WW2: Britain Declares War on Germany to Save Poland

I dont like this part of our history (WWII) ... when I start to read about it my face changes it to red

our choices in WWI were much more interesting and what is important we were succesful ... ehhhh and 1920 was grate ...

When you say we who are you refferring to?

If its poland you dont really have an Army that would change the outcome of any battle. History proves this i believe.

If its the US then you will be backing us up as it would have been your fault that the war began in the first place.

Who's the culprit ?...you

Wroclaw boy you should read some books ...

Any suggestions?

Britain declares war on Germany to save Poland...

:)


You belive wrong. :)

without the poles you had only kids to fly your spitfires against the messerschmidts...
so please stop talking rubbish...

First to Fight
Polish Soldiers September Campaign 1939

you ignorent insulting muppet,2 sqdrns, 24 men(and the rest in RAF sqdrns.), real frikkin contribution.....shows how much you know about your history,the Poles flew hurricanes (as did 2 members of my imidiate family) in the BofB......


sceptics = sceptic tanks = Yanks...Brit forces slang.

oops you're wrong but you'll have to do your own search on the history as there have been thick books written on this battle itself.

That looks like Monte Cassino, 'fraid you yourself will have to do your research better. The only reason Cassino fell was from months of British and commenwealth assaults on it softning up the dwindling german defenders, followed by a french colonial assault down the liri valley that drew german reinforcments away and cut off supplies to the monestry, only then did a Polish unit appear on the scene, faught valiantly,no doubt about it, but were just the last tap on the egg that broke the shell.

All serious historians admit that the monestary hill,captured by the Poles, had lost all strategic and defensive value to the germans by this time,and that the real turning point in the battle was made by the North African tribesmen of the Free French further down the valley.

All true, they fought like Tigers, and many had just lost there homeland to Soviet "liberation" but still fought on like hero's.


again,true,to a point,the road to Rome was already open,this doesnt minimise the sacrife or heroisim of the Polish effort. In fact,I think it emphisises it,and tragically mirrors a wider experiance. As they fought there way up the bloodsoaked slopes of cassino,past the bodies of britons,inians and new zealanders to raise the flag ,the main thrust of the war had already moved on,much as the t 34 s had already moved on through lwow. Everyone in Britain who has heard of Monte Cassino knows that it was the Poles who captured the hill in the end. What is still being hushed up to this day is that semi barbarian North african hill tribesmen had actually allready opened the road to Rome.Think about it,what country at that time (segregated america or colonial france/britain) wanted to admit that a bunch of " darkie" muslims had created a turning point in the liberation of Italy?

You could have mentioned the Polish 2nd armoured division closing the falaise gap and thus trapping the german army in normandy as a real turning point.

Or the Polish artilerymen who managed to swim accross the rhine at oosterbeek and helped the British hold out a little longer as being significant.

I get where you are coming from as the other poster seems to be implying that Polish forces contributed very little,this was not the case,but also,no countries forces on their own actually did anything that could be classed as a posotive turning point in the war.

I hear very little on what that piece of work "Stalin" was pulling on the side lines.


That's like trying to open a jar and when you can't you give it to someone else who opens it. You must have loosened it, right. LOL Carol

As a matter of interest the first British plane to enter German airspace was airborne one hour and three minutes after war was declared (by Britain on Germany). The first British servicemen were killed defending Poland by attacking Germany 29 hours after war was declared. According to German sources the plane was flying so low when making its attack that it was destroyed by the blast of its own bombs. Half of the planes in that first attack were destroyed.

What exactly would you have liked the British to do? Invade Germany? From where exactly? The French (who, by the way had made a commitment to invade Germany, the British had not) would not let the joint British/French attack go any further than 8km inside Germany.

The simple fact is that Britain refused numerous German offers of peace because the Germans would not allow an independent Polish state. Even after Germany surrendered the British government were still planning how to liberate Poland (from the Soviets).

Of course, if Poland had bothered to mobilise more than 70% of its forces, hadn't picked probably the most stupid military tactics since General Custer's famous "They're only Indians! We can take them no problem", had got all of their units into place and hadn't given radio stations false information about imaginary victories and military operations which led to some Polish troops being encircled or taking a stand against overwhelming odds because they thought they were actually counterattacking or would soon receive reinforcements from other victorious areas, perhaps Poland might have lasted long enough to receive help from Britain and France.

It's interesting that while so many Poles claim to hate the Nazis and the Communists, most of them are quite happy to repeat the lie first made in Nazi propaganda and then repeated by Communist propaganda that everything which happened to Poland 1939 to 1945 was the fault of Britain.

Personal Memories,

I remember my late grandfather telling me that when the second world war started, Britain could hardly organise a day out to the seaside let alone invade Germany.

He was in the Army for most of his life and fought throughout the war and after, beginning in the 3rd Royal Horse Artillery, which eventually became a part of The British 7th Armoured Division "The Desert Rats".

In 1938 in Egypt, he said the that they were so badly equipped with First World War vintage equipment that if anyone had attacked them in the 1st few months of being there they would not have stood a chance.

I would stay out of it if I were you, the French are hardly masters at war now are they.....

What do you mean ?...I didn't say that the French were better than the English, did i ?
It was just a joke to those people who think that the Brits saved all Europe...and that the Poles didn't do anything, which is totally wrong and disrespectful.

I guess it's one thing to say, If you keep attacking Poland we (British) will declair war on you. At this point it would have been nice if the British after declairing war, came and helped. But instead the guns were silenced and the Polish fought alone. Carol

Yeah...it's hard to say, but i quite understand...after the WW1, who wanted to start another one ? Noone, except the Germans (the Nazis, don't know if all Germans were ready to lose their lifes again...)

