Chapter 165

The next day, after her intended cooperation with the Soviet Union, Merkel left the rest of the work to her diplomats. In order to keep secret, he himself got on the return flight that day.

In 1937, as soon as German Foreign Minister Merkel rushed back to Germany, she was impatient to summon the Polish ambassador to Germany. The call left the Polish, Lipsky, on pins and needles. The German summoned Czechoslovakia's ambassador, but Czechoslovakia was annexed; The German summoned the Austrian ambassador, and the same thing happened to the Austrian; Not long ago, the Germans called in the Hungarian ambassador, and now Hungary is a German Province - although Britain and France have not yet recognized this fact.

But poles are confident that the Germans have no reason to be afraid. The relationship with Germany has never been so good. The 10-year non aggression treaty signed between the two countries in 1929 will not expire for more than one year. As one of the contents of a trade agreement recently signed, Poland is still a MFN country. So Lipsky accepted Merkel's call this time.

However, the poles themselves do not know that they took advantage of the Czechoslovak problem and stole a piece of land called Teqing, which made Britain and France very angry and shaken their determination to support Poland.

However, the poles still think that all the trumps are in their own hands, because although Britain and France wavered in their determination to protect Poland, they still declared their fundamental position of supporting Poland. The new government in London issued a statement: "once any act clearly threatens Poland's independence, and the Polish government believes that life and death are at stake and must resist with national strength, Britain and France will assist Poland and safeguard Poland's unity and independence."

However, the British statement obviously angered the Soviets. Stalin responded to the British government's statement that afternoon: "how ridiculous it is for remote Western Europe, a once glorious but now extremely weak country, to interfere in the desire of the people of the world for *"

At this time, the German head of state akkado's statement was very interesting. He did not mention any issues about Poland, but everyone knew what he wanted to do: "no one can threaten the great German people. The national defense forces are ready for everything, if someone wants to use his power to compete with Germany in a violent way, The German people will accept this challenge. "

The next day, in order to make Germany seriously consider the Polish issue, the French government also stood up and expressed its attitude. The French visited Poland and made it clear to the poles that once the war between Germany and Poland broke out, France would immediately carry out air strikes against Germany and carry out containment ground attacks three days later, And within 15 days of the outbreak of the war, an all-out war was launched to invade Germany.

At the same time, the British also promised their Polish allies that the RAF would attack Germany and bomb important targets in Germany, and that the British ground forces would implement the plan of assisting Poland from the Black Sea.

With the assurance of the two countries, Poland reviewed its combat forces again. Polish generals are optimistic that they can defeat Germany and the Soviet Union, because they defeated the invading Soviet army in 1920. Their brave and well-trained infantry will hold down the enemy, use a large number of permanent fortifications on the border to make the enemy suffer, until the powerful Polish cavalry interposes behind the enemy and cuts off the other party's supply line and command system - all of which are almost the replica of the Soviet Polish war in 1920.

In order to achieve this goal, Poland has mobilized all over the country for war, with more than 1.95 million troops and 700000 reserves. Germany's military strength is more complicated. After one year's expansion and training, Germany has 1.44 million troops on the first line. This figure does not include 70000 troops from the four divisions of the SS, and 690000 troops on the second line that cannot be used for attack.

In fact, Poland does not seem to have an advantage in two-line operations. However, in Germany's operational plan, the total number of troops attacking Poland is limited to 900000, while the remaining troops are deployed at home and on the German French border.

As a result, the strength of Poland's western front is 1.2 million Polish troops and their 400000 reserves, against 900000 German troops and their 190000 reserve forces. Poland has an advantage of nearly 500000 troops.

Behind the huge advantages of personnel, there are some surprising defects. As a result, none of the 20 army commanders has received training in modern warfare. In terms of communication, the Polish Army relies on a small number of civilian telephone and telegraph networks, which are very old and backward.

In terms of equipment, the Polish armored forces with 800 tanks look powerful, but they are all old French models, as well as polish domestic Shanzhai tanks made by imitating British tanks. And these tanks have not formed a tank cluster, but scattered in the infantry.

Poland's field artillery equipment is the best. It has a copy of France's excellent 77mm cannon, but other heavy artillery is unfortunately out of date. Modern 105mm and 155mm howitzers are transported very slowly, and it is difficult to keep up with the pace of the army. What is more tragic is that none of these artillery regiments has a complete transportation system.

