Friday, November 30, 2007
Unitec New Zealand
Unitec New Zealand (Māori: Te Whare Wānanga o Wairaka) is a major polytechnic tertiary education institute situated in Auckland, New Zealand. The main campus is situated in Mt Albert, while a secondary campus is situated in Henderson. Unitec offers degree programs in arts, business and technical subjects at the bachelors, masters, and doctoral level. Unitec is a member of the International Association of Universities.
History
Education
Applied Technology and Trades
Architecture and Landscape
Business Studies
Communication Studies
Computing and Information Technology
Construction and Engineering
Design and Visual Arts
Education
Health and Community Studies
Language Studies
Management and Entrepreneurship
Māori Education
Natural Sciences
Performing and Screen Arts
Sport
Travel and Tourism
Foundation Studies
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Escambia County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Florida. The 2000 population was 294,210. The U.S. Census Bureau 2005 estimate for the county is 296,772.
History
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,268 km² (876 mi²). 1,715 km² (662 mi²) of it is land and 552 km² (213 mi²) of it (24.35%) is water.
The county includes the island of Santa Rosa, which is separate from Santa Rosa County proper. the islands have been returned to Santa Rosa County
Escambia is the westernmost county in Florida (see map). The county in Alabama directly to the north is also called Escambia County. Note, the fact that Escambia County, Florida, borders Escambia County, Alabama, makes the two Escambia Counties among the few counties in the United States with the same name, but from different states, to border each other.
Escambia County is part of the Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Geography
Escambia County, Alabama - north
Santa Rosa County, Florida - east
Baldwin County, Alabama - west Adjacent Counties
As of the census² of 2000, there were 294,410 people, 111,049 households, and 74,180 families residing in the county. The population density was 172/km² (444/mi²). There were 124,647 housing units at an average density of 73/km² (188/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 72.35% White, 21.40% Black or African American, 0.90% Native American, 2.21% Asian, 0.12% Pacific Islander, 0.85% from other races, and 2.16% from two or more races. 2.70% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 111,049 households out of which 29.90% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.80% were married couples living together, 15.10% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.20% were non-families. 26.90% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.70% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 2.98.
In the county the population was spread out with 23.50% under the age of 18, 12.20% from 18 to 24, 29.00% from 25 to 44, 22.00% from 45 to 64, and 13.30% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 98.60 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.10 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $35,234, and the median income for a family was $41,708. Males had a median income of $31,054 versus $22,023 for females. The per capita income for the county was $18,641. About 12.10% of families and 15.40% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.70% of those under age 18 and 9.60% of those age 65 or over.
Demographics
Main article: Escambia County School District Education
Local media
The largest daily newspaper in the area is the Pensacola News Journal. There is also a weekly newspaper called The Independent News[1].
Print
Several major networks are broadcast from nearby Mobile, such as CBS affiliate WKRG, NBC affiliate WPMI, and FOX affiliate WALA. The following is a list of Broadcast television stations in the Mobile, Alabama / Pensacola - Fort Walton Beach, Florida market (Nielsen DMA#59)
By frequency: 3 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 21 | 23 | 30 | 33 | 35 | 39 | 42 | 44 | 48 | 53 | 55 | 58 | 60
By callsign: W30BX | W39BP | WALA | WAWD | WBPG | WBQP | WEAR | WEIQ | WFBD | WFGX | WHBR | WJTC | WKRG | WMPV | WPAN | WPMI | WRBD | WSRE
Television
Radio stations in the Pensacola / Mobile market (Arbitron#123)
By frequency: (FM) 88.1 | 89.5 | 90.5 | 91.3 | 91.7 | 92.9 | 94.1 | 94.9 | 95.7 | 96.1 | 96.5 | 97.5 | 98.1 | 98.7 | 99.9 | 100.7 | 101.5 | 102.7 | 104.1 | 106.1 | 107.3
(AM) 550 | 610 | 790 | 980 | 1090 | 1230 | 1330 | 1370 | 1450 | 1620
By callsign: WABB | WASG | WBLX | WBSR | WCOA | WEBY | WEGS | WGCX | WHIL | WJLQ | WKSJ | WMEZ | WMXC | WNRP | WNVY | WPCS | WPNN | WRKH | WRNE | WRRX | WTGF | WTKE | WTKX | WUWF | WVTJ | WXBM | WYCL | WYCT | WYOK | WZNO | WZNS
Radio
Cities and towns
Century
Pensacola Unincorporated
Like the rest of the Deep South, Escambia County was traditionally a Democratic stronghold when it came to local, state and congressional races. The county backed Alabama Governor George Wallace in the 1968 presidential election and, since then, has trended strongly Republican, much like the areas that surround it.
