The Campaign In Poland, 1939

As soon as the invasion began, the German air force began attacking the Polish air force and its bases, bombing and strafing roads and railways, and bombing Poland's factories. Within four days Poland's air force was destroyed.

Under general command of Colonel General H. A. H. Walther von Brauchitsch, two armies advanced into Poland. The one in the north was commanded by Colonel General Fedor von Bock; the one in the south, by Colonel General Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt. Preceding the main armies were six panzer, or armored, divisions that broke up Polish communications, hindering mobilization, and attacked and scattered Polish formations.

The decisive stroke came when Rundstedt sent General Walther von Reichenau's 10th Army, containing the bulk of the mechanized forces, northward to trap the Polish armies that were falling back on the Vistula. The war was only a week old when the German armies advancing from north and south joined. A Polish counterattack ordered by Marshal Edward Smigly-Rydz failed and the Polish army was eliminated as a unified fighting force.

On September 17 Soviet forces invaded Poland from the east and the following day met the Germans at Brest-Litovsk. Warsaw withstood siege until September 27. Lublin, the last Polish stronghold, fell on October 5. Poland was partitioned formally by a Soviet-German treaty signed on September 29, with Germany receiving somewhat more territory than the Soviet Union.

The first demonstration of blitzkrieg was a complete success. It was decisive within a week, and eliminated a strong army in 36 days.