Thirty years ago, the Polish Air Force had the world's most powerful fighters, which once made the Germans sleep and eat. But they are now completely out of date. The top speed of these pzl-p11 fighters is only 400 kilometers per hour, more than half of that of the German fw-190d fighters. Therefore, the 1000 fighter planes of the Polish air force are not rivals of the German air force. The Polish air force seems to be lagging behind: the German Air Force has 813 fw-190d fighters and 411 me-109a fighters; A total of 702 Stuka dive bombers, as well as more than 500 d-217 bombers - two thirds of the 2400 German Air Force aircraft - will be transferred to the east to participate in the Polish campaign. And the defense plan of the Polish army is not so perfect. The generals wanted to block every direction of attack by German and Soviet forces, and to block every possible route of attack by their forces. They prepared a large number of cavalry to fight back when the German army retreated under the pressure of the British and French forces. So the poles dispersed the forces of seven groups on the German Polish border, and the other five groups were deployed on the Soviet Polish border. This defense plan was not given to the French chief of staff, Maurice? General kammerlin left no impression. He tried to persuade Poland to give up some areas to strengthen the defense of its important areas, but this effort failed because of the obstinacy of the poles. Poles don't want to give up the densely populated agricultural areas of the West and industrial cities within hours of the war. They fear that doing so will wipe out their resistance. And Britain also preferred Poland's determination to fight. On the night of July 18, 1937, the Treaty of non aggression between the Soviet Union and Germany was officially signed. The Soviet Union finally made concessions. According to the German opinion, within one month after the Soviet Union attacked Poland, Germany would not attack Poland. With this guarantee, the Soviet Union decided to take the lead in launching a war to recover its defeat in 1920. The two countries kept the contents of the treaty strictly confidential and agreed not to recognize the existence of the treaty before 1938. On July 20, 1937, with the guarantee of the Treaty of non aggression between the Soviet Union and Germany, the Red Army of the Soviet Union, after 10 months of preparation, began to attack the eastern border of Poland in an all-round way. This move caught Britain and France by surprise. The fear that Germany would take risks was replaced by the fear that the Red Army of the Soviet Union would enter the hinterland of Europe. However, what surprised people was that the first comprehensive attack was easily defeated by the poles. The Soviet Red Army met the tenacious resistance of the defenders when it advanced 7 kilometers into Poland. The brave Polish army even launched a partial counterattack. The 400000 first echelon Soviet Red Army lost their helmets and armor and suffered heavy losses. The Soviet army has never suffered such huge losses. About 40000 people were killed, more than 70000 people were injured, more than half of the weapons were lost, half of the 200 tanks involved in the attack were destroyed, and most of the seemingly powerful new tanks, KV-1, were forced to be discarded due to mechanical failure. The inexperienced Soviet air force and Polish air force launched a bloody fight for air supremacy at low altitude. Within three days, there were seven large-scale air battles involving dozens of aircraft. The Polish air force suffered heavy losses because of its old aircraft, and the Soviet air force did not take advantage of it. The war damage ratio of the two sides remained at the level of one to one. Later, Stalin, who became angry with him, mobilized the reserve forces of the Soviet Red Army. 700000 troops stormed into Poland, and the war escalated in an all-round way. With the support of Britain and France, the Polish garrison beat the rhythm of the Soviet Polish war in 1920 and beat the second attack of the Soviet Red Army in one breath. Just when Poland was full of confidence and the Soviet Red Army was in a mess, something happened that made Britain and France angry. German head of state akkado? Rudolph made a public speech on the radio, hoping that Poland would give up the Danzig corridor and let Germany complete the formal and comprehensive reunification“ Germany should not let others do whatever they want in their own territory! Although we have experienced humiliation, we will not let it accompany us forever! Every one of the German people has the sacred duty to safeguard the territorial integrity of the motherland! The Danzig corridor is a sacred and integral part of German territory. " Akado said in a radio speech. In response, 300000 people in Berlin took to the streets and marched, shouting: "long live the great Germany! The great head of state, akado? Long live Rudolph The next day, the Polish government rejected the unreasonable request of the German head of state, claiming that there was no need for negotiation on the Danzig corridor issue, probably because the Eastern Front War was going very smoothly, or because of the impending large-scale aid from Britain and France, or because of the blind confidence in Britain and France's commitment to protect Poland.