...

I'm not saying they were right not to do anything, but just that we are all humans...

Jan should stick to politics and not try to dabble in history.

The Polish army was far from the fourth largest Allied army. In the west were some 228,000 service men (of which 89,300 had previously been members of the German army [angelfire.com/ok2/polisharmy/chapter1.html). In the east were officially 396,102 Poles (angelfire.com/ok2/polisharmy/chapter1.html) but 40% of the 100,000 officers and NCOs were non-Polish Red Army; the question of how the Soviets managed to turn the 130,000 Polish troops they'd captured and remained in the USSR after the Anders army left is answered by the Soviet practice of putting Soviet troops of Polish 'origin' into the Polish army. A more realistic total would be in the region of 400,000 Poles fighting in WWII. Let's see how that number compares shall we? (All figures from /wiki/Participants_in_World_War_II unless otherwise noted.)

Armenia: more than 500,000 (and a fair few on the other side).
Australia: almost a million served (awm.gov.au/atwar/ww2.htm).
Canada: 731,000 in army; 106,000 in navy; 250,000 in air force. (warmuseum.ca/cwm/chrono/1931home_e.html)
China: 5 million regular troops and 2 million rebels (chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/15/content_468908.ht m)
France: 1,250,000 by May 1945 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_France_during_World_ War_II)
Georgia:700,000
India: over 2,500,000
Soviet Union: lots more than Poland
UK: lots more than Poland
US: lots more than Poland
Yugoslavia: 800,000 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partisans_%28Yugoslavia%29)

Poland doesn't even make the top ten!


Liar.

What liar ? No, he's true. France and England declared war on Germany, and then just waited...

Jan really does need to stick to politics. Both Polish armed forces, the Western and the Eastern outfits, were invited to the Victory Parade. The Soviet army didn’t turn up and the Free Polish forces declined to march.


********. The first British attack on Germany was the day immediately after war was declared.

Keep repeating the lies the Nazis and the Commies taught Poland.


It is not name calling, it is a statement of fact: you are a liar.

Maybe but Poland was not considered to be one of the "victors" of the war, while France was. And that's weird because French gov collaborated, the Polish gov didn't...


Hmm...see what Wikipedia says... :

"In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland in cooperation with the Soviet Union, and war in Europe followed. The French and British did not declare war at first, hoping they could persuade Hitler through appeasement, but Hitler did not respond. The United Kingdom and France declared war. During the winter of 1939–1940 there was little overt indication of hostilities since neither side was willing to engage the other directly. This period was called the Phoney War"

You mean the "Soviet army" that took over our contry when we were betrayed, right?


They were busy trying to find a home after being betrayed and losing their country. No they were not invited as they were no longer needed to die for others. Carol

opps country not contry

Just in the september campaign alone there were 950 000 polish soldiers taking part.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Poland_%281939%29

In the final stage of WW2 there were 600 000 Polish soldiers fighting in both alliance and soviet army plus there were also 300 000 Polish home army soldiers. Even if we take your 400 000 figure as a valid one (I really don't have the time to question your figures) there were 700 000 polish soldiers fighting at the final stage of WWII.

Through out the WWII there were over 2 000 000 Poles under arms fighting.

September 1: German invasion of Poland. British give German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop an ultimatum: all German forces out Poland or war will be declared.

September 3: 9am British ambassador to Berlin gives Nazi govt message "unless not later than 11 A.M., British Summer Time, to-day 3rd September, satisfactory assurances to the above effect have been given by the German Government and have reached His Majesty's Government in London, a state of war will exist between the two countries as from that hour."

September 3: 11am Britain declares war on Germany.
September 3: 12.03pm first British plane bound for German airspace airborne.
September 17: Soviet Union invades Poland.

Looks like the person writing that text for wikipedia knew **** all.


Liar. Free Polish forces were invited to the Victory Parade.


600,000 plus 300,000 equals more than 2,000,000? Nice maths.

Even if your 600,000 and 300,000 figures are accurate, that still means Poland was the eighth biggest army, not the fourth biggest as was originally claimed.

And let's not forget that at least 89,000 Poles fought for the Nazis.

Harry, Must you go into time out for name calling? Speaking of not telling the truth.

fact is no 1 did anything openly exept for declaring wars and such untill hitler came knocking on hes door, uk and france declared wars and didnt do sht, at least not untill hitler came and kick the thing that france called military, england finally responded and sent some troops to help france, after first couple fights brits were retreating faster than germans approaching... USA didnt give a f untill Pearl Harbor [considering that americans dont really like uk after revolutionary war and all its not a suprise]. yea they sent airplanes and other means of support to uk but most of it unoficjally, congress didnt agree to openly support anyone in that war so they had to "smuggle" US airplanes to canada and than send them to uk [i read bout it in one of the history books]. if france wasnt habbitet by bunch of cowards [thac how they look to me after all this, after napoleon the didnt rly do anything to improve their military apparently, since germas kicked them out of the picture faster than Poland], uk tried to keep the invincible from happening and payed the price, thinking theyre safe cuz of the navy, air force and fact that uk is an island. and at the end good russia helping with hitler, apparently someones forgetting who was helping him at the beggining, if hitler didnt attack russia hed prolly hold on to what he had and wed be all speaking eather german or russian now...

600 000 plus 300 000 equals 900 000 and this is the number of Polish soldiers participating in the final stage of this conflict. Still some people die on the war and other people come to replace them. During the whole war there were over 2 000 000 polish soldiers participating in this conflict. Of course let's not forget that at least 89,000 Poles fought for the Nazis. ;))

I hope that everything is clear now.