Week 30: World War II IDs

The September Campaign

• Carried out by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small German-allied Slovak contingent in 1939.
•  Marked the start of World War ll in Europe.
• It began one week after the signing of the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on September 1, 1939.
• After a German staged Polish attack on august 31, 1939, German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west.
• After a Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, Germans gained an advantage.
• On September 17, 1939 the Soviet Red Army invaded the eastern regions of Poland in cooperation with Germany. The Soviet attack was part of the secret appendix of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
• On October 1, 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union had overrun Poland.
• Poland was evacuated and all the troops went to nuetral Romania. Poland's other lands evacuated to Romania and Hungary.
• Some of the banished people joined the recreated Polish Army in alliled France, French-mandated Syria, and the United Kingdom.
• The invasion ended on October 6, 1939 with Germany and the Soviet Union occupying Poland.

                                                                           Invasion of Poland, Fall 1939                                                                 

                                                            German troops on a Polish border checkpoint