Timeline of the 1939 invasion of Poland

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The invasion of Poland was a joint offensive on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, the Free City of Danzig, and the Soviet Union, which marked the beginning of World War II. The invasion began on 1 September 1939, when German, Slovak, and Danzig forces entered Poland. 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 aim of the invasions was to disestablish Poland as a sovereign country, with its citizens destined for extermination.[1][2]

The following is a timeline of the invasion, which includes events preluding to the offensives, battles and attacks during the invasion, before ending with the last Polish armed forces surrendering on 6 October, which then begins the Polish resistance movement against the German Military Administration in Poland and the Soviet Union occupational administration.

Prelude

Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov signs the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Behind him stand German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin.
Molotov and Ribbentrop sign the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, in the presence of Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union
File:Peking.jpg
Polish destroyers evacuate to the United Kingdom during the Peking Plan

September

1 September

File:The Nazi-soviet Invasion of Poland, 1939 HU106374.jpg
The German battleship Schleswig-Holstein firing her guns during the battle of Westerplatte; taken by a Nazi collaborator photographer with the Associated Press
File:Danzig Police at Polish Border (1939-09-01).jpg
Danzig Police demolish a Polish border crossing
File:Zniszczenia1939 0.jpg
The town of Wieluń after German bombing
File:German armored car Sd Kfz 221 during the battle. Tuchola Forest..jpg
German armored car Sd.Kfz.221 during the battle of Tuchola Forest

2 September

3 September

4 September

5 September

File:The Nazi-soviet Invasion of Poland, 1939 HU106374.jpg
German battleship Schleswig-Holstein firing at Westerplatte, 5 September 1939

6 September

  • Wyszków Operational Group begins its counterattack (as ordered on 5 September) towards Pułtusk against I Corps; 1st Legions Infantry Division and 61st Infantry Division clash.[42]Template:Rp
  • Corps Wodrig forces the Germans' way across the Narew river; the corps subsequently wastes time with preparations to attack Różan (already evacuated by Polish defenders during the night of 5/6 September).[42]Template:Rp
  • XXII Corps severs the line between Warsaw and Częstochowa.[45]Template:Rp
  • Krakow is captured by German forces.[46]Template:Rp
  • The Polish air force attempts a general offensive and musters 164 sorties with 13 victories and nine planes lost. In the evening, orders are given to move all remaining Polish fighters to Lublin, where 88 fighters are subsequently formed into the newly improvised Pursuit Brigade.[42]Template:Rp
  • The Polish government and its accredited ambassadors evacuate Warsaw and relocate to Lublin.[45]Template:Rp
  • Poles evacuate the arms factory in Starachowice to Kowel; Germans attack the Wanacja suburb of Starachowice, and then murder over 20 civilians.Template:Sfn
  • German troops perpetrated a massacre of Polish POWs, including 19 officers, in Moryca and Longinówka, and massacres of 56 Polish civilians in Będzin and Uniejów.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn They also burned the villages Komorów and Krasna, killing 28 inhabitants.
  • During the night of 6/7 September, the Wyszków Operational Group's progress is significantly hampered by logistical chaos when the 33rd and 41st Infantry Divisions become hopelessly entangled with each other, causing mass confusion among the troops.[42]Template:Rp

7 September

8 September

File:Ciepielów 3-POW departing to execution place.jpg
Polish POWs and German soldiers shortly before the Ciepielów massacre

9 September

File:Public execution of Polish hostages in Bydgoszcz 1939.jpg
Public execution of Polish civilians in Bydgoszcz on 9 September 1939
  • 4th Panzer Division repeats its attack against Warsaw; Panzer Regiment 35 suffers heavy casualties, leading to the eventual recall of 4th Panzer Division from the Warsaw sector.[26]Template:Rp
  • The German 8th Army captures Łódź, and subsequently advances against a concentration of Polish forces southwest of Warsaw that was giving XVI Corps of 10th Army significant trouble.[15]Template:Rp
  • German troops perpetrated massacres of around 80 Polish civilians in Kłecko, Mielno, Orło and Pniewo, and massacres of over 260 Jews in Będzin, Sławków and Wyszków.Template:Sfn
  • During the night of 9/10 September, the Poznan Army attempts a breakout attempt towards the south of Łódź and strikes the flank of the German 8th Army (primarily the 30th Infantry Division),[41]Template:Rp achieving operational surprise against the Germans.[50]Template:Rp
  • The German 5th Panzer Division attacked Polish forces at Pacanów and Stopnica.Template:Sfn

10 September

11 September

12 September

13 September

  • The German Group Kaupisch enters Gdynia (Polish remnant resistance in the city continues until 19 September).[15]Template:Rp
  • Luftwaffe formations are concentrated against the area northeast of Łódź, where Polish marching columns make for appealing targets.[15]Template:Rp
  • German troops carried out massacres in Cecylówka, Kokoszkowy, Łowicz and Mień, killing over 80 Poles, including boy scouts, and at least 12 Jews.Template:Sfn[55]
  • The majority of Poland's gold reserve stored by the Polish government in Śniatyn on the border with Romania.[43]

