Play as · WW2 1939 · L3 · Allies
Poland - 1939
Poland in 1939 is the country the war begins on. The Wehrmacht invades on September 1; the Soviet Union invades on September 17 under the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; by October 6 the country is partitioned. Polish armed forces total around 950,000 mobilized, with significant cavalry, modest armor (TKS tankettes, 7TP light tanks), and an air force of mostly obsolete fighters that fights effectively in the opening week before being overwhelmed. The British and French declarations of war on September 3 produce no operational support - the September Campaign is fought alone.
Starting position
Polish defense planning had assumed a defense-in-depth holding action while French and British forces mobilized in the West. Plan Zachód (Plan West) anticipated a 1939 German invasion and budgeted Polish forces holding for two to three months while the Western Allies opened a second front. The plan failed at every premise - the Soviet entry on September 17 collapsed Polish strategic depth, the Western Allies did not move beyond the Saar offensive symbolic action, and Polish forces fought in encirclement rather than depth from the second week. The government, the Polish Navy (which had pre-positioned destroyers in Britain), and substantial military assets evacuated to France and then to Britain to continue the war from exile.
What turns the campaign
What Poland wants is the British and French alliance commitments delivering operational support against Germany on the Western Front, the Soviet entry deterred by the August 1939 Polish-British alliance treaty (it isn't), and Polish forces holding territory long enough that any partition negotiation produces something Polish sovereignty can be rebuilt from. What Poland experiences is the dual invasion, the systematic destruction of Polish institutional life under both occupations, the Katyn massacres of Polish officers in 1940, and the longest sustained partisan resistance of the European war - the Polish Home Army (AK) becomes the largest underground organization in occupied Europe, culminating in the Warsaw Uprising of August-October 1944.
Signature challenge
The fight-from-exile-and-resistance problem
Polish strategy in 1939 collapses operationally in days but continues structurally through the entire war: Polish pilots fly Battle of Britain Hurricanes, Polish 1st Armoured Division fights through Falaise to the Wilhelmshaven, Polish forces capture Monte Cassino, and the Home Army resistance fights from start to end. The campaign asks: how do you sustain national strategic action when the territory is gone, the government is in exile, and the Allies you trusted are negotiating your fate without you (Yalta 1945)?
Try the Poland campaign
Free demo. Pick WW2. Pick Poland. Lose the country, keep the army.
Play Free Demo as Poland