First to Fight

by Roger Moorhouse

  7 Quoted in Horne, op. cit., p. 140.

  8 Adrian Carton de Wiart, Happy Odyssey (London, 1950), p. 160.

  9 The Times, 8 September 1939, p. 8; Daily Mail, 8 September 1939, p. 3.

  10 See Chwila, 6 September 1939; Słowo, 6 and 7 September 1939; Robotnik, 9 September 1939; Słowo, 9 September 1939.

  11 Testimony of Mieczysław Ptaśnik, Karta Archive, Warsaw, AW/II/3192.

  12 Testimony of Maria Komornicka, Karta Archive, Warsaw, AW/II/3611.

  13 Colonel Wojciech Fyda to Chief of II Bureau, Polish General Staff, 11 September 1939, Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, London (hereafter PISM), AII 18/16/2.

  14 Norwid-Neugebauer to General Staff Warsaw, PISM, AII 22/7/2.

  15 Daniel Todman, Britain’s War: Into Battle 1937–1941 (London, 2016), p. 218; Alex Danchev and Daniel Todman (eds), Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke: War Diaries 1939–1945 (London, 2001), p. 20.

  16 Roderick Macleod and Denis Kelly (eds), The Ironside Diaries 1937–1940 (London, 1962), p. 107.

  17 Głos Narodowy, 8 September 1939.

  18 September 1939 overview at https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1939.aspx (accessed 24 April 2019).

  19 See Foreign Relations of the United States 1939, Vol. 1, Doc. 434, Telegram from Ambassador in France to Secretary of State, Paris, 13 September 1939.

  20 A. J. P. Taylor, English History 1914–1945 (Oxford, 1965), p. 459.

  21 Norwid-Neugebauer to Edward Śmigły-Rydz, 10 September 1939, Archiwum Akt Nowych, Warsaw, 2/1318/0/1/195/1.

  22 Macleod and Kelly (eds), op. cit., p. 106.

  23 H. Kennard, 11 September 1939, The National Archives, London (hereafter ‘TNA’), CAB 66/1/216.

  24 Appendix II to War Cabinet Committee report dated 12 September 1939, TNA, CAB 66/1/200.

  25 Quoted in Eleanor M. Gates, End of the Affair: The Collapse of the Anglo-French Alliance 1939–40 (London, 1981), pp. 19–20.

  26 War cabinet minutes of the meeting of the Supreme War Council, 20 September 1939, TNA, CAB 66/1/318–22.

  27 Anita Prażmowska, Britain, Poland and the Eastern Front 1939 (Cambridge, 1987), p. 184.

  28 TNA, CAB 66/1/322, Annex B.

  29 ‘House of Commons’, The Times, 14 September 1939, p. 4.

  30 Włodzimierz Borodziej and Sławomir Dębski (eds), Polish Documents on Foreign Policy 24 October 1938–30 September 1939 (Warsaw, 2009), Doc. 217, pp. 420–22.

  31 General Stanisław Burhardt-Bukacki to General Staff, Warsaw, 14 September 1939, PISM, AII 22/7/3.

  32 Norwid-Neugebauer to General Staff, Warsaw, 14 September 1939, PISM, AII 22/7/2.

  33 Stephan Lehnstaedt and Jochen Böhler (eds), Die Berichte der Einsatzgruppen aus Polen 1939 (Berlin, 2013), Doc. 11, p. 85.

  34 Quoted in Alexander Rossino, Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity (Lawrence, KS, 2003), p. 70.

  35 Quoted in Lehnstaedt and Böhler (eds), op. cit., p. 90.

  36 Testimony of Benon Brzezicha at http://pamiecbydgoszczan.ukw.edu.pl/relacje/wrzesien-1939-roku-na-szwederowie/ (accessed 24 April 2019).

