WW2 - Germany vs Poland, 1939

On the 1st September of 1939 Germany invaded Poland and with that World War Two began. This video looks at the Polish campaign on an animated map and attempts to answer the question: Why did Poland fall so quickly?

This video uses the assets originally created for the World War Two channel:

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[ISniprJoeI]

Everytime I see a bunch of those army groups trying to retreat and getting encircled, I feel a sense of sadness.

[smorcrux]

I was trying to make a presentation about this war, and it was painstakingly difficult to look at all the little divisions and their strength and to map them in a way that will also explain the big picture, and this video does this so well! I have a new appreciation for these videos, somehow I like them even more than I did before. Wonderful job!

[rsic]

"So why did it take the germans only more than a month to completely defeat Poland?"
I would say landscape and lack of equipment, but they didn't do that bad. Even with a decent army they would still lose.
Poland has lasted for 35 days after invasion from West, North, South at the same time and from the East (after 17 of September)
Meanwhile France - the biggest army in Europe that time, has been attacked only from North-East and lasted "only" 46 days

[leonpaelinck]

Germany: *Invades Poland very fast, proving they're not to be underestimated*
France: *does nothing*
Germany: *Takes France in 1 mothh*
France: *surprised pickachu face*

[XXXXLance]

“Effective assistance to Poland”… well - Britain and France DID NOTHING :D

[jankubiak]

It also should be said that the British demanded that the Polish stop their mobilisation in mid-August, "because it would be a provocation for a German Attack", despite a German military buildup at the border. So Polish divisions were understrength at the beginning of the Campaign, as a consequence of the delayed mobilisation.

[Jean_Jacques]

Awesome video, now that you’ve covered most of Europe I’m exited for the Pacific campaign. It’s gonna be a blast.

[PePe-jyzy]

'so why was Poland defeated only in a month?' - tell it to french.

[mircowitch]

Great work as always! Now you almost got all of WW2 in Europe :)

[kamilszadkowski]

2:40 "The Allies had not expected the events to take place so quickly" --- As pointed out by Roger Moorhouse in his book "First to Fight", the promises of the Allies have been empty from the start. Thus they weren't as you claim, caught off guard by the quick German advance, as they never intended to help Poland.

[ik]

Poland was basically that guy in the party, who leads the way, hoping that his teammates will support him, yet finds himself completely alone while his team loots around in the area they have passed. He gets killed, then sits on the spectator cam, raging that his teammates abounded him, giving occasional tips on how to act.

[BinaryRex]

The reason I love your eastern front videos is not so much for the fact that they shed light on WW2, but more because they contain a lot of information pertinent to the Napoleon invasion of Russia. Thanks :)

[stasiowski]

As Polish guy I'm happy of this episode, because September campaign isn't popular in the West, although it begun war in Europe. There is also popular myth, that polish cavalry charged on tanks, it's not true, it was german propagnda to proove primitivity of polish army. It's a pity that the Allies didn't help us, maybe war would be shorter, but maybe not.

[jgnm]

Excellent research! Have watched so many videos and read books, but nobody even bother to explain the polish campaign. Thank a lot. Great video.

[LorenTR]

Thank you. Polish campaign operations are not covered in usual documentaries. Even the most detailed ones skimp the ground war at Poland. This episode was really needed.

[nogodsucksatgames]

Amazing video man! I came here as quick as i could to watch yet another astonishing video, cheers!👍👍🎉🥂

[Ksensei]

The best war history coverage channel on YouTube. Given enough troops on Patreon we may some day get coverage of English or French or Russian revolution.

[rc]

Glad I found this channel hope you got more videos in the works this was really well done. Most people get taught that Poland was steamrolled when in reality they put up a good fight under the circumstances.

[StrangerOman]

Very informative, it's always easier to understand individual parts of massive wars when you break them down to smaller conflicts and episodes.

[justnatsuki]

4:50 - On the soviet border there were some polish forces called "KOP" (Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza - Border Protection Corps
), so it wasn't totaly undefended