Government links/Constitutional offices
Escambia County School District
Northwest Florida Water Management District
Local media
The largest daily newspaper in the area is the Pensacola News Journal. There is also a weekly newspaper called The Independent News[1].
Several major networks are broadcast from nearby Mobile, such as CBS affiliate WKRG, NBC affiliate WPMI, and FOX affiliate WALA. The following is a list of Broadcast television stations in the Mobile, Alabama / Pensacola - Fort Walton Beach, Florida market (Nielsen DMA#59)
By frequency: 3 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 21 | 23 | 30 | 33 | 35 | 39 | 42 | 44 | 48 | 53 | 55 | 58 | 60
By callsign: W30BX | W39BP | WALA | WAWD | WBPG | WBQP | WEAR | WEIQ | WFBD | WFGX | WHBR | WJTC | WKRG | WMPV | WPAN | WPMI | WRBD | WSRE
Television
Radio stations in the Pensacola / Mobile market (Arbitron#123)
By frequency: (FM) 88.1 | 89.5 | 90.5 | 91.3 | 91.7 | 92.9 | 94.1 | 94.9 | 95.7 | 96.1 | 96.5 | 97.5 | 98.1 | 98.7 | 99.9 | 100.7 | 101.5 | 102.7 | 104.1 | 106.1 | 107.3
(AM) 550 | 610 | 790 | 980 | 1090 | 1230 | 1330 | 1370 | 1450 | 1620
By callsign: WABB | WASG | WBLX | WBSR | WCOA | WEBY | WEGS | WGCX | WHIL | WJLQ | WKSJ | WMEZ | WMXC | WNRP | WNVY | WPCS | WPNN | WRKH | WRNE | WRRX | WTGF | WTKE | WTKX | WUWF | WVTJ | WXBM | WYCL | WYCT | WYOK | WZNO | WZNS
Radio
Cities and towns
Century
Pensacola Unincorporated
Like the rest of the Deep South, Escambia County was traditionally a Democratic stronghold when it came to local, state and congressional races. The county backed Alabama Governor George Wallace in the 1968 presidential election and, since then, has trended strongly Republican, much like the areas that surround it.
Government links/Constitutional offices
Escambia County School District
Northwest Florida Water Management District
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Ilocos Sur is a province of the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in Luzon. Its capital is Vigan City and borders Ilocos Norte and Abra to the north, Mountain Province to the east, and La Union and Benguet to the south. To the west of Ilocos Sur is the South China Sea.
Geography
Ilocos Sur is subdivided into 32 municipalities and 2 cities.
Political
Vigan City
Candon City Cities
Alilem
Banayoyo
Bantay
Burgos
Cabugao
Caoayan
Cervantes
Galimuyod
Gregorio del Pilar (Concepcion)
Lidlidda
Magsingal
Nagbukel
Narvacan
Quirino (Angkaki)
Salcedo (Baugen)
San Emilio
San Esteban
San Ildefonso
San Juan (Lapog)
San Vicente
Santa
Santa Catalina
Santa Cruz
Santa Lucia
Santa Maria
Santiago
Santo Domingo
Sigay
Sinait
Sugpon
Suyo
Tagudin Municipalities
Ilocos Sur is located along the western coast of Northern Luzon. It is bounded by Ilocos Norte on the north, Abra on the northeast, Mountain Province on the east, Benguet on the southeast, La Union on the south, and the China Sea on the west. Its area of 2,579.58 square kilometers occupies about 20.11% of the total land area of Region 1.
The topography of Ilocos Sur is undulating to rolling with elevations ranging from 10 to 1,700 meters above sea level.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
The Doctor of Pastoral Theology (Abbreviated P.Th.D. for the Latin Pastoralis Theologiæ Doctor, PThD) is a theological professional degree geared to provide higher academic training to those who have already entered the pastoral ministry and who seek to continue their work while pursuing further theological study.