  37 Figures from Rossino, op. cit., pp. 71–2.

  38 Dorothee Weitbrecht, Der Exekutionsauftrag der Einsatzgruppen in Polen (Filderstadt, 2001), p. 21.

  39 Edmund Zarzycki, Działalność hitlerowskiego Sądu Specjalnego w Bydgoszczy w latach 1939–1945 (Bydgoszcz, 2000), p. 23.

  40 Kurt Mehner (ed.), Die geheimen Tagesberichte der Deutschen Wehrmachtführung im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939–1945, Band 1: 1. September 1939–30. April 1940, Teil 1 (Osnabrück, 1995), p. 23.

  41 Heinz Guderian, Panzer Leader (London, 1952), p. 75.

  42 Oberst Hans-Karl Freiherr von Esebeck, quoted in Alan Bance (trans.), Blitzkrieg in Their Own Words: First-Hand Accounts from German Soldiers 1939–1940 (St Paul, MN, 2005), p. 39.

  43 Guderian, op. cit., p. 76.

  44 Testimony of Captain Wacław Schmidt, PISM, BI 16/3.

  45 Quoted in Leszek Bartoszyński and Franciszek Burdzy, ‘Wizna’, Z∙ołnierz Polski, 37/1964.

  46 Seweryn Biegański, quoted in Zbigniew Gluza, September 1939: The Partition of Poland (Warsaw, 2009), p. 23.

  47 Quoted in Ludwik Zalewski (ed.), Obiekty obronne Ziemi Łomżyńskiej (Łomża, 2013), p. 33.

  48 Testimony of Lt Adam Łempicki, PISM, BI 14c/4.

  49 The Polish text is ‘Przechodniu, powiedz Ojczyźnie, żeśmy walczyli do końca, spełniając swój obowiązek.’

  50 Testimony of Lt-Col. Tadeusz Tabaczyński, PISM, BI 16/1.

  51 See, for instance, https://www.newsweek.pl/wiedza/historia/bitwa-pod-wizna-major-raginis-rocznica-wrzesien-1939-newsweekpl/6q73kjm

  52 Kriegstagebuch Armeegruppe Nord, entries for 8 and 9 September 1939, US National Archives, T311-200.

  53 Testimony of Dr Walerian Terajewicz, PISM, BI 14d/6.

  54 Szymon Datner, 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce: zbrodnie dokonane na polskiej ludności cywilnej w okresie 1 IX–25 X 1939 r. (Warsaw, 1967), pp. 314–17.

  55 Leni Riefenstahl, The Sieve of Time (London, 1992), p. 259.

  56 Jochen Böhler, Auftakt zum Vernichtungskrieg: die Wehrmacht in Polen 1939 (Frankfurt am Main, 2006), pp. 195–7.

  57 Riefenstahl, op. cit., p. 259.

  58 Diary of W.K., Imperial War Museum Archive, London, 94/26/1, p. 4.

  59 Testimony of Philipp Mamat, at LeMo, part of the website of the German Historical Museum, www.dhm.de

  60 Willi Reibig, Schwarze Husaren: Panzer in Polen (Berlin, 1941), p. 26.

  61 Quoted in Peter Hoffmann, Stauffenberg: A Family History 1905–1944 (Montreal, 2003), p. 115.

  62 W.K. diary, op. cit., p. 11.

  63 Datner, op. cit., pp. 358–9, 117.

  64 Quoted in Marcin Bielesz, ‘Gwizd, huk, błysk, dym! 74 lata temu Niemcy zmietli całe miasto z powierzchni ziemi’, Gazeta Wyborcza, 13 September 2013.

