World War II: 1939
World War II began when Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler invaded Poland on September 1st, 1939. This invasion was under the false pretext that Poland had orchestrated a series of sabotage operations against German targets along the border. The reality is actually the opposite, German commandos had staged pretend raids so as to give a casus belli for their invasion of Poland. Hitler, using the supposed attacks by the Poles as his reasoning, invaded Poland.
The major tactical innovation of the war was the use of combined arms warfare, typified by the German doctrine of blitzkrieg. In this style of warfare armor, infantry, artillery and air power (see Luftwaffe) all coordinate to achieve overwhelming superiority at point on the enemy lines. Armor and fast-moving infantry units then exploit the gap and penetrate deep behind enemy lines. Slower moving foot infantry would follow behind the motorized (later mechanised) and armored forces, securing their flanks in order to prevent encirclement. The objective is to cause a widespread collapse of the enemy's ability to fight. It was particularly effective during the early and middle stages of the war, before the Allies developed effective countermeasures.
On September 17th, the Soviet Union invaded Poland. Stalin had secured a ceasefire with Japan over the Khalkhin Gol incidents, allowing him to follow up on his promise to invade Poland from the east, as per the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The combined weight of German and Soviet forces sealed the inevitable. Poland surrendered on September 27th, following the fall of Warsaw. Remaining pockets of resistance were crushed and surrendered on October 6th.
Britain and France declared war on Germany two days after the invasion of Poland began. The Dominions of the British Commonwealth followed shortly after. Polish resistance would soon begin, and would continue throughout the entire war. Poland was divided between Germany and the USSR. Germany acquired the western regions, approximately 48.4% of the country.[1] The Soviet Union acquired the rest. About 270 sq. miles of land was given to Germany's puppet state Slovakia.
Operation Himmler and the Gleiwitz incident
Operation Himmler was a false flag operation planned by the SS and SD to create the appearance of a Polish attack on Nazi Germany. In doing so, Nazi propaganda used the "attacks"" as justification to go to war with Poland. Heinrich Himmler was the architect of the plan, Reinhard Heydrich supervised the planning, and Heinrich Müller was the overall manager. Himmler had the approval of Hitler for the duration of the operation.
