On 13 January 1943, at a conference in Casablanca, United States president Franklin Delano Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided that the war with Germany should end with the unconditional surrender of the 3rd Reich. Joseph Stalin, besides the leader of the USSR, agreed later.
On 7 May 1945, at 2.41, in General Dwight Eisenhower's quarters in Reims, France, the commander of the Allied expeditionary forces in Europe, a typical of General Walter-Bedel Smith, in the presence of russian General Ivan Susłoparov, accepted the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht, which, under the authority of the fresh Reich president, the large admiral (the equivalent of the Field Marshal) Karl Donitz, anointed for this function by Hitler himself, was signed by General Alfred Jodl, Chief of Staff of the OKW (the chief authority of the Wehrmacht). He was besides accompanied by Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. The present general of the French army acted only as a witness, and the French flag was besides forgotten. It was a kind of rematch, for agreeing to ceasefire with Germany in 1940 and later collaborations of the Vichy government.
Stalin, however, did not like it, the dictator in the Kremlin felt that this act should be given a higher rank. emphasizing the most crucial function of the USSR in defeating the 3rd Reich.
On May 8, 1945, in the office of Marshal Gieorgija Żukov, in the Berlin territory of Karlshorts, this "ceremony" was repeated in the presence of American General Carl-Andrew Spaatz and British Air Marshal Arthur Tedder as well as French General Jean de Luttere de Tassigna (who was graciously allowed to the delegation for Russian intervention), there was an act of signing unconditional surrender of the German armed forces.
The German delegation was chaired by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, the head of the OKW, who had to wait a long time before he was allowed to enter the hall. He entered in unbelievably, with the marshal's bush and attached with a gold, honorary badge of NSDAP. The officers of the winning organization did not respond to his military salute with a bull. Keitl was accompanied by Gen Hans Jurgen Stumpff of Luftwaffe. Feldmarszałek Keitel had to sign the submitted paper of unconditional surrender of the German troops without discussion, but he did not refrain from taking any announcement of the French general, referring to the unprecedented defeat of France in 1940. From the russian side, Marshal Zukov played the leading role, as Stalin expected. The area was full of Russian photojournalists.
The paper was signed late on the night of May 8, 1945, but Moscow was already on May 9, hence the difference in the date of the end of the war in Europe. Thus ended the bloodiest war, which began on September 1, 1939, with the German assault on Poland. But planet War II ended only after the unconditional surrender of the nipponese Empire – 2 September 1945.
It is worth noting that both high-ranking German soldiers Keitel and Jodl were sentenced by the global Military Court in Nuremberg to death punishment by hanging. The Court refused to accept their request to replace the execution of the conviction by shooting and were hanged as war criminals due to the fact that they had signed Hitler's order to shoot captured Red Army commissioners, which was contrary to the German ratified conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war. In this context, it is appropriate to ask why the russian Union did not endure any consequences for the execution of about 15,000 Polish officers in 1940, taken prisoner after the Russian assault on Poland in 1939. But winners are not judged.
The Second planet War, launched on 1 September 1939 by Germany's assault on Poland, was the largest and bloodiest war in human history. Germany, Italy and militaristic Japan are liable for its call, as well as in a certain dimension and the russian Union, which includes a deal called the ‘Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact’ along with the secret
protocol – he dared Hitler to attack Poland, which started the planet war. The war spread to nearly the full world, involving 61 countries, out of 67 then existing, with a population of about 1.7 million (80% of the global population) The war was fought mainly in Europe, as well as in North Africa, Asia, the Pacific, the Atlantic. During these six years, the dramatic and bloody struggles of immense armies equipped with modern war equipment, and the final phase of war with Japan, even atomic weapons were utilized in August 1945. A full of about 100 million soldiers were appointed to arms. War was fought on land, seas and oceans and in the air. Initially, the 3rd Reich in pursuit of the doctrine of lightning war rapidly took over Poland, Denmark Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia, Greece as well as crucial areas of the russian Union.