  65 See Norman Davies, Europe at War 1939–1945: No Simple Victory (London, 2006), p. 297.

  66 Quoted in Richard Hargreaves, Blitzkrieg Unleashed: The German Invasion of Poland 1939 (Barnsley, 2008), p. 152.

  67 Klemens Rudnicki, The Last of the War Horses (London, 1974), p. 23.

  68 Quoted in Rolf Elble, Die Schlacht an der Bzura im September 1939 (Freiburg, 1975), p. 100.

  69 Colonel Marian Porwit, Foreword, in Tadeusz Kutrzeba, Bitwa nad Bzurą (9–22 września 1939): przyczynek do historii kampanii polsko-niemieckiej w obszarze Poznań–Warszawa we wrześniu 1939 (Warsaw, 1957).

  70 Czesław Ławniczak, quoted in Maciej Wojewoda and Jakub Wojewoda, Bitwa nad Bzurą: pierwsza wśród wielkich bitew II Wojny Światowej (Warsaw, 2016), p. 24; Roman Bąkowski, ‘Mój wrzesień: wspomnienia z bitwy nad Bzurą’, Kutnowskie Zeszyty Regionalne, 4 (2000), p. 426.

  71 Elble, op. cit., p. 119; Hans Breithaupt, Die Geschichte der 30. Infanterie-Division 1939–1945 (Bad Nauheim, 1955), pp. 24–5.

  72 Bąkowski, op. cit., p. 426.

  73 Christian Kinder, Männer der Nordmark an der Bzura: aus den Gefechtshandlungen einer Infanteriedivision in Polen (Berlin, 1941), p. 27.

  74 Franciszek Rackowiak, quoted in Wojewoda and Wojewoda, op. cit., p. 25.

  75 Stanisław Stapf, quoted ibid., p. 30.

  76 Quoted in Hargreaves, op. cit., p. 155.

  77 Bąkowski, op. cit., p. 426.

  78 Elble, op. cit., p. 148.

  79 Nikolaus von Vormann, Der Feldzug 1939 in Polen: die Operationen des Heeres (Weissenburg, 1958), p. 132.

  80 Elble, op. cit., p. 141.

  81 Quoted ibid., p. 132.

  82 Hargreaves, op. cit., p. 158.

  83 Walter Gorlitz (ed.), The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel (New York, [1965] 2000), p. 95.

  84 Johann Graf von Kielmansegg, Panzer zwischen Warschau und Atlantik (Berlin, 1941), p. 62.

  85 Quoted in Wiktor Thommée, ‘Ze wspomnień dowódcy obrony Modlina’, Wojskowy Przegłąd Historyczny, 4:3 (1959), p. 194.

  86
Sergeant Józef Skórka, quoted in Wojewoda and Wojewoda, op. cit., p. 41.

  87 Kurt Meyer, Grenadiers (Mechanicsburg, PA, 2005), p. 6.

  88 Quoted in Piotr Bauer, 17 Pułk Ułanów Wielkopolskich im. Króla Bolesława Chrobrego w obronie Ojczyzny 1939 r. (Gostyń, 1978), p. 56.

  89 Quoted in Edmund Makowski and Kazimierz Młynarz (eds), Dni klęski, dni chwały: wspomnienia Wielkopolan z września 1939 (Poznań, 1970), p. 295.

  90 Kutrzeba, quoted in Alex Buchner, Der Polenfeldzug 1939 (Leoni am Starnberger See, 1989), p. 116.

  91 Lieutenant-Colonel Jan Maliszewski, quoted in Wojewoda and Wojewoda, op. cit., p. 50.

  92 Kielmansegg, op. cit., p. 68.

  93 Bąkowski, op. cit., p. 430.

  94 Quoted in Wojewoda and Wojewoda, op. cit., p. 41.

  95 Indro Montanelli, ‘Cavalli contro autoblindo’, Corriere della Sera, 13 September 1939. Translated by Dr Alex Standen.

  96 See William Shirer, Berlin Diary 1934–1941: The Rise of the Third Reich (illustrated edition, London, [1941] 1997), p. 106; William Shirer, This is Berlin: Reporting from Nazi Germany 1938–40 (London, 1999), p. 88.

