September 1

Today in 1939 Poland was invaded by Germany, jumpstarting what would end up being the largest armed conflict this planet has ever seen. A few details most people don't know about the invasion of Poland:


-It was actually a joint Soviet-Nazi invasion with the Germans invading from the West and the Russians from the East, Poland never stood a chance.
-The ideological inspiration for conquering Poland was Hitler's misguided notion that there was a section of his Reich that laid on the opposite side of Poland and had been cut off from the rest of the Aryans after World War I and the resulting Treaty of Versailles (the Nazis called this the Polish Corridor).
-The event that triggered the invasion was dubbed the "Gleiwitz Incident" in which the Gestapo dressed as Polish soldiers blew up a German radio station near the border with Poland. This has been come to be known as "The Eve of World War II"
-The Polish high command saw the invasion coming and understood they had little chance. They initiated The Peking Plan on August 20th where Polish war ships were evacuated to British controlled ports. Live to fight another day as they say.
-The invasion started with the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) bombing the Polish town of Wielun at 4:40am. Over 75% of the town was destroyed
-Over 20,000 Poles were executed by the German army during September
-The total Polish death toll during the invasion was ~200,000

RIP the 65 million that died in the following years.


















German soldiers executing Poles