The Doctor of Pastoral Theology (P.Th.D.) is comparable to the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) or the Doctor in Theology (Th. D.) in terms of its academic load and level of study, with a grade of research represented by its required doctoral dissertation project of up to two hundred pages. Said pre-approved dissertation is usually expected to relate and compliment the doctorate candidate's ongoing field of work.
Like the Doctor of Sacred Theology (S.T.D. = Sacrae Theologiae Doctor) issued by the pontifical university system of the Roman Catholic Church, which builds upon the work of the Bachelor of Sacred Theology (S.T.B.) and the Licentiate of Sacred Theology (S.T.L.), the P.Th.D. also necessitates the completion of both a Bachelor's degree and a Master of Arts degree in a field of ministry training. The P.Th.D., however, is meant to further enhance the teaching, preaching, and leadership effectiveness of the current pastor/overseer of a congregational ministry, while the S.T.D. graduate is usually expected to seek the professorate in a Catholic university--see Sapientia Cristiana on Ecclesiastical Universities, Part One, Section VII, Article 50. n.1 at [1].
Associate's degree (U.S.) · Foundation degree (U.K.) · Bachelor's degree · Master's degree
Licentiate · Specialist degree · Engineer's degree · Professional degree · Doctoral degree
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Mint Records is a Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based independent record label founded in January 1991.
In October 2006, in conjunction with Exclaim! magazine and CBC Radio 3, Mint Records mounted a cross-Canada tour called the "Exclaim! Mint Road Show!" with headliners The New Pornographers along with Immaculate Machine and Novillero (except the final show in Vancouver, which featured Young and Sexy and Bella.) [1]
Past artists
Mint Records Presents the CBC Radio 3 Sessions
List of record labels
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Vince Welnick (February 21, 1951 – June 2, 2006) was an American keyboardist, best known for playing for the Grateful Dead from 1990 until their end in 1995.
Death
On June 9, 2006 Ratdog played "Way To Go Home" for the first time as a tribute to Welnick at the Sonoma County fairgrounds.
Former Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten took up the keys for the "Vince Welnick and Friends Tour" that was scheduled before his death. They played many Vince Welnick staples including "Samba in the Rain". A very touching "He Was a Friend of Mine" was also played in honor of Welnick. On the second night of the tour they stopped in St. Louis and the opener The Schwag, who Welnick had played with before, did "Turn on Your Love Light" and dedicated it to Welnick with some improvised lyrics about Welnick and his life.
Friday, November 23, 2007
The Highlands and Islands of Scotland are broadly the Scottish Highlands plus Orkney, Shetland and the Hebrides.
The Highlands and Islands are sometimes defined as the area to which the Crofters' Act of 1886 applied. This area consisted of the areas of seven of the counties of Scotland:
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) uses a broader definition also used at Eurostat's NUTS level 2, and there has been a Highlands and Islands electoral region of the Scottish Parliament since 1999.
In Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service the name refers to the local government areas (council areas) of Highland, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles. Northern, as in Northern Constabulary, is also used to refer to this area.
The Highlands and Islands Partnership for Transport, established in 2006, covers most of the council areas of Argyll and Bute, Highland, Moray, Orkney and the Western Isles, Shetland is covered by the separate Shetland Partnership for Transport.
In the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections, the Highlands and Islands Scottish Parliament region was the last to declare its regional votes, which were the decisive results in the dealing as to which party would have the largest representation in the Scottish Parliament.
Argyll
Inverness-shire
Ross and Cromarty
Sutherland
Caithness
Orkney
Shetland
Thursday, November 22, 2007
History Byzantine Empire Crusades Ecumenical council Baptism of Kiev Great Schism By region Eastern Orthodox history Ukraine Christian history Asia Eastern Christian history Traditions Oriental Orthodoxy Coptic Orthodox Church Armenian Apostolic Church Syriac Christianity Assyrian Church of the East Eastern Orthodox Church Eastern Catholic Churches Liturgy and Worship Sign of the cross Divine Liturgy Iconography Asceticism Omophorion Theology Hesychasm - Icon Apophaticism - Filioque clause Miaphysitism - Monophysitism Nestorianism - Theosis - Theoria Phronema - Philokalia Praxis - Theotokos Hypostasis - Ousia Essence-Energies distinction Salminius Hermias Sozomen (c. 400-c. 450) was a historian of the Christian church. Variations on his name include Sozomen, Salamanes or Salaminius Hermias Sozomenus.