  97 Günther Grass mentioned the scene in his 1959 novel The Tin Drum, while Andrzej Wajda gave an early cinematic representation of it in his film Lotna of the same year.

  98 For Zgierz and Łowicz, see Rossino, op. cit., pp. 169–70.

  99 Datner, op. cit., pp. 391, 416.

  100 Wojewoda and Wojewoda, op. cit., p. 45.

  101 Jochen Böhler, ‘Grösste Härte …’: Verbrechen der Wehrmacht in Polen September/Oktober 1939 (Osnabrück, 2005), p. 80.

  102 Böhler, Auftakt zum Vernichtungskrieg, p. 224.

  103 Stanisław Klejnowski, quoted in Szymon Datner, Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu na jeńcach wojennych armii regularnych w II wojnie światowej (Warsaw, 1961), pp. 54–5.

  104 Kielmansegg, op. cit., p. 70.

  105 Hargreaves, op. cit., p. 163.

  106 Tomasz Owoc, Prisoners of War in Occupied Kraków 1939–1945 (Kraków, 2016), p. 42.

  107 Bąkowski, op. cit., p. 432.

  108 Ludwik Czyżewski, Wspomnienia dowódcy obrony Zakroczymia w 1939 r. (Warsaw, 1973), p. 16.

  6 Of ‘Liberators’ and Absent Friends

  1 Bernardo Bellotto (1721–1780), was the nephew of the better-known “Canaletto”, Antonio Canal, but also styled himself in the same way.

  2 Stanisław Sosabowski, Freely I Served (Barnsley, 2013), p. 30.

  3 Testimony of Maria Komornicka, Karta Archive, Warsaw, AW/II/3611.

  4 Colonel Hans-Karl Freiherr von Esebeck, quoted in Alan Bance (trans.), Blitzkrieg in Their Own Words (St Paul, MN, 2005), pp. 40–42.

  5 Testimony of Lieutenant Andrzej Żyliński, reproduced at http://www.1939.pl/kampania-wrzesniowa/relacja-andrzej-zylinski/index.html (accessed 25 April 2019).

  6 Marek Sarjusz-Wolski, ‘Bitwa pod Kałuszynem 1939’, in Kamil Janicki and Anna Winkler (eds), Polskie triumfy: 50 chwalebnych bitew Polaków, o których każdy powinien pamiętać (Kraków, 2018), p. 428.

  7 Tadeusz Jurga and Władysław Karbowski, Armia ‘Modlin’ 1939 (Warsaw, 1987), p. 283.

  8 Sarjusz-Wolski, op. cit., p. 434; Jerzy Strychalski, Bitwa pod Kałuszynem (Siedlce, 1985), p. 14.

  9 Władysław Anders, An Army in Exile: The Story of the Second Polish Corps (London, 1949), p. 6.

  10 Wiktor Thommée, ‘Ze wspomnień dowódcy obrony Modlina’, Wojskowy Przegłąd Historyczny, 4:3 (1959), p. 179.

  11 General Tadeusz Kutrzeba, quoted ibid., p. 190.

  12 Alexander Polonius, I Saw the Siege of Warsaw (Glasgow, 1941), pp. 123–4.

  13 Loda Halama, Moje nogi i ja (Warsaw, 1984), p. 70.

  14 Marta Korwin-Rhodes, The Mask of Warriors: The Siege of Warsaw, September 1939 (New York, 1964), p. 100.

  15 Władysław Szpilman, The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of One Man’s Survival in Warsaw 1939–45 (London, 2002), pp. 34–5.

