This month marks 80 years since… the German invasion of Poland. The conflict would take a terrible toll on the country…
.
‘The Polish army was actually rather good in general comparative terms to other armies at the time. It was about a million men. It had a good number of relatively modern aircraft & relatively modern tanks… [but] it was facing the Germans, who were the most technologically advanced military machine… at the time. But yes… there are some really quite spectacular & bitter pitched battles in this campaign of 36 days… They fought very hard.
.
‘[In] the Western narrative… the Soviets are generally seen through the lens of the Grand Alliance… But for the period between 1939 & June of 1941, Stalin is effectively in cahoots with Hitler… With the Nazi-Soviet pact… another aspect that the Western historiography really doesn’t talk about as much as it should – the two had effectively made common cause…
.
‘The Poles have the largest underground resistance movement in WW2, which is something that again I don’t think we fully appreciate…
.
‘For ordinary Poles… living effectively under the jackboot of the Nazi regime… could be very capricious. You could be taken out & shot, for example, for hiding Jews… If you were a Polish family & they found someone in your loft, the entire family would be shot. So, it’s an extremely difficult world for Poles to be living in…
.
‘Poland has a fascinating & rich but very, very difficult history. Of course, WW2, you’ve got this massive sort of sacrifice… 1 in 5 of the population are killed… They have the highest per capita death toll of any nation… There’s no family in Poland that is unaffected by this…
.
‘And even going back beyond that… the whole of Poland’s modern history is studded with these risings against foreign powers & brave but futile defenses against superior odds. And then of course, the war finishes, & Poland is… doomed to 40 years… behind the Iron Curtain until communism falls in 1989. So, I say Poland’s modern history is not short on horrors, but WW2… is the biggest horror of all, & it’s one that I think the Poles rightly perceive that the outside world doesn’t quite understand well enough.’
.
~ Alex Ashlock
.
‘The Polish army was actually rather good in general comparative terms to other armies at the time. It was about a million men. It had a good number of relatively modern aircraft & relatively modern tanks… [but] it was facing the Germans, who were the most technologically advanced military machine… at the time. But yes… there are some really quite spectacular & bitter pitched battles in this campaign of 36 days… They fought very hard.
.
‘[In] the Western narrative… the Soviets are generally seen through the lens of the Grand Alliance… But for the period between 1939 & June of 1941, Stalin is effectively in cahoots with Hitler… With the Nazi-Soviet pact… another aspect that the Western historiography really doesn’t talk about as much as it should – the two had effectively made common cause…
.
‘The Poles have the largest underground resistance movement in WW2, which is something that again I don’t think we fully appreciate…
.
‘For ordinary Poles… living effectively under the jackboot of the Nazi regime… could be very capricious. You could be taken out & shot, for example, for hiding Jews… If you were a Polish family & they found someone in your loft, the entire family would be shot. So, it’s an extremely difficult world for Poles to be living in…
.
‘Poland has a fascinating & rich but very, very difficult history. Of course, WW2, you’ve got this massive sort of sacrifice… 1 in 5 of the population are killed… They have the highest per capita death toll of any nation… There’s no family in Poland that is unaffected by this…
.
‘And even going back beyond that… the whole of Poland’s modern history is studded with these risings against foreign powers & brave but futile defenses against superior odds. And then of course, the war finishes, & Poland is… doomed to 40 years… behind the Iron Curtain until communism falls in 1989. So, I say Poland’s modern history is not short on horrors, but WW2… is the biggest horror of all, & it’s one that I think the Poles rightly perceive that the outside world doesn’t quite understand well enough.’
.
~ Alex Ashlock