He was born around or before 400 in Bethelia, a small town near Gaza.
Family and Home
Sozomen wrote that his grandfather lived at Bethel, near Gaza, and became a Christian together with his household, probably under Constantius II. A neighbor named Alaphrion was miraculously healed by Saint Hilarion who cast out a demon from Alaphrion, and, as eyewitnesses to the miracle, his family converted, along with Alaphrion's. The conversion marked a turning-point in the Christianization of southern Palestine, according to his account.
The grandfather became within his own circle a highly esteemed interpreter of Scripture. The descendants of the wealthy Alaphrion founded churches and convents in the district, and were particularly active in promoting monasticism. Sozomen himself had conversed with one of these, a very old man. He tells us that he was brought up under monkish influences and his history bears him out.
Grandfather
Sozomen seems to have been brought up in the circle of Alaphrion and acknowledges a debt of gratitude to the monastic order. His early education was directed by the monks in his native place. It is impossible to ascertain what curriculum he followed in these monastic schools, but his writings give clear evidence of the thoroughness with which he was grounded in Greek studies.
As a man he retained the impressions of his youth, and his great work later was to be also a monument of his reverence for the monks in general and for the disciples of Hilarion in particular.
Lawyer
Sozomen wrote two works on church history.
His first work covered the history of the Church, from the Ascension of Jesus to the defeat of Licinius in 323, in twelve books. His sources for it included Eusebius of Caesarea, the Clementine homilies, Hegesippus, and Sextus Julius Africanus.
Although he mentions this first work in his later work, it is no longer extant.
First work
Sozomen's second and longer work was a continuation of the first. He planned to continue the history of Eusebius, covering the period between 323 and 439. The period actually covered in his work ends at 425.
He wrote it in Constantinople, somewhere around the years 440 to 443. He dedicated this work to Emperor Theodosius the Younger.
Historia Ecclesiastica
The nine books of which it is composed begin with Constantine and come down to the death of Honorius (423).
The books are arranged according to the reign of the Roman Emperors:
The existing ninth book is incomplete. In his dedication of the work, he states that he intended cover up the seventeenth consulate of Theodosius, that is, to 439. The extant history ends about 425, so about half a book appears to be missing.
Scholars disagree on why the end is missing. Albert Guldenpenning supposed that Sozomen himself suppressed the end of his work because in it he mentioned the Empress Aelia Eudocia, who later fell into disgrace through her supposed adultery. However, it appears that Nicephorus, Theophanes, and Theodorus Lector did read the end of Sozomen's work, according to their own histories later. Therefore most scholars believe that the work did actually come down to that year, and that consequently it has reached us only in a damaged condition.
I and II: the reign of Constantine (323-37)
III and IV: the reigns of his sons (337-61)
V and VI: the reigns of Julian, Jovian, Valentinian I, and Valens (361-75)
VII and VIII the reigns of Gratian, Valentinian II, Theodosius I, and Arcadius (375-408).
IX: the reign of Theodosius the Younger (408-39). Sources
The source for about three-fourths of his material was the writings of Socrates Scholasticus. The literary relationship of these writers appears everywhere. Valesius asserted that Sozomen read Socrates, and Hussey and Guldenpenning have proved this. For example, Socrates, in I.x, relates an anecdote which he had heard, and says that neither Eusebius nor any other author reports it, yet this anecdote is found in Sozomen, I.xxii, the similarity of diction showing that the text of Socrates was the source.
The extent of this dependence cannot be accurately determined. Sozomen used the work of Socrates as a guide to sources and order. In some matters, such as in regard to the Novatians, Sozomen is entirely dependent on Socrates.
Socrates Scholasticus
But Sozomen did not simply copy Socrates. He went back to the principal sources used by Socrates and other sources, often including more from them than Socrates did.
He used the writings of Eusebius, the first major Church historian. The Vita Constantini of Eusebius is expressly cited in the description of the vision of Constantine.
Sozomen appears also to have consulted the Historia Athanasii and also the works of Athanasius including the Vita Antonii. He completes the statements of Socrates from the Apologia contra Arianos, lix, sqq., and copies Athanasius' Adv. episcopos AEgypti, xviii-xix.
Rufinus is frequently used. Instructive in this respect is a comparison of Sozomen, Socrates, and Rufinus on the childhood of Athanasius. Rufinus is the original; Socrates expressly states that he follows Rufinus, while Sozomen knows Socrates' version, but is not satisfied with it and follows Rufinus more closely.