  16 Stefan Starzyński, quoted in Zbigniew Gluza (ed.), Rok 1939: rozbiór Polski (Warsaw, 2009), p. 124.

  17 Komornicka testimony, op. cit., 10 September 1939.

  18 Szpilman, op. cit., p. 33.

  19 Korwin-Rhodes, op. cit., p. 105.

  20 Ibid., p. 114.

  21 Szpilman, op. cit., pp. 35–6.

  22 Testimony of Stanisław Dmuchowski, Karta Archive, Warsaw, AW/I/0126.

  23 Julien Bryan, Warsaw (New York, 1959), pp. 18–19.

  24 Ibid., pp. 20–21.

  25 Quoted in Gluza (ed.), op. cit., p. 108.

  26 Szpilman, op. cit., p. 37.

  27 Account of Mikołaj Bujan, entry for 16 September 1939, Zawkrze Land Museum Archive, Mława, MZZ/fk/380.

  28 Sosabowski, op. cit., p. 37.

  29 Ibid., p. 39.

  30 Hans-Adolf Jacobsen (ed.), Generaloberst Halder Kriegstagebuch, Bd. I: vom Polenfeldzug bis zum Ende der Westoffensive (Stuttgart, 1962), p. 77.

  31 See Sosabowski, op. cit., pp. 37–8; Herbert Drescher, Warschau und Modlin im Polenfeldzug 1939: Berichte und Dokumente (Pforzheim, 1991), p. 420.

  32 Cajus Bekker, The Luftwaffe War Dairies (New York, 1994), p. 57.

  33 Komornicka testimony, op. cit.

  34 Polonius, op. cit., p. 136.

  35 Nigel Nicolson (ed.), Harold Nicolson: Diaries and Letters, Vol. 2: 1939–1945 (London, 1967), p. 30.

  36 HMSO, Documents on German Foreign Policy, Series D 1937–1945 (hereafter DGFP), Vol. 7: The Last Days of Peace, August 9–September 3 1939 (London, 1956), Doc. 567, Ribbentrop to Schulenburg, p. 541.

  37 DGFP, Vol. 8: The War Years, September 4 1939–March 18 1940 (London, 1954), Doc. 5, Schulenburg to Ribbentrop, p. 4.

  38 Mikhail Mel’tyukhov, 17 sentyabrya 1939: sovetsko-pol’skie konflikty 1918–1939 (Moscow, 2009), pp. 339, 344.

  39 John Erickson, ‘The Soviet March into Poland, September 1939’, in Keith Sword (ed.), The Soviet Takeover of the Polish Eastern Provinces 1939–1941 (Basingstoke, 1991), p. 10.

  40 DGFP, Vol. 8, p. 44.

  41 Mel’tyukhov, op. cit., p. 355.

  42 See Roger Moorhouse, The Devils’ Alliance: Hitler’s Pact with Stalin 1939–1941 (London, 2014), pp. 127–31.

  43 Quoted in Czesław Grzelak, Sowiecki najazd 1939 r.: Sojusznik Hitlera napada polskie Kresy – relacje świadków i uczestników (Warsaw, 2017), pp. 42–3.

  44 DGFP, Vol. 8, pp. 60–61.

  45 Ibid., pp. 69, 76, 79.

  46 Włodzimierz Borodziej and Sławomir Dębski (eds), Polish Documents on Foreign Policy 24 October 1938–30 September 1939 (Warsaw, 2009), Doc. 218, p. 423.

  47 Text in Stefania Stanisławska (ed.), Sprawa polska w czasie drugiej wojny światowej na arenie międzynarodowej: zbiór dokumentów (Warsaw, 1965), pp. 83–4.

  48 Henryk Batowski, ‘17 September 1939: Before and After’, East European Quarterly, 27:4 (1993), p. 528; Olaf Groehler, Selbstmörderische Allianz: Deutsch-russische Militärbeziehungen 1920–1941 (Berlin, 1992), p. 116; Albin Głowacki and Natalia S. Lebedeva, ‘Poland between the Soviet Union and Germany 1939–1941: The Red Army Invasion and the Fourth Partition of Poland’, in Adam Daniel Rotfeld and Anatoly V. Torkunov (eds), White Spots, Black Spots: Difficult Matters in Polish–Russian Relations 1918–2008 (Pittsburgh, 2015), p. 191.

