History /
WW2: Britain Declares War on Germany to Save Poland [290]
The fact is, if GB knew they couldnt mount any assault from the West why did they contract with the Poles at all and form an alliance? I'll let you answer that.
Er,OK,lets look at this way,hypotheticaly;GB and France leave Poland to Hitler,both countries say,"stuff it,why waste our boys lives for those guys the other side of europe who ,actually,have never done anything for us in the past(blah blah,stopping communism in 1921......) and are in no position to do anything for us now". "We" let hitler invade without declaring war,no change,the panzers still roll east and the Tanki still roll west a fortnight later. Ok so far? Right,then,instead of having an enemy in the west to take care of(remember,"we" have stayed out of the war) hitler only has his main event to plan and build up for,the conquest of the Soviet Union. No one to fight in the west,Hitlers plans are not delayed and he is able to invade "Russia" on his schedule.(remember,all this time the remnents of the Polish Govt'and armed forces are still interned in Romania,as britain and france are not allies,and,oh gosh yes,Romania is allied to the nazis by now). the nazis also have more time and energy to shape the former Poland into their vison of the greater german reich and eliminate more potential enemies. The war in the east well that could have still gone either way,probably with an eventual german victory over the Red Army,but at the very least a stalemate as ,without Britain still(or ever having being) in the war the USA has no reason to interfere in a European war. Where would all this have left Poland,either crushed under Germany or to this day still a vassal state of the USSR.
As to why Britain formed an alliance with Poland,with hindsight,lord knows,all WW2 did for Britain was bancrupt it and cause the speedier loss of world influence it had enjoyed,for good or ill ,for the last 3 centuries. As to why the alliance,it was formalised only weeks before the panzars rolled,Polands high command had made all sorts of overly optomistic statements about being able to hold out against the nazis so Britain had no reason to belive on sept' the 3rd that Poland would collapse so rapidly,especially as the French were sworn to launch a land based offensive within 2 weeks.
I agree - GB really couldnt have done anything more. They really tried and the results speak for themselves.
If this is sarcasm my above answer covers it neatly I think. If not,sorry bout that :)
The 'anger' directed toward GB I think moreso comes from the notion that GB had all of the rest of WW2 to do something positive to assist the Poles, but nothing happened. Poles looked to GB for support and got none. The balance sheet of what Poles did for GB as opposed to what GB did for Poles is heavily stacked in Poland's favour. That gives the Poles the standing to question what GB did for them.
Well,again,where to start,how about giving the Poles the means to fight the Germans,freely,and without political interference as those in the east faced.
How about a home for your govt in exile which maintained autonamy and even its own SOE section( the only allied nation entrusted with a completely indipendant hand in this), all the RAF flights in support of your underground govt and army in Poland itself,yes,even the 200+ british and commenwealth flyers who lost their lives trying to resupply Warsaw. Never mind the home given to all those who had to stay out of Poland after the war.Sorry,but without Britain involved Polands soldiers would have rotted in romanian internment till the nazis got their hands on them.
After the slaughter of the first war there was no great desire to go at it again with Germany , and had it not been for that agreement we would have stayed out of the war untill France was attacked...
This should never be underplayed,but,I doubt france would have been attacked had she also stayed out of the way,hitlers eyes were always east.
This was the national tragedy.There were polish soldiers in british uniform,polish soldiers in german uniform and polish soldiers in soviet uniform.There were not many choices these years.
not stricktly true, they may have worn British style uniform,and been equipped and armed by the British but,and this is a big but,they were in the Polish not British army.
Celinski try to find out why Hitler kept such enormous troops in Warsaw while his western front collapsed in Normandy.
He didnt,at the time of the august uprising troop levels in the city were down to a token force,mostly made up of second line police reservists etc. The reason the rising ran into trouble was that the germans had no problems reinforcing their troops as the eastern front proper was only a matter of miles away.
Anyway,what has the Warsaw uprising got to do with britain in 1939?
Incidently,where do you think all the build up support for the rising came from,yep,thats right,Britain, Polands underground army sent its finest to train in britain,they then returned to Poland and formed the cadre's to train the wider home army. If this was on topic in the thread I could have posted plenty of links re britains material contributions to the rising,but its not,so I wont. They are however widely available on the net.
Quoting: celinski
What is the date, I thought Poland was communist then, No? Before you blast me Harry, I am not sure of the date so I admit I just may be wrong. Carol
1968. Dark times, and definitely under the heel of USSR.
Indead,and being as the option was, "help us invade them or we invade you" I cant say that its right or proper to bring this up,especially in this thread. (of course,he may have meant when pre war Poland did a little border re aranging at the same time gitler marched on Prague??...)