this country have reacted if they knew what it would take to get from 1939 to 1945 - from Poland to Saipan? Did they have any idea what these strange and scary reports from Poland portended? I have a page full of letters to the editor from the Sept. 10 issue to post. Maybe that will provide a hint.

[PAR35]

I would like to see if we could find an audio broadcast of H. V. Kaltenborn from this date.

May still be resting up from the plane ride. "21 Arriving on the American Clipper..." Probably a bit behind on the news after a record setting 29 hour and 53 minute transatlantic flight.

[dfwgator]

The thing that strikes me from reading the papers and listening to the old broadcasts, is how sad the state of journalism is today compared to back then.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

"21 Arriving on the American Clipper..."

Whoa, what a catch. Extra credit for PAR35!

[abb]

Don’t recognized the CBS announcer. Maybe Robert Trout?

[tcrlaf]

At this very moment, a handful (around 40) of Polish Postal Workers, armed by 6 soldiers who took rifles from the nearby armoury, are putting up a stout defense of the Danzig Post Office. Danzig'er Rail workers have just trashed the tracks upon which a German Armoured train was suposed to have moved south from Danzig. In about the next hour, Slovakian troops will seize the border outposts in the south of Poland, and move forward toward the Pole's Carpathian Army positions. A mobile formation that consisted of two battalions of combined cavalry and motorcycle recon troops along with nine motorized artillery batteries, all commanded by Gustav Malar, will push through the Nowy Sacz and Dukeilska Mountain Passes, advancing towards Debica and Tarnow in the region of southern Poland. General Georg von Küchler's Third Army has run in to Stiff resistence at the Mlawa Defense line, with three assaults today turned back, with heavy tank losses. The Polish defenders, when able to emplace their 37MM AT guns, can hurt the thin-skinned Panzer I's and II's of Kuchler's forces. Kuchler is rounding up Artillery assets from all over different Corps, for a barrage that will start at 6AM, and continue for several hours, on the left flank of this defensive line. Meanwhile, the Poles are bringing in More forces, including a Mobile Cavalry Brigade, but these find themselves threatened by German Armoured and motorized moving around the lines flanks, and are attacked by German Special Operations troops during the night, as well, leading to a breakdown in communications. Waffen-SS Motorized Infantry Regiment Großdeutschland will make it's name, beginning here, in a few short hours. The bright spot of the day for Polish forces was at Mokra. By 1700, The German 4th Panzer Division was forced back to its initial positions in Opatów and Wilkowiecko, with sizable losses, and only the 12th Schützen Regiment managed to reach the rail road crossing at Izbiska. However, upon learning that the German 1st Panzer Division had managed to take Kłobuck, to the south, the Polish forces were withdrawn overnight south-eastwards, to the village of Łobodno located north-east of Kłobuck, and then to the second line of defence, some 12 km to the east. Should I post MORE???

[abb]

At least put up a link