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Hitler’s attack on Poland in 1939 was the first brutal act in six years of world war, but the campaign is often overshadowed by the momentous struggle that followed across the rest of Europe. David Williamson, in this timely and thought-provoking study, reconstructs each stage of the battle in graphic detail. He looks at the precarious situation of the Polish nation caught between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, reconsiders the pre-war policies of the other European powers, particularly France and Britain, and assesses the state of the opposing armed forces before the Germans launched Operation White. In a vivid and fast-moving narrative, he follows the course of the campaign as it moved across Poland in September 1939.His book should encourage a fresh understanding of the Polish-German war and of its significance for the wider conflagration that followed. Critical episodes in the German offensive are re-examined: the mock attack at Gleiwitz, the battles at Westerplatte and Bzura, the siege of Warsaw and the impact of the intervention of the Red Army. Throughout the narrative, first-hand accounts of soldiers and civilians who were caught up in events are used to give an insight into the experience of the war. The author dispels myths that persist about the course of the campaign – the apparent destruction of the Polish air force, the Poles’ use of cavalry – and he draws attention to often overlooked flaws in German military organization. He also records the immediate aftermath of the Polish capitulation – the division of Poland between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union and the fate of the captured Polish troops.

Review

This is a good first book to introduce yourself to the German-Polish and Soviet-Polish Wars of 1939, but it is for the non-specialist and is mainly a generalist introduction. I really wanted to love this book, esp. as its subtitle, “The Nazi-Soviet Invasions of 1939”, states it also covers the USSR’s perfidious “stab in the back” cooperation with Nazi Germany. But this book leaves me a bit cold & distant, and wanting so much more.

First, there are no notes. No page footnotes, chapter endnotes, or back-of-book endnotes. So while the sources/bibliography seems decent, there is no way for the reader to tie so much of what is written to any specific source, except for specifically cited sources directly quoted at length (usually nicely indented for the reader).

Second, and extremely critically off putting, there are just two 1-page maps up front. Neither map is very good. The first shows Poland in 1939, cutting off the extreme northern portion that lies between Lithuania and the USSR. The map shows East Prussia and eastern Germany, southern Lithuania, and a sliver of western USSR. Most of the major rivers are marked as are the major cities. The second shows the “conclusion of the campaign”, with bubbles near cities telling what happened from about Sept 17th thru Oct 6th. But note that there is NO map of the actual German campaign, showing where the German armies started and how they advanced or where the Polish armies started and where they collapsed. So the reader encounters discussion after discussion in the text about Germany Army Groups, Armies, and Divisions on the move, attacking or defending, as well as Polish Armies, doing same, without having any exact idea as to where they are on a map! There is absolutely no excuse for the publisher to have failed to have included a good map or two showing the actual locations and movements of the 3 nation’s armies during the body of the main campaigns (Germany–Sept 1-17; USSR–Sept, 17-21).

Third, this book is short. The primary text is only 170 pages of rather large, easy-to-read print, with the text rather significantly indented on all 4 sides. So it reads fast and easy. The author touches on things without going into much detail. So the book covers the material in some width (including air force and naval activity) but little depth.

The book does greatly benefit from the following:
1. The Soviet invasion is covered in more detail than most other similar books. It is on pages 116-130.
2. The author makes a strenuous attempt to portray the defeated Polish in an honourable fashion, trying to show how they fought very well at times against a larger force that was more technologically and tactically advanced. Williamson points out the false historical legend of Polish calvary attacking German tanks or mechanized units; they were taught to dismount and fight, and fought as they were taught.
3. Since the war doesn’t even begin until p. 63, Williamson does a very good job getting the reader familiar with events from Poland’s post-WW I independence and the 1920 Russo-Polish War, through the 1920s, Great Depression, and the pre-war 1930s. He makes sure the reader appreciates the weaknesses of the Polish economy that precluded them from being able to fully re-arm or build up their own arms industry.

4. Williamson ensures the reader appreciates the difficulties faced by the Polish military both strategically and technologically from Germany and the USSR. The defensive strategy chosen failed miserably, but it wasn’t illogical and part of its failure was due to French and British insistence that Poland not fully mobilize until it was too late!

5. In the Campaigns, the Aftermath, and Survivors’ Reminiscences, Williamson brings out the atrocities committed by the Germans and Soviets against all Poles, civilian and military, both during and after the invasions.

There are 16 pages of nice B&W photographs between pages 62 & 63.

Contents:
Table of Contents, pages v-vii
Maps and Illustrations, pages viii-ix
Acknowledgement, page x
Map 1, page xi
Map 2, page xii
Background, pages 1-62.
Campaign Chronicle, pages 63-150.
Aftermath, pages 151-170
Appendix I, Chronology of Major Events, pages 171-176
Appendix II, Biographies of Key Figures, pages 177-184
Appendix III, Glossary and Abbreviations, pages 185-186
Appendix IV, Orders of Battle, pages 187-196
Appendix V, Survivors’ Reminiscences, pages 197-218
Sources, pages 219-222
Index, pages 223-228
15 pages of “ads”, with lots of B&W photos of the various book covers, for other books in the Stackpole Military History Series
Oddly, in the biographies, there is only 1 Soviet one (Gen. Timoshenko), but there isn’t one for Polish President Moscicki, who is only mentioned once in the book, on p. 140.