SOVIET INVASION – 17th SEPTEMBER 1939
Contrary to popular misconceptions, Poland in 1939 was fighting two opponents, Germany and Soviet Russia, made a greater impact on German men and equipment than did the British and French forces in their combined efforts of 1940.
As part of the infamous Nazi – Soviet Pact of Non-Aggression that was signed on the 23rd August , under the secret protocols attached to the document , the Soviets were allocated the Eastern parts of Poland , known as the Kresy region, upon there entry into the war against the Poles. These protocols did not become public knowledge until the Nuremburg Trails in 1946, although the Soviets denied there existence until the fall of the Soviet state in 1989. According to the protocols both parties had agreed there respective spheres of interest , putting the Eastern parts (known as the Kresy) of Poland , Lithuania, Latvia , Estonia and parts of Romania under Soviet control .
As early as the 3rd September , Joachim von Ribbentrop was writing to the German ambassador to Moscow asking when the Soviet forces would be expected to occupy there “sphere of influence” in Poland. The Soviets had already commenced to bring there frontier troops to full battle readiness and have them reinforced . On the 6th September , a partial mobilisation was ordered of Soviet forces, covering the Western military districts , under the guise of a ‘large-scale training drill’. . A few days later, the military districts along the Polish border received order to concentrate there forces , this was followed by the Soviet railway network in the regions being put under disposal of the Red Army .
The speed of the German advance into Poland had somewhat caught the Soviets somewhat on the back foot and Molotov expressed his concerns that the Soviets would not be able to “start a new war” if an armistice with the Poles came too quickly. However, the political justification that was to be used to invade, was one that the collapse of the Polish government necessitated the Red army to come to the assistance of the Ukranians and Belorussians in Poland. And so the Soviet propaganda / dis-information machine started. The Kremlin believed that this argument would make the intervention plausible to the public. And so on the 14th September the article appeared in Pravda written by the Politburo’s propaganda chief. It is not really known if the masses really accepted the argument , especially after the signing of the Nazi-Soviet pact with the former arch enemy Nazi Germany .
By September 15th , Ribbentrop once again contacted the Germany Ambassador in Moscow to communicate with Molotov current “imminent ” collapse of Warsaw. Subsequently , The Polish Ambassador to Moscow , Grzybowski was called to the Kremlin in the early morning of the 17th September and informed by the Soviet deputy foreign minister, Vladimir Potemkin of the decision of the Soviet government. Warsaw did not surrender to the Nazi’s until the 27th September . All these machinations were part of the secret protocols and the respective spheres of influence .
The Soviets (Russians) Invade
The Soviets moved that morning, organised in two fronts arranged to the North and south of the Pripyat river. The north “Byelorussian Front” , under General Mikhail Kovalev , and the south “Ukranian Front”, under General Semyon Timoshenko. Combined, the Soviets has mobilised nearly half a million combat troops , consisting of :
- 28 Rifle Divisions
- 7 Cavalry Divisions
- 7 Artillery Regiments
- 10 Armoured Brigades
Assisted by 4,850 tanks , 5,500 armoured vehicles and 2000 aircraft
Although the numbers looked impressive , in truth the Soviet advance was rather more chaotic , Stalins purges had descimated the efficiency of the Soviet’s . For example more Soviet tanks broke down than were lost in combat
Facing the Soviets along the border, were Polsis forces consisting mainly of the Border Defence Corp / Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza (KOP) . These amounted to some 12,000 men across eighteen battalions . In addition there some 300,000 regular soldiers made up of reservists , in the process of being formed, trained or withdrawn from the Western front. Certain defenses had been built fortifying certain regions , such as the river Sluch. Additionally , two armoured trains were available to defend the fortress in Brest and Sarny itself.