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Revision as of 13:21, 16 October 2003
The Polish September Campaign was the military operation which started World War II. On September 1, 1939, 04:45 local time, the German warship Schleswig-Holstein began taking the Polish enclave Westerplatte by the Baltic Sea under fire. Soon, German troops attacked Poland alongside its Western border. The largest battle during this campaign took place near the Bzura river west of Warsaw from September 09 to September 18. Warsaw itself was under siege from September 13 until its capitulation on September 28.
From September 17, 1939, the Red Army occupated the Eastern regions of Poland which have not yet been involved into military operations. The capitulation of the town of Kock (near Lublin) on October 6 marked the end of the September Campaign.
The September Campaign was codenamed Fall Weiß ("Case White") by the German Wehrmacht. Polish historians call it Wojna obronna 1939 ("Defense War of 1939"). It was the first military operation where tanks and aircraft (particularly fighters and bombers like the famous Junkers Ju87 "Stuka") played a major role. Bomber aircraft also attacked whole cities (Warsaw, for instance) causing huge losses amongst the civilian population.
By the end of the September Campaign, Poland was divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
The invasion of Poland lead to Britain and France declairing war on Germany on September 3.