In the war, coalitions were formed from the beginning, the formation of the large Coalition with Britain and the United States was crowned, and later the USSR joined it. Poland from the beginning of the war, from 1939 until its end in 1945, was an active associate in the anti-Hitler coalition, due to the fact that despite the September defeat, it did not sign any act of surrender and the Polish army fought alongside the Allies on all fronts: in the west and east, and in the occupied country it operated and fought a strong opposition movement, 1 of the most many in Europe.
The Second planet War brought large losses and demolition to humanity: about 55 million people lost their lives, about 35 million injured or mutilated. Direct war spending amounted to $1,154 billion, which amounted to about 70% of the national income of the states active in the war. Material losses due to war harm in Europe are estimated at $260 billion, according to the course at the time. In this context, Polish war losses both human and material were the highest, which will be mentioned.
It should be arrogant to emphasise that Poland has made a immense contribution to the work of defeating the 3rd Reich, despite the business of the territory through almost the full war and found itself in 5th place after the United States, USSR, large Britain and France. Poland's participation was characterized by conspiracy activities in the occupied country and fighting regular military formations on the western and east fronts. The Polish soldier fought on land, sea and air, the longest of all states – from 1 September 1939 to 8 May 1945, due to the fact that despite the defeat suffered with 2 enemies in 1939, no Polish government and the Chief Leader signed surrenders or ceasefires with Germany.
The military and the Polish state, first, resisted Hitler and thus ended the bloodless German conquest, as happened earlier in Rhineland, Austria Czechoslovakia and Klaipeda. In 1939, Poland exhibited over 900 1000 armies and the business of Poland was not a walk for the Wehrmacht, but a bloody conflict in which more than 9 1000 German soldiers fell, including even Colonel Colonel Werner von Fritsch (former commander of OKH) and about 27 1000 suffered wounds. 1,000 tanks and armored cars, 300 aircraft and quite a few ammunition were besides destroyed. Following the failure of the defensive battle, the Polish government was created in France, to which many officers and soldiers were made. The Western Front was launched by the Self-Sagittarius Brigade of Carpathian Rifles close Narvik, Norway, and in the defence of France in 1940 fought in the form of Poles: 1.Division of Grenadiers, 2nd Division of Piesze Rifles, 10th Brigade of the Armored Cavalry, a full of more than 55,000 soldiers, excluding Polish aviation. After the defeat of France, the emigration government with Prime Minister and Chief Chief General Władysław Sikorski and part of the army, in full 17 thousand, entered Britain, where Polish airmen and Polish warships had already fought. In Palestine, however, the Carpathian firearm Brigade was deployed – about 4,000 soldiers. Polish soldiers in the Islands, organized in the 1st Polish Corps and grouped in Scotland were to defend the coast from German invasion. On the another hand, Polish pilots from the 302 squadrons, and in peculiar 303 took an active and very effective part in the conflict of England, dropping about 12% of all German aircraft shot down. And the airmen from the 300 and 301 squadrons bombed German territory.
After the German attack on the russian Union, under force from Prime Minister Churchill, the Polish government in exile in London, established diplomatic relations with the Soviets, with whom besides a military agreement was signed to establish in the USSR a Polish army consisting of Polish prisoners captured by the Red Army after 17 September 1939 and Polish exiles. The name was initially formed by 2 infantry divisions and a spare regiment, under General Władysław Anders, released from russian prison. The military formed in Russia was to be subject to the Polish government and after training and equipment was to fight with the Red Army with a common enemy. However, the Russians failed to comply with the agreement, it was an army independent of the russian authorities that clearly hampered them. They did not want to uncover where about 15,000 Polish officers were captured by the Soviets and imprisoned in 3 POW camps. They could not admit that they were murdered in 1940. In addition, they wanted to send Polish troops to the front as shortly as possible, despite the fact that Poles were not ready to fight. Gen. Anders, who knew the mentality of the Russians (who was an officer of the Tsar army reserve), rescued Poles from certain deaths, led, with the approval of the British authorities and Stalin, to decision Polish troops and respective 1000 Polish civilians from “inhuman land” in 1942 to Iran.
