Additionally, Poland was disadvantaged because it was the first country to confront Germany’s Blitzkrieg tactics, explained Mawdsley, a history professor at the University of Glasgow who specializes in World War II history and Russian history.

He acknowledged that there was a belief that the invasion of Poland in September 1939 was a piece of cake for Germany, this was partly due to too little knowledge in the West about this phase of World War II, as well as several widespread but untrue myths. such as the Polish cavalry fighting against German tanks or the Polish air force being immediately destroyed.

“I would not say that this was an easy invasion for the Wehrmacht. “There were quite a lot of casualties on the German and Polish sides, and the Poles put up significant resistance,” Mawdsley emphasized. He recalled that France had only held out less than two weeks longer in the spring of 1940, although its armed forces were more comparable to Germany’s, its borders took much less time to defend and several months longer to prepare.

At the same time, he emphasized that the German invasion of Poland could not have ended in a different way. “Even if the western front had been established from the start, there would be no significant pressure from France and England, I don’t see how Poland could defend itself, especially since its eastern part was occupied by the Soviet Union. At the same time, there was no real chance for the British to get involved early because they were not ready, even when Germany attacked France a few months later, Mawdsley said.

“In England there was a belief that if Germany attacked Poland they would probably win, but in France there was no such belief. There was an assumption that if Germany attacked France, the situation would be similar to World War I – with battle positions, soldiers in trenches, with “The front line stood in one place for months – which meant giving time to rearm before joining the war. But as we know, this assumption turned out to be wrong,” he explained.

Mawdsley points out that this is a mistake Poland may have been an attempt to defend itself along a very long – border GermanHowever, instead of focusing on the defense of the center of the country, considering the circumstances mentioned earlier, this would only prolong resistance and not change the outcome of the war.

He pointed out that Poland was at a disadvantage because it had to face Germany first.

“All the teams that had to face Germany initially performed very badly. Poland was defeated in five weeks, but in the same period soldier The Soviets lost even more. Yes, the Russians won in the end, but the first few months of the war against Germany in 1941 were terrible for them, losing millions of men. “In addition, when America first clashed with Germany in North Africa, it took time to adapt to how to fight in the new situation, because the start was not good at all,” the historian said.

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