The ecclesiastical records used by Sozomen are principally taken from Sabinus, to whom he continually refers. In this way he uses records of the synods from that of Tyre (335) to that of Antioch in Caria (367).
For the period from Theodosius I, Sozomen stopped following the work of Socrates and followed Olympiodorus of Thebes, who was probably Sozomen's only secular source. A comparison with Zosimus, who also made use of Olympiodorus, seems to show that the whole ninth book of Sozomen, is mostly an abridged extract from Olympiodorus.
Sozomen used many other authorities. These include sources relating to Christianity in Persia, monkish histories, the Vita Martini of Sulpicius, the works of Hilarius, logoi of Eustathius of Antioch, the letter of Cyril of Jerusalem to Constantius concerning the miraculous vision of the cross, and Palladius.
He also used oral tradition, adding some of the most unique value to his work.
Critique
The work of Sozomen was first printed (editio princeps) by Robert Estienne at Paris in 1544, on the basis of Codex Regius, 1444. There are later editions by Christophorson and Ictrus (Cologne, 1612).
A noteworthy edition was done by Valesius (Cambridge, 1720), who used, besides the text of Stephens, a Codex Fucetianus (now at Paris, 1445), "Readings" of Savilius, and the indirect traditions of Theodorus Lector and of Cassiodorus-Epiphanius.
Hussey's posthumous edition (largely prepared for the press by John Barrow, who wrote the preface) is important, since in it the archetype of the Codex Regius, the Codex Baroccianus 142, is collated for the first time. But this manuscript was written by various hands and at various times and therefore is not equally authoritative in all its parts.
There is an excellent English translation by Chester David Hartranft, with a learned though somewhat diffuse introduction, in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, II (published New York, 1890). (This text is available on-line at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.)
Online text of the Ecclesiastical History [1]
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Walter Yeeling Evans-Wentz (February 2, 1878 – July 17, 1965) was an anthropologist and writer who was a pioneer in the study of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and as a teenager read Madame Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine and became interested in the teachings of Theosophy. He received both his B.A. and M.A. from Stanford University, where he studied with William James and William Butler Yeats. He then studied Celtic mythology and folklore at Jesus College, Oxford (1907); there he adopted the form Evans-Wentz for his name. He travelled extensively, spending time in Mexico, Europe, and the Far East. He spent the years of the First World War in Egypt. He later travelled to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and India, reaching Darjeeling in 1919; there he enountered Tibetan religious texts firsthand.
Evans-Wentz is best known for his series of four books of spiritual works translated from the Tibetan. Evans-Wentz credited himself only as the compiler and editor of these volumes. The actual translation of the texts was performed by Tibetan Buddhists, primarily Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup (1868–1922), a teacher of English at the Maharaja's Boy's School in Gangtok, Sikkim who had also done translations for Alexandra David-Neel and Sir John Woodroffe.
The Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University has hosted The Evans-Wentz Lectureship in Asian Philosophy, Religion, and Ethics since 1969, funded by a bequest from Evans-Wentz.
Evans-Wentz died in 1965.
Partial bibliography
The fairy-faith in Celtic countries, London, New York, H. Frowde, 1911.
The Tibetan book of the dead; or, The after-death experiences on the Bardo plane, according to Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup's English rendering, with foreword by Sir John Woodroffe, London, Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1927.
Tibetan yoga and secret doctrines; or, Seven books of wisdom of the great path, according to the late Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup's English rendering; arranged and edited with introductions and annotations to serve as a commentary, London, Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1935.
Tibet's great yogī, Milarepa : a biography from the Tibetan ; being the Jetsün-Kahbum or biographical history of Jetsün-Milarepa according to the late Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup's English rendering (2d ed.), edited with introd. and annotations by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, London, New York : Oxford University Press, 1951.
The Tibetan book of the great liberation; or, The method of realizing nirvana through knowing the mind, preceded by an epitome of Padma-Sambhava's biography and followed by Guru Phadampa Sangay's teachings. According to English renderings by Sardar Bahädur S. W. Laden La and by the Lāmas Karma Sumdhon Paul, Lobzang Mingyur Dorje, and Kazi Dawa-Samdup. Introductions, annotations, and editing by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. With psychological commentary by C. G. Jung. London, New York, Oxford University Press, 1954.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Edward Uhler Condon (March 2, 1902 – March 26, 1974) was a distinguished American nuclear physicist, a pioneer in quantum mechanics, a participant in the development of radar and nuclear weapons in World War II, research director of Corning Glass, director of the National Bureau of Standards, and president of the American Physical Society (as well as, late in his life, professor of physics at the University of Colorado, where he directed a controversial Air Force-funded scientific study of UFOs).