  49 Borodziej and Dębski (eds), op. cit., p. 427.

  50 Steven Zaloga, Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg (Oxford, 2002), p. 80; Głowacki and Lebedeva, in Rotfeld and Torkunov (eds), op. cit., p. 164.

  51 Erickson, op. cit., p. 13.

  52 Quoted in Alexander Hill, ‘Voroshilov’s “Lightning” War: The Soviet Invasion of Poland, September 1939’, Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 27:3 (2014), p. 413.

  53 Głowacki and Lebedeva, in Rotfeld and Torkunov (eds), op. cit., pp. 189–190.

  54 Mel’tyukhov, op. cit., p. 331.

  55 Hill, op. cit., p. 411.

  56 See Moorhouse, op. cit., p. 9; testimony of Janina Król, Karta Archive, Warsaw, AW/I/0407.

  57 Testimony of Captain Stefan Gołębio
wski, Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum Archive, London (hereafter PISM), B I 70/H.

  58 Stanisławski testimony, Karta Archive, Warsaw, AW/I/744.

  59 Steven Zaloga and Leland S. Ness, Companion to the Red Army 1939–1945 (Stroud, 2009), p. 158.

  60 Hill, op. cit., pp. 415–16.

  61 Testimony of Professor Kazimierz Antonowicz, Karta Archive, Warsaw, A/I/0009,

  62 Hill, op. cit., p. 417.

  63 Erickson, op. cit., p. 17; Głowacki, op. cit., p. 164.

  64 Colonel Marceli Kotarba to II Bureau, General Staff, PISM, AII 25/12/4.

  65 Order from Colonel Kaftański, 17 September 1939, PISM, AII 25/12/3.

  66 Ryszard Szawłowski, ‘The Polish-Soviet War of 1939’, in Keith Sword (ed.), The Soviet Takeover of the Polish Eastern Provinces 1939–1941 (Basingstoke, 1991), pp. 35, 39.

  67 Documents on the defence of Sarny, PISM, B I 96/H.

  68 Mel’tyukhov, op. cit., p. 386.

  69 Szawłowski, op. cit., p. 37.

  70 Testimony of Witold Żółkiewski, Karta Archive, Warsaw, AW/I/0677.

  71 Quoted in Jan T. Gross, Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland’s Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia (Princeton, 2002), pp. 21–2.

  72 Testimony of Stefan Kurylak, Imperial War Museum Archive, London, 78/52/1.

  73 Ibid.

  74 Testimony of Stanisława Kupczykowska, Karta Archive, Warsaw, AW/II/236A/Ł.

  75 Author interview with Mieczysław Wartalski, London, September 2011.

  76 Testimony of Władysław Olesiński, Karta Archive, Warsaw, AW/II/1388.

  77 Mel’tyukhov, op. cit., p. 360.

  78 Jan Karski, Story of a Secret State: My Report to the World (London, [1944] 2011), p. 14.

  79 Testimony of Kazimierz Odyniec, in Czesław Grzelak, Szack – Wytyczno 1939 (Warsaw, 2001), p. 108.

  80 Reproduced in Olesiński testimony, op. cit.

  81 Gross, op. cit., pp. 22–3.

  82 Bujan account, op. cit., entry for 17 September 1939.

  83 Testimony of Konstanty Peszyński, Karta Archive, Warsaw, AW/II/3448.

  84 Testimony of Adolf Koc, Karta Archive, Warsaw, AW/I/0352.

  85 Testimony of Henryk Kundzicz, Karta Archive, Warsaw, AW/I/0432.

  86 Mel’tyukhov, op. cit., p. 372.

  87 Peszyński testimony, op. cit.

  88 Walery Choroszewski, quoted in David G. Williamson, Poland Betrayed: The Nazi–Soviet Invasions of 1939 (Barnsley, 2009), p. 122.