Eighty years ago, German propaganda creates a legend whilst Stalin reaps the rewards of utmost cynicism
The Polish
army launched a major counter-attack against the German invasion, which led to
the largest and most bloody single battle of the Polish campaign, the Battle of
Bzura. It saw the last full-scale use of cavalry as a battlefield arm, but, contrary
to legend, the Polish cavalry performed effectively on the German flanks. The spurious image of horsemen charging tanks was an appealing one for German propagandists, keen to trumpet German superiority in all things. The thrust to the west of
Warsaw did achieve some initial success but was quickly pushed back. The Poles
lost some 20,000 men and the Germans 8,000. The Polish army fell back towards
Warsaw, but the city was already practically surrounded.
The
undeclared war between Japan and the Soviet Union in the east, which had
reached its most intense in the full-scale battle of Nomonhan on the Khalkin
Gol came to an end with s signed cease-fire. The Soviet victory at Nomonhan had
played some part in persuading Stalin to sign the non-aggression pact with
Hitler. The cease-fire was widely rumoured but was not admitted to. Thus ended
the conflict between Japan and the Soviet Union until 1945 when Stalin decided
to share the easy spoils of the defeat of the Japanese empire. It was
conveniently ignored by those who later clamoured for the British and Americans
to open a “second front” against the Axis that the Soviet Union had firmly
ducked out of fighting the Japanese, leaving the western powers to bear the
entire brunt for almost four years.
The removal
of the Japanese threat on the eastern frontier was enough for Stalin to decided
to stand by his secret agreement with Hitler and make absolutely sure that
Poland was beaten. Under the thinnest pretexts imaginable – that Poland had
vanished as a state and that the resulting instability threatened the USSR –
the Soviets invaded from the East. The Polish army did its best – vainly – to resist
and the Soviets quickly reached the demarcation line agreed in Moscow. Poland
was partitioned for the fourth time.
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