He was born in Alamogordo, New Mexico, United States, and earned a Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley in 1926.
In 1943, Condon joined the Manhattan Project; however, within six weeks, he resigned as a result of conflicts with General Leslie R. Groves, the project's military leader.
Condon was one of the physicists whose loyalty to the United States was challenged by members of Congress — including Congressman Richard M. Nixon, who called for the revocation of his security clearance — in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The superpatriotic chairman of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), Rep. J. Parnell Thomas, would call the physicist "Dr. Condon," the "weakest link" in American security, and even the "missing link."
In 1948, U.S. President Harry Truman — at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and with Condon sitting beside him — denounced Rep. Thomas and HCUA on the grounds that vital scientific research "may be made impossible by the creation of an atmosphere in which no man feels safe against the public airing of unfounded rumors, gossip and vilification." He called HUAC's activities "the most un-American thing we have to contend with today. It is the climate of a totalitarian country."
Carl Sagan, once a student of Condon, documented Condon's own account of being brought up before a loyalty review board: "Dr. Condon, it says here that you have been at the forefront of a revolutionary movement in physics called" — and here the inquisitor read the words slowly and carefully — "quantum mechanics. It strikes this hearing that if you could be at the forefront of one revolutionary movement...you could be at the forefront of another."
Condon replied that the accusation was unfounded, since he most emphatically was not a "revolutionary". He raised his right hand and solemnly declared, "I believe in Archimedes' Principle, formulated in the third century B.C. I believe in Kepler's laws of planetary motion, discovered in the seventeenth century. I believe in Newton's laws...." He continued in this vein, listing a long sequence of scientists whose work, done centuries before, was still valid and respected: The Bernoulli family, Fourier, Ampère, Boltzmann, and Maxwell. HUAC did not appreciate his sense of humor; however, fortunately for Condon, the most severe charge they could confirm was that in high school he had a paper route delivering a socialist newspaper.
From 1966 to 1968, Condon directed the University of Colorado UFO Project. Though plagued with infighting and controversy, the project's conclusion--that all unidentified flying objects had prosaic explanations--have been cited as a key factor in the generally low levels of interest in UFOs among most mainstream scientists and academics. See Condon Report. In his negative critique of the Condon Report, astronomer J. Allen Hynek hoped that Condon's reputation would not be soured by the Condon Report, writing, "It is unfortunate that, almost certainly, popular history will henceforth link Dr. Condon's name with UFOs, and only the arcane history of physics will accord him his true place and record his brilliant career in contributing to the understanding ... of the nature of the physical world. These contributions UFOs cannot take away from him, even though his work with this problem is analogous to that of a Mozart producing an uninspired pot-boiler, unworthy of his talents." (Clark, 605)
Following his death, Condon crater on the Moon was named after him.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Jon Douglas Lord (born Leicester 9 June 1941) is an English composer, Hammond organ and piano player.
He is recognised for his Hammond organ blues-rock sound and for his pioneering work in fusing rock and classical or baroque forms. He has most famously been a member of Deep Purple, as well as of Whitesnake, Paice, Ashton & Lord, The Artwoods and Flower Pot Men.
In 1968, Lord co-founded Deep Purple. He and drummer Ian Paice were the only constant band members during the band's existence from 1968 to 1976 and from when they reformed in 1984 until Lord's retirement in 2002.
One of his most ambitious works was his composition Concerto for Group and Orchestra, which was performed at the Royal Albert Hall in 1969 with Deep Purple (Lord and Paice with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, singer Ian Gillan and bass guitarist Roger Glover) and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The concerto was revived for its 30th anniversary in 1999 with another performance at the Albert Hall, again performed by Deep Purple (Lord, Paice, Gillan, Glover and Steve Morse in place of Ritchie Blackmore) with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2002 he retired from Deep Purple for good, to concentrate on composing and on lower-key blues/rock performances.
He is married to Vickie, the twin sister of Ian Paice's wife, Jackie. They both live in the United Kingdom.