After “feeding off” and curing these people, besides from trauma, after spending respective years in this “Soviet paradise” Gen. Anders trained and reorganized Polish troops in the mediate East in a modern operational union – the 2nd Polish Corps. At the turn of 1943/1944, the 2nd Corps was transported from Egypt to confederate Italy. The Polish Corps consisted of: 3rd Karpacki firearm Division, 5th Kresowa Infantry Division, 2nd Armoured Brigade and units of artillery, bombers, communications, a full of 46 1000 soldiers, 160 tanks, 380 guns and 9 1000 cars and motorcycles. 2. The Corps passed in Italy a glorious conflict trail: Monte Cassino, Loreto, Ankona and finished in Bologna, as early as 1945. A full of 4199 Poles remainder on the Polish War Cemetery on Monte Cassino, Loreto, Casamassima and Bologna.
Meanwhile, in the UK, a modern 1st Panzer Division was formed, commanded by Gen. Stanisław Maczek and the Self-Spadochronic Brigade with Gen. Stanisław Sosabowski. Division gene. Maczka fought in France, among others celebrated for her conflict of Falaise and liberated Holland and, after the war ended, she took part in the German occupation. On the another hand, Polish paratroopers participated in the marketplace Garden landing operation and fought under Arnhem.
We should besides remember about Polish military formations fighting on the east front, subject to operational command of the Red Army. On the initiative of Polish communist activists led by Wanda Vasilevska, focused in the Union of Polish Patriots, after General Anders' Army left the USSR and with Stalin's permission, the formation of the Polish 1st Infantry Division named T. Kościuszko was initiated. Polish communists had their intent – they planned to install a communist government in the liberated Poland with this army. But soldiers' masses, made up of Poles who had previously "not made it to Anders" wanted to fight Germany for the liberation of Poland from Nazi occupation. Stalin appointed Lieutenant Colonel Sigismund Berling as commander of the 1st Division, (soon named General), a deserter from the Army of Anders, a pre-war Polish officer, awarded the Order of Virtuti Militari for the Polish–bolshevik War in 1920, to emphasize the Polish character of the troops formed in the russian Union. It was a tricky game due to the fact that the russian officers, dressed in Polish uniforms, took key positions in the military, and Polish officers were truly missing due to the fact that they were murdered by the NKVD in 1940 and the surviving left with Anders. due to the fact that Poles were constantly coming to the army, due to the fact that it was an chance to leave the “Soviet paradise”, the division was shortly converted into the Polish Corps and then into the 1st Polish Army in the formation of the 3 infantry divisions, 4 artillery brigades, and after the liberation of the east Polish territories – the fresh power – PKWN announced mobilizations and started forming the 2nd Army of the WP. In total, the state of ‘reborn’ (this name was utilized by the fresh authorities) The Polish army increased to about 400,000 soldiers. The chief commander was the gene. Michał Rola-Żymierski (a pre-war general demoted for embezzlement) shortly appointed Marshal of Poland and obedient to the fresh communist power.
Apart from politics, soldiers of the later alleged "people's" Polish Army recorded a noble tradition fighting for liberation of Polish lands from German occupation. Polish artillery fought over Turia and Bug, Polish soldiers forced the Vistula River under Dęblin and Puławy, fought in a self-sacrifice at the Warecko-Magnuszewski bay, liberated the right-shore Warsaw- Prague, troops of the 2nd Infantry Division, after the Vistula River were trying to support Warsaw insurgents at the Żoliborski and Czerniakowski bay, unfortunately unsuccessfully.