14 September

File:Niemcy w Gdyni.jpg
German forces in Gdynia, 14 September

15 September

16 September

File:Artyleria przeciwlotnicza Lwowa w 1939.jpg
Polish Anti-aircraft Bofors 40 mm in the Battle of Lwów

17 September

18 September

  • The main clashes of the Battle of the Bzura cease; OKH reports 120,000+ Polish prisoners from a total of 19 divisions and three cavalry brigades.[15]Template:Rp
  • Following Soviet pressure against the Estonian government, Orzel leaves Tallinn and begins its breakout towards the United Kingdom, which it would reach (without maps) on 14 October.[53]Template:Rp
  • Germans perpetrated a massacre of some 300 Poles, including POWs and refugees, in Śladów.Template:Sfn

19 September

File:Soviets entering Wilno.jpg
Soviet troops enter Wilno, 19 September

20 September

21 September

  • Polish garrison of Lviv unexpectedly attempts surrender to the withdrawing Germans;[35]Template:Rp occupation of Lviv is left to the Soviets, who take the city after an artillery bombardment.[59]Template:Rp
  • Reinhard Heydrich issues a directive to begin the concentration of Poland's Jews in the major cities to prepare the formation of ghettos and to ease subsequent deportations to concentration camps.[54]Template:Rp

22 September

23 September

  • Soviets carried out a massacre of 25 Polish POWs in Husynne.[60]

24 September

  • Johannes Blaskowitz (of German 8th Army) orders the final assault against Warsaw.[42]Template:Rp
  • Appointed German Kreisleiter called Polish municipal officials in Bydgoszcz to a supposed formal meeting in the city hall, from where they were taken to a forest near Bydgoszcz and exterminated.Template:Sfn He also ordered the execution of their family members to "avoid creating martyrs".Template:Sfn

27 September

28 September

  • Soviet-Polish battle at Szack; 52nd Rifle Division and 411th Tank Battalion forced in temporary retreats by Polish defenders.[39]Template:Rp
  • Germany and the Soviet Union sign a Border and Friendship Treaty and adjust the frontiers of occupied Poland. The Soviet Union publicly blames the Western Allies for the continuation of the war.[62]Template:Rp
  • Germans carried out the second mass execution, this time of 16 patients of the Kocborowo psychiatric hospital, at the Forest of Szpęgawsk.Template:Sfn
  • Soviets carried out a massacre of 18 Polish POWs from the Riverine Flotilla of the Polish Navy in Mokrany.[60]

29 September

  • The Polish garrison of Modlin fortress surrenders at 08:00; the roughly 35,000 defenders (including 4,000 wounded) are released as agreed in the surrender agreement, though most officers are subsequently recaptured in the following weeks and detained in POW camps.[45]Template:Rp
  • Wounded General Władysław Anders taken prisoner by the Soviets.Template:Sfn

30 September

October

1 October

File:Wkroczenie Wehrmachtu do Warszawy 1.10.1939.jpg
German troops enter Warsaw, 1 October 1939
  • Around 02:00 at night, a Polish vanguard of the Border Protection Corps meets a column of Soviet tanks near Wytyczno and destroys four of them. As the BPC crosses the Bug river south of Włodawa to catch up with Independent Operational Group Polesie forces, a Soviet counterattack ("Battle of Wytyczno") commences in the early morning. General Wilhelm Orlik-Rückemann decides to break up his force into small units and send them into various directions. Several massacres are subsequently committed by the Soviet pursuers against Polish groups of soldiers.[45]Template:Rp
  • After a final assault against Hel by the German Infantry Regiment 374 towards Hel, the Polish commander asks for an armistice around 14:00.[40]Template:Rp
  • At 14:30, the German mineseeker M85 is sunk by the Polish submarine Zbik with 23 lives lost, sole Polish submarine victory of the campaign.[40]Template:Rp
  • Ger. 10th Army is alerted to return to Germany to prepare operations against France.
  • Germans carried out a massacre of 64 Polish men, including ten boys under the age of 18, in Szczuczki.Template:Sfn
  • Polish Consul in Kyiv Jerzy Matusiński was summoned for supposed talks at the Representation Office of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, and then arrested by the Soviets, with his fate unknown to this day.[64]

2 October

  • Command of the Defenders of Poland (Komenda Obrońców Polski) Polish resistance organization founded in Warsaw.Template:Sfn

3 October

  • Gerd von Rundstedt becomes military commander in German-occupied Poland.[35]Template:Rp

4 October

File:Bitwa pod Kockiem.jpg
Polish soldiers during the Battle of Kock

5 October

6 October

  • The final Polish resistance (around two divisions in strength, under General Kleeberg around Kock) surrender, ending the campaign.[15]Template:Rp

See also

References

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Bibliography

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