Before Deep Purple 1941-1968
It is in this period that Lord's classic keyboard sound emerged. He began experimenting with a keyboard sound centred on the Hammond organ (in spite of the emergence of the Moog synthesizer in rock through the experimentation of keyboard players like Keith Emerson), but heavier than a blues sound and delivered a rhymthic foundation to complement Blackmore's speed and virtuosity as a highly technically gifted lead guitarist. Lord also loved the sound of an RMI 368 Electra-Piano and Harpsichord, which was used to great effect of songs like "Demon's Eye", and "Space Truckin'". Somewhere around 1973, Lord and a technician combined his Hammond C3 Organ with the RMI.
With a technician, he began to experiment by pushing the Hammond-Leslie sound through Marshall amplification and what resulted was the backbone of the Deep Purple sound: a growling, heavy, mechanical sound that gave Purple a unique rhythmic counterpoint to Blackmore's lead playing, but that allowed Lord to compete with Blackmore with an organ that sounded as heavy as a lead guitar. From early recordings like Hush (1968) to the eventual seminal Deep Purple in Rock album (1970) it is clear that Lord's sound was as critical to the Deep Purple sound as Blackmore's. In fact, Lord's willingness to play many of the key rhythm parts to underpin Blackmore gave the guitarist the freedom to let loose both live and on record.
On Deep Purple's second and third albums, Lord began indulging his ambition to fuse rock with classical music. This enhanced his reputation among fellow musicians, but caused tension within the group. Blackmore was keen to explore riff-based heavy rock, inspired by the success of Led Zeppelin, while Simper later said: "The reason the music lacked direction was Jon Lord ****ed everything up with his classical ideas."
Blackmore agreed to go along with Lord's experimentation, provided he was given his head on the next band album. The resulting Concerto For Group and Orchestra (in 1969) was one of rock's earliest attempts to fuse two distinct musical idioms. Performed live at the Royal Albert Hall on 24 September 1969 (with new band members Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, Evans and Simper having been fired), recorded by the BBC and later released as an album, the Concerto gave Deep Purple their first highly-publicised taste of mainstream fame and gave Lord the confidence to believe that his experiment and his compositional skill had a future. The Concerto also gave Lord the chance to work with established classical figures, like Malcolm Arnold (knighted in 1993), who conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the performance and who also brought his technical skills to bear by helping Lord score the work and to protect him from the inevitable disdain of the older members of the orchestra.
Classical dalliance over, Purple began work on Deep Purple in Rock, released by EMI in 1970 and now one of heavy rock's key early works. Lord's style is a critical counterpart to Blackmore's playing on the record and it was clear that the tension between the two, competing to out-dazzle each other, often in classical-style, mid-section 'call and answer' improvisation (on tracks like Speed King), something they employed to great effect live, was the start of a trademark sound and the basis of powerful live performances. Similarly, Child in Time features Lord's playing to maximum tonal effect. Lord's experimental solo on "Hard Lovin' Man" (complete with police-siren interpolation) on the album is his personal favourite among his Deep Purple studio performances.
Template set, Deep Purple released a sequence of albums between 1971's Fireball and 1975's Come Taste the Band, by which time Gillan, Glover and finally Blackmore had left. The band disintegrated in 1976. The highlights of Lord's Purple work in the period include his rhythmic underpinning of Smoke on the Water, Highway Star and Space Truckin' from Machine Head (1972), his playing on the Burn album from 1974 and the sonic bombast of the Made in Japan live album from 1972.
Roger Glover later described Lord as a true 'Zen-archer soloist', someone whose best keyboard improvisation often came at the first attempt. Lord's strict reliance on the Hammond C3 organ sound, as opposed to the synthesizer experimentation of his contemporaries, places him firmly in the jazz-blues category as a band musician and far from the progressive-rock sound of Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman. Lord himself would rarely venture into the synthesizer territory on Purple albums, often limiting his experimentation to the use of the ring modulator with the Hammond, to give live performances on tracks like Space Truckin' a distinctive 'spacey' sound. Rare instances of his Deep Purple synthesizer use (later including the MiniMoog and other Moog synthesizers) include ``A´´ 200, the final track from Burn.
Lord's 1970s career bears comparison with Emerson and Wakeman, the decade's other significant pioneers of rock keyboards. He was much less of a showman, