Poland 1939: The Outbreak of World War II

This book has been too long in coming. It’s a very well-written and insightful history of the tragic destruction of a country by two totalitarian regimes. And most of what you may have read about the two-sided invasion is likely false. (No, Polish cavalry did not charge Panzer tanks.)I can’t say it better than the author himself: “As the opening campaign of the Second World War—which cost some 200,000 lives and contained all the wicked hallmarks of the later conflict—it surely warrants our attention and understanding, rather than being passed over in a couple of paragraphs, or remaining still mired in the mythologies and propaganda battles of the vilest totalitarians of the twentieth century. Most of all, it is a story from which the voices of its primary victims—the Poles themselves—have been excluded for far too long. One hopes that this book might begin the process of restoring them to their own narrative.”A worthy addition to the library of any student of WW2.

The author succinctly tells the story of the betrayal of Poland by Britain and France and the rape of the country by the Germans and their ally, Russia. The Poles fought bravely against a superior force, and didn't give up until their ammunition and food were spent. A worthwhile read.

This book is gripping for its blend of eyewitness reports ranging from those of combatants on both side to journalists and you will feel yourself on the scene of each attack and counter-attack. The author does a magnificent job at showing that the Blitzkrieg, while ultimately successful, often met surprisingly strong opposition all across Poland. He's also very clear about Nazi atrocities against Poles from Day One, and explodes the myth of cavalry and sabers meeting each attack of tanks, thought cavalry could be surprisingly effective against infantry in a few instances.As a professional reviewer and someone who knows publishing from the inside, I found the editing on the weak side. The book needed more maps and more specific maps. We're told about the drive to escape to Romania but it's not clear where the crossing was going to be. Battle sites are mentioned but you can't find them on the maps that are available. Stuka's machine guns are described more than once as "chattering," which seems a bizarre choice. He says nothing about virulent Polish anti-Semitism and why that might have made some Jews welcome the Soviets. Celia Heller's On the Edge of Destruction is very explicit about how embattled Polish Jews were between the wars.It's a worthy read nonetheless.

This is a duplicate American edition of the 2019 title FIRST TO FIGHT. THE POLISH WAR 1939. The type is larger in the American edition. Otherwise, there is no difference whatsoever.

I much prefer campaign histories to the broad-sweep ones we usually get, but most of them are such hard going that they put me to sleep. A case in point is "Case White," which supposedly covers the same ground as Mr Moorhouse's "Poland 1939" (published last year in Britain as "First to Fight"). But what a difference! Both geographically and linguistically, Poland is always going to be a challenge for foreigners. The language is tough, with several letter variants that not only look a bit odd, but also radically change the pronunciation. Then too, in 1944-1946, Stalin ethnically cleansed the population and gave the country a great shove that sent it reeling over 100 miles to the west, so as to increase the borders of Soviet Russia and to shrink those of Germany, so that much of 1939 Poland is now part of Ukraine and Belarus, while some of today's Poland used to be part of Germany.Adding to the historian's difficulty is that both Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia (echoed today by Putin's Russia) unleashed their propaganda genius to demonize the Poles in Western eyes. Thus arose the myth that the Polish air force was destroyed on the ground, that Polish cavalry charged German tanks with their sabers raised, and that an invincible "Brlitzkrieg" tore through the country in a matter of days. The facts were very different, as Mr Moorhouse shows, and the same is true of the Russian myth that the Red Army intervened from the east only because the Polish government had ceased to exist, leaving the minority populations in need of protection, when Stalin's actual goal was to add half of Poland and all of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia to the Soviet Union.With good maps, good writing, and good use of first-hand accounts, this is a campaign history that reads like a novel.

Detailed look at a little discussed period World War Two, the dismemberment of Poland in September 1939. Very persuasive repudiation of myths about the German invasion of Poland written with a tone sympathetic to the underdogs. Well worth a read if you know nothing about this campaign and want to learn more.

Poland 1939: The Outbreak of World War II is a riveting read and shines a bright light on the outbreak of WWII. It puts the Polish people front and center showcasing their grit and valiant fight to save their nation. This book puts the Polish people in a new light and does not shy away from the atrocities inflicted on them by the Nazis. A thoroughly researched book and an enjoyable read.

An excellent recounting of the start of World War 2, being the invasion of Poland by both Nazi Germany AND Soviet Russia.

The book is a good reference for details of the camapign in Poland in 1939, which is a topic overdone on the political side and underdone on the combat side. For decades British history books begin the coverage of WW 2 with only events at sea in 1939, and the land conflict in May 1940. Why, for example did the famous UK book series 'The Ballantine Illustrated History' not devote one book, of the 60 or so issues, to the Polish Campaign in 1939? Tt was after all the start of WW2 and involved the Armies of four countries and over 5 million soldiers! The Battle of the Bzura River alone was an 11 day battle involving some 800,000 soldiers. One very important aspect of the 'Blitzkreig' type of warefare employed by the German military in the 'east', and one often purposefully ignored is the securing the German Armored columns supply lines in enemy territory with the policy of immediately murdering of all civilians in villages near those supply lines and the murder of P.O.W.'s and Polish wounded. The massive criminality of these methods that the German Army used to secure their new tactic of 'Blitzkreig' is in my experience always overlooked by modern historians. This book recounts many of these atrocities.

Thorough commentary on the invasions! and ethnic cleansing.