World War: Grey Friday

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World War II began last week at 5:20 a. m. (Polish time) Friday, September 1, when a German bombing plane dropped a projectile on Puck, fishing village and air base in the armpit of the Hel Peninsula. At 5:45 a. m. the German training ship Schleswig-Holstein lying off Danzig fired what was believed to be the first shell: a direct hit on the Polish underground ammunition dump at Westerplatte. It was a grey day, with gentle rain.

In the War's first five days, hundreds of Nazi bombing planes dumped ton after ton of explosive on every city of any importance the length & breadth of Poland. They aimed at air bases, fortifications, bridges, railroad lines and stations, but in the process they killed upward of 1,500 noncombatants. The Nazi ships were mostly big Heinkels, unaccompanied by pursuit escorts. Germany admitted losing 21 planes to Polish counterattack by pursuits and antiaircraft. They claimed to have massacred more than half of a 47-plane Polish squadron which tried to bomb Berlin.

Out of a welter of sketchy bulletins, counter-claims and unpronounceable names (see col. j) flowing from Poland, the broad outlines of Germany's assault began to take shape. Recapture of what was Germany in 1914 was the first objective: Danzig, the Corridor, and a hump of Upper Silesia (see map, p. 19). It is believed that Adolf Hitler, if allowed to take and keep this much, might have checked his juggernaut at these lines for the time being. When Britain & France insisted that he withdraw entirely from Polish soil or consider himself at war with them, he determined on the complete shattering and subjugation of Poland. Ordering his other generals to hold the Western Front (see p. 28), he made the gesture of joining General von Brauchitsch "somewhere" on the Polish Front. There, by this week, the German offensive was focused in six main lines.

From East Prussia, one force moved on Grudziadz. After four days, it made contact with another force driving across the Corridor from the west to cut the Warsaw-Gdynia rail line. Also from East Prussia went a column aimed at Mlawa and Pultusk. Based on Breslau, a many-headed fourth Nazi onslaught was launched toward Lodz, Kielce and Cracow. Based on Bratislava in Slovakia, a fifth and sixth spearhead were driven up through the Jablonka Pass and over the steep Tatras to the East. Radomska, Czestochowa, Katowice, Teschen and Nowy Targ were the first targets of these southwestern assaults. German commanders claimed to be taking all objectives "on schedule," while the Polish defenders reported repeated counterattacks and recaptures.

Grand strategy of the Polish Armies was to retire slowly, conserve manpower, shorten their lines. Their Western stand was to be on a line running south from Torun to Czestochowa. From there South to behind Teschen they had a fortified front which the German divisions must crack or outflank.

As the mechanized German units advanced, the Smigly (nimble) cavalry of Generalissimo Smigly-Rydz swept around them to get at the German infantry. Poles claimed that successful counterattacks of this nature had carried the fighting to German soil on the west, in the neighborhood of Breslau and, in the north, over the East Prussian border below Allenstein. For this week, a major battle loomed as the Poles fell back upon prepared positions along the Narew River.