Unlike her allies, Poland was set for a hard fight, although
Polish leaders were sympathetic with the anti- Communist and
anti-Semitic policies of the Nazis. But the Poles greatly overestimated
their fighting strength. The generals expected to be
able to resist an attack for several months, whereas their troops
yielded within a few days to an overwhelming battering by the
German Panzer divisions.
Poland fell on 1 8 September when the Red Army entered the
fray. The government fled to Romania and the bulk of the Polish
army was captured. Under a secret protocol in the Russo-
German Pact, Poland was once again dissected by her larger
neighbours. Soviet Russia permanently reappropriated those
territories populated not by Poles but by Bielorussians and
Ukrainians which had belonged to her under the Tsars. She
also assumed authority over Lithuania. Germany annexed
Danzig, Poznania and Upper Silesia and expelled their Polish
communities. A nebulous state was allowed to survive around
Cracow and Warsaw, called the 'General Government , by the
Germans, which might later become 'Little Poland' and a vassal
of the Reich for use as a bargaining point in future negotiations
with the Allies.
The Allies, in fact, did not make the least attempt to rescue
Poland. Britain ignored her solemn undertaking, and did not
even consider the possibility of sending the Royal Navy into the
Baltic. The French army marched a few miles into the Saarand
then marched back. France and Great Britain seemed once again
incapable of supporting an ally. Their failure to act proved th.it
they were dangerously weak.
A more aggressive response mighthave been effective. The ( >r\
man generals, whose apprehensions were revealed Liter at the
Nuremberg trials, had left only a sprinkling ol troops to cover
the west. These were inadequately protected by the half-complete
Siegfried Line; the generals feared that such slight protection
could easily break down. The French, who were in the middle
of a heavy mobilization programme and had not the equipment
for a break-through, failed to take advantage of a chance that
would never recur.