WWII Invasion of Poland, 70th Anniversary

September the first, 1939, marks the start of Nazi Germanys invasion of Poland and the beginning of the Second World War.

Without a declaration of war, German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire from Danzig harbor on the Polish garrison in the Westerplatte.

The assault on Poland unleashed a new form of warfare called the "blitzkrieg, (pron. Bleetzkreeg) or "lightning war".

Tens of thousands of German troops streamed across the borders backed up by squadrons of dive-bombers and other advanced aircraft.

Within days, Poland’s allies, France and Britain, declared war on Adolf Hitler’s Germany. Meanwhile U.S. President Roosevelt appealed to all European powers not to bomb civilians.

The Polish forces were overwhelmed in both numbers and firepower, and atrocities were soon reported. Hospitals and schools were attacked, refugee trains deliberately bombed, and whole villages wiped out.

What remained of Poland’s army concentrated on the defense of Warsaw. Hitler himself flew in from Berlin to watch the siege of the capital. On September 27th, Warsaw surrendered after four weeks of bombing. More than 60,000 Polish soldiers were dead and an estimated 25,000 civilians. By the end of the war, six million Poles lost their lives.

Then Britain prepared itself for German bombing raids whilst France and other European countries fortified their borders.

Russian troops marched into eastern Poland on September 17th. And all Polish resistance ended with the fall of Lublin on October 5th. For the fourth time in history, Poland was divided between the invading powers.

WWII lasted for nearly six years. It put 110 million people under arms in 72 countries, and resulted in the deaths of 45 to 60 million people.