Blitzkrieg September 1, 1939: a new kind of warfare engulfs Poland

. . . As the clever hopes expire

Of a low dishonest decade:

Waves of anger and fear

Circulate over the bright

And darkened lands of the earth

-- SEPTEMBER 1, 1939, by W.H. AUDEN

(c) 1940 by W.H. Auden. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.

Treachery, lies and murder -- those were the hallmarks of Adolf Hitler's launching of World War II. The German Wehrmacht had its orders to invade Poland at dawn of Sept. 1, 1939, but the first killings actually occurred the night before near a border town called Gleiwitz. There German SS troops took twelve prisoners...