World War II Victors’ propaganda disseminated by palace publishers and ‘on-message’ media has created the illusion that Poland being far weaker than Hitler’s Reich was the vulnerable prey for ‘the Hitler hyena’. The same propaganda was spread after the Reich’s pre-emptive strike on Stalin’s despotic regime in 1941 which as is now known had a Red Army consisting of 4.6 million poised to overwhelm Europe before Germany pre-emptively struck and thus saved Europe from Soviet occupation.

Polish belligerence rested on its dreadful means of waging war. Poland’s war preparedness in 1939 was far ahead of Germany’s.  Over a period of twenty years, the Polish regime had created a one-million-man army.  Poland’s armed forces before the outbreak of WWII were far bigger than was the British Empire’s.  Poland possessed thirty fully modernised infantry divisions backed up by a National Defence of 100,000 National Reservists.

The Cavendish Encyclopaedia described Poland’s army as ‘one of the largest in the world’.  An armoured brigade of 300 tanks supported the Polish infantry. This puts the lie to the media myth that theirs was an operatic cavalry defence force.

The Poles did of course have 37 horse regiments. So did other nations at the time including Britain and the U.S. In 1939 over 50% of the German military defence system was horse drawn.

The Poles in the late 1930s operated a modern navy of five submarines, four destroyers, six minesweepers and a minelayer.  Poland’s navy continued to fight long after their capital fell in October 1939.  Over 6 months after the outbreak of war, on April 8, 1940, the German transport Rio de Janeiro was sunk in the Baltic by the Polish submarine Orzel.

The Poles had an air fleet of over 1,000 aircraft. These included long-range medium bombers, specifically designed not for defence but for invasion. The advanced P.37 ‘Elk’ medium bomber was considerably faster than its German counterpart the Heinkel HE 111 H-16 was.  The premier fighter of the Polish Air Force was the nimble PZL P.11.  It was more than a formidable adversary against its German equivalents.  The downing of 285 Luftwaffe aircraft during the brief campaign is testimony to Poland’s military airborne abilities.

Whilst some of Germany’s superior military achievements are highlighted, what is not mentioned is that, unlike Poland with just the one border to defend, Hitler’s Germany simultaneously needed to protect their western borders from the military threat and later declarations of war from France and Britain. In fact, before Germany occupied northern France in June 1940 to prevent a British cross channel invasion, France had twice invaded Germany and had been repelled.

The Poles did fight bravely.  They did so under the illusion that British and French promises to come to their aid would be fulfilled.  They were betrayed.  Having goaded Germany into war, giving the British and French governments the excuse to declare war on Germany, the Poles were abandoned.

The French did not have enthusiasm beyond talking a good fight. Britain failed to send the promised military hardware. In fact, they had little or nothing to send.  What does seem to be incomprehensible is that the aggressive but dim-witted Polish regime failed to ascertain that Britain had the military means to back up their promises.

Britain’s William Joyce, who gave his life to prevent war between Germany and Britain, was after the war sent to the gallows. He had wryly surmised that ‘England was fighting to the last Frenchman.’