The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939, was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet Union, which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, and one day after the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union had approved the pact. One of the aims of the invasion was to divide Polish territory at the end of the operation; Poland was to cease to exist as a country and all Poles were to be exterminated. The Soviets invaded Poland on 17 September. The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty. The invasion is also known in Poland as the September campaign or 1939 defensive war and known in Germany as the Poland campaign.
Operation Ostra Brama was the Polish Home Army's attempted takeover of Vilnius in wake of the German Wehrmacht's evacuation, ahead of the approaching Soviet Red Army's Vilnius offensive. A part of a Polish national uprising, Operation Tempest, the action happened on 7–13 July 1944. The operation's main goal was propagandistic – to claim Vilnius for Poland by retaking it before Soviet arrival. Despite the operation's failure, the Polish government-in-exile continued its political line that led to the catastrophic Warsaw Uprising on 1 August 1944.
The Battle of Kock was the final battle in the invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II in Europe. It took place between 2–5 October 1939, near the town of Kock, in Poland.
This article discusses the Polish order of battle during the invasion of Poland. In the late 1930s Polish headquarters prepared "Plan Zachód", a plan of mobilization of Polish Army in case of war with Germany. Earlier, the Poles did not regard the Germans as their main threat, priority was given to threat from the Soviets.
The Border Protection Corps was a military formation of the Second Polish Republic that was created in 1924 to defend the country's eastern borders against armed Soviet incursions and local bandits. Other borders were under the jurisdiction of a separate, regular Border Guard state security agency.
Independent Operational Group Polesie was one of the Polish Army Corps that defended Poland during the Invasion of Poland in 1939. It was created on 11 September 1939 and was commanded by general Franciszek Kleeberg. The SGO is most notable for fighting in the battle of Kock, the last battle of the Invasion of Poland.
The Battle of Kobryń was one of the battles of the Invasion of Poland. It was fought between 14 and 18 September 1939, between the German XIX Panzer Corps of General Heinz Guderian and the improvised Polish 60th Infantry Division "Kobryn" of Colonel Adam Epler. It was fought concurrently with the Battle of Brześć Litewski.
Shatsk is a rural settlement in Volyn Oblast, Kovel Raion, western Ukraine. It is located to the north-west of Kovel. Population: 5,249.
Wilhelm Orlik-Rückemann (1894–1986) was a Polish general, military commander and one of the pioneers of armoured warfare in Poland.
Polish 1st Legions Infantry Division is a tactical formation of the Polish Army. Formed on February 20, 1919, partially of veterans of the I Brigade of the Polish Legions, the unit saw extensive action during the Polish-Soviet War and World War II. Regarded by the soldiers of the Wehrmacht as the Iron Division, it distinguished itself in the Invasion of Poland.
The 10th Cavalry Brigade was a Polish military unit in World War II. It was the only fully operational Polish motorized infantry unit during the Invasion of Poland, as Warsaw Armoured Motorized Brigade was not completed by September 1, 1939.
The battle of Wytyczno took place on October 1, 1939, near the village of Wytyczno near Włodawa in Poland. It was a struggle between the Polish forces of the Border Defence Corps of General Wilhelm Orlik-Rückemann and the Soviet Red Army during the invasion of Poland.
The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west. Subsequent military operations lasted for the following 20 days and ended on 6 October 1939 with the two-way division and annexation of the entire territory of the Second Polish Republic by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. This division is sometimes called the Fourth Partition of Poland. The Soviet invasion of Poland was indirectly indicated in the "secret protocol" of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed on 23 August 1939, which divided Poland into "spheres of influence" of the two powers. German and Soviet cooperation in the invasion of Poland has been described as co-belligerence.
As a result of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers became prisoners of war. Many of them were executed; 22,000 Polish military personnel and civilians perished in the Katyn massacre alone.
Plan East was a Polish defensive military plan that was created in the 1920s and the 1930s in case of war against the Soviet Union. Unlike Plan West, it was being prepared during the whole interwar period, as the government of the Second Polish Republic treated the Soviet Union as the greatest potential military threat that was capable of initiating a full-scale war. However, only a few loose historical documents remain of the original plan today.
Sarny Fortified Area was a line of bunkers and trenches along both sides of the Sluch River, in the area of the town of Sarny, northern Volhynia, in Ukraine. During the interbellum period, Sarny belonged to the Second Polish Republic and was near the border with the Soviet Union. As the Polish military authorities regarded the Soviets as the main threat, construction of fortifications began in 1936. It was planned to be fully operational in the spring of 1940. The total length of the defence works was some 170 km, with 358 objects.
Border Defense Corps Regiment Sarny was a unit of the Second Polish Republic's Border Defence Corps, stationed in Sarny, Wołyń Voivodeship, near pre-1939 Polish – Soviet border.
The 2nd Grochów Uhlan Regiment of General Jozef Dwernicki was a cavalry regiment of Polish I Corps in Russia, Polish Army in the Second Polish Republic, and the Home Army during Operation Tempest (1944). The regiment was formed in November 1917 in Volhynia, and in 1921–1939, it was garrisoned in Suwałki, in the barracks of former Imperial Russian Army's 2nd Pskov Dragoons Regiment. In the 1939 Invasion of Poland it was part of Suwalska Cavalry Brigade.
Edmund Wacław Heldut - Tarnasiewicz alias " Heldut ". He was the senior colonel and commander of the Polish Army cavalry, a senior military official of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, who received Poland's highest military award, the Virtuti Militari, one of the oldest military decorations in the world still in use. He was heavily involved in World War I, the Polish–Soviet War, and World War II. Heldut was promoted to General, but the promotion was never confirmed due to the outbreak of World War II. On October 6, 2021, President Andrzej Duda officially and posthumously confirmed Heldut to Brigadier General.
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