On 17 January 1945, Poles liberated the destroyed Warsaw, at the end of January 1945, after crossing the pre-war Polish-German border, the 1st Army began dense fighting to win the Pomorskie Wall, where it suffered dense losses. Soldiers of the 16th Infantry Regiment, west of Kołobrzeg, reached the shores of the Baltic, where Poland was married to the sea. In March, fighting for the Kołobrzeg, which was captured, but was occupied with large losses, more than 1,000 soldiers were killed, unfortunately the russian soldier's life meant little. Gdańsk was besides captured in March, which fell out of the Republic of Poland in the Second Partition, in 1793. Later, as part of the operation of the Berlin Red Army, Poles forced Oder. It is worth emphasizing the fact that Polish border posts were placed on Oder and Nysa Lusatia by the WP soldiers, which could have been any facts made prior to the formal designation by the Allied Polish border with Germany. Meanwhile, the 2nd Army of the Polish Army fought a bloody fight in Lusatia close Budziszyn, where it suffered large losses, including due to the inept command by General Karol Świerczewski and a crucial German advantage. On the another hand, the 1st Infantry Division completed its combat way in the capital of the 3rd Reich – Berlin. It should besides be mentioned that after the liberation of Polish lands – soldiers took part in a large action of demining the country, which attracted quite a few fatalities.
Irrespective of the fights of regular Polish military formations on the fronts of the Second planet War, there was besides a 3rd front of the fight, i.e. the opposition on the Polish lands occupied by the Germans. Even at the end of the September campaign, on September 27, 1939 a secret organization under the name of the Polish triumph Service was established in Warsaw, shortly renamed the Armed Forces Union. In April 1940 a government exposition in exile was established in occupied Warsaw under the name of the Delegation of the Polish Government to the Country. Since there were many different armed organizations, on 14 February 1942 General Władysław Sikorski ordered a calibre action and established 1 military organization under the name of the Home Army headed by General Stefan Rowecki “Grot” The AK included among others the Peasants Battalions, the WRN People's defender (not to be confused with the Communist GL) Apart from the AK there were NSZ and of course GL and later AL, subordinate to the Communist PPR. The AK numbered about half a million sworn soldiers who were preparing for the general armed uprising (The Storm Action) in the event of the Wehrmacht defeat on the fronts. There was besides a fight going on by specialised troops (Kedyw), – eliminating traitors, confiscationists and German executioners of the Polish nation. The AK besides released a conspiracy press behind the celebrated Information Bulletin. Various “forest” troops were organized, even the 27 Volynska Division of the AK was formed to defend the Polish population in the Kresach. In addition to military organizations, the Polish Underground State functioned, which prepared the civilian administration staff to take office after the war, there was a judiciary that issued judgments on Poles and Germans who acted against the Polish people. There was besides a secret teaching to the liquidation of secondary schools and universities. The culmination of the armed conflict with the occupier was carried out by the Storm Action, which resulted in the attack of retreating from the oppressive Soviets – Germans, frequently supporting Red Army soldiers. After entering the liberated Polish areas of russian troops, the commander of the AK and local representatives of the Polish administration were to welcome the commanders of the Red Army as hosts and the Polish legal power. However, they were ignored and frequently even arrested by “liberators” The largest military action of the AK in the occupied country was the Warsaw Uprising, the largest action of the Polish underground in the full German-occupied Europe. The occupiers had to keep large police and military forces in occupied Polish territories, in order to guarantee peace in the back of the east front and to keep the safety of the communication routes, especially the railways, as well as in securing enforcement of the provision of various duties on the Polish population, especially food quotas. Therefore, the maintenance of the business apparatus had to take place at the expense of weakening the military's possible on the fronts, and the occupiers were besides killed at the hands of the resistance. It is not easy to calculate the losses of business forces in Poland, but the calculations of historians show that about 150 1000 police officers, gendarmes, SS officers and German soldiers were killed in the fight against the Polish resistance. Around 10,000 Germans and their collaborators died in the Warsaw Uprising itself.
Poland, which has been at war with Germany the longest, despite all the disadvantages, can be satisfied with our contribution to the work of victory. In total, we exhibited about 600 1000 soldiers: 200 1000 in the Polish Armed Forces in the west and nearly 400 1000 in the east. It should be taken into account that Poland was occupied for almost 6 years and cut off from the base of supplements. Technically, we're in a winning camp.
However, our war effort had a measurable price. The area of the state shrunk from 390 1000 square kilometres to 312,000, or 22%. The Polish population decreased from 35.3 million in 1938 to 23.9 million in 1946. (within fresh boundaries). 6440 1000 people died, including a small over a million as a consequence of the war, the remainder – 5,384,000 as a consequence of the extermination, including more than half of Jews – Polish citizens. (according to Prof. Paweł Wieczorkiewicz). The victims of russian crimes are estimated at about 750 1000 (dead, murdered and dead) As a consequence of the planned activities of the occupiers, intelligence was decimated, for example in a group of lawyers 58% and doctors 47%. These professions were dominated by citizens of Polish judaic origin. The material harm is estimated at 38% of national assets, including agriculture and manufacture at 50%, corresponding to the value of about $50 billion at the time. No another state has suffered specified a loss, but possibly the USSR.
Despite all this, I personally believe that Poland did not lose this war, as any malcontents effort to admit. There are besides few, fortunately, historians who believe that Poland should ally with Germany, join the anti-comintern pact and march together on the USSR. Hitler, being Austrian, unlike the Prussians, did not initially resent Poles, which is why he truly sought this alliance through Ribbentrop. Even after the death of Marshal Pilsudski, he declared a national mourning in Germany, but Minister Józef Beck remembered the will of the Marshal so as not to associate with any of the large neighbours and answered Hitler – NO !. And then it was decided to attack Poland. In total, Germany lost the war and it would be much worse for us, Poles, if an alliance with the 3rd Reich had come to fruition.
It was unfortunate that Poland lost its sovereignty for 45 years, but maintained its own statehood, unlike the Baltic States. Moreover, the USSR unfairly committed war reparations for Poland from the defeated Germany, due to the fact that by decision of the large Three, Russia was to waive any of its compensation. The USSR authorities hypocritically explained that Stalin led to the granting of Poland crucial territorial acquisitions in the west and north (hence specified a division of reparations), forgetting to add that the Soviets took half of Poland before the war.
But there were besides positives. Lands awarded to Poland as compensation for lost Kresy: Pomerania with Gdańsk and Szczecin, Silesia with Wrocław and Opole and the Warmia Region Mazurski, nevertheless arealy smaller than the taken Kresy, however, presented a large value. The decision of the victorious powers to displace German people was besides very beneficial. This proved that the alleged ‘Recovered Land’ was granted to the Polish State. Despite Poland's deprivation of much of its sovereignty by the USSR, however, all communist political principles have not been copied in Poland. There was no collectivisation of agriculture, any tiny manufacturing and trade in private hands, despite attempts to restrict the Catholic Church retained a large influence on Polish society, and the military chaplains and military parishes (financed by MON) continued throughout the period of the Polish People's Republic- which caused large surprise (and possibly jealousy) of officers of another armies of the Warsaw Pact (I know this from the autopsy) Despite so many years of indoctrination and propaganda, Poles in partially free elections in June 1989 showed their reluctance to the communist system.
In this context, despite all the conditions that the Polish state and Poles had no influence on, especially from today's position – I believe that Poland is besides the beneficiary of this large triumph and defeat of Nazi Germany and their allies.
—
Literature:
- Military Encyclopedia, technological edition of PWN and “Bellona” Warsaw 2007
- Wieczorkiewicz Paweł "Polish political past 1935 – 1945" KiW Warszawa 2005
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