(Invasion of Poland 1939 )
Germany gathered 62 divisions with 1.600.000 troops, 2800 tanks, 10000pieces of artillary and 2085 planes. Poland countered with 39 divisions including 1.350.000 troops,870 tanks , 4300 pieces of artillary and only 400 planes.
Friday , 1st of September 1939, at 4:40 AM German airforces attacked the city of Weilun. At 4:45 AM German battleship , Schleswig Holstein , opened fire at Polish Naval garisson agt Westerplatte, an hour later the German combat units crossed the Polish border. Germans attacked from 3 direction all aimed at capital Warsaw. Army Group South had the strongest force of 2000 tanks and 800 armored cars under the command of General Gerd von Rundenstedt. Army group south attacked from Moravia and Slovakia. Army group north had 600 tanks and 200 armored cars under the command od General Fedor von Bock. Army group north attacked from East Prussia and western Pomerania. (General Gunther von Kluge attacked from Poneramia and Georg von Kuechler attacked from east Prussia )
The Germans were not only uperior in numbers , but also in quality of their vehicles and equipment . They were also counting on Perfect spy network , help of ethnic germans in Poland and perfect information about the Polish road and railroad network because they were the ones who made them . They also had the advantage to attack from 3 directions and covering 3000km of frontier.
Despite the fact that the Polish army did not have the resources to secure the whole frontier with Germany, the Polish high command refused to withdraw their troops deeper into the country. They thought that their soldiers can hold the Germans until the Allies can lunch an offensive on Germany's Werstern front. On September first the Polsi army was engaged in heavy fighting with the Germans and the German army was delayed to reach its objectives. On September 3rd France and England declared war on Germany but did nothing to help Poland. On the same day the Polish army was not able to hold the Germans any longer and didn't manage to make a defensive line deeper in the country because of fast moving Panzers who followed them. On 5th of September the Polish high command was desprate and noticed that there is no chance of holding the Germans without immidiate help of the Allies. On September 6th Germans captured the City of Gracow. On September 7th , after 7 days of desprate fightings and inflicting heavy losses on the Germans the Polish garisson at Westerplatte surrendered. On September 8th the Germans finally reached the Polish capital Warsaw. The next day they poles launched a powerful counter offensive and caught the Germans by Surprise. The counter offensive was called the battle of Bzura and was the heaviest fighting of the whole campaign. It wasn't until September 16th , that the Germans managed to repell the Polish offensive and reach Warsaw again. By Spetember 16th the whole Polish army protecting Warsaw was Destroyed. The French and british did nothing to help the Polish army and launched no offensive on Germany's western frontier even though they outnumbered the Germans 5 to 1. On September 17th at 4:00 AM the Soviet Army invaded Poland . the soviets had 1.500.000 troops , 6191 tanks , 1800 planes and 9140 pieces of artillary. They captured the cities of Wilno then Grodno and finally Lwow on September 22nd and reached the river Bug on the next day. Soviet offensive halted at a line running from east Prussia to Bug.
the Polsi h gevernment fled to Romania on Spetember 18th. Then went to Paris and finally to London . Soviet and German troops met on the same day in Brest Litovsk.. By October 6th Poland was completely in German hands. Operation Fall Weiss was the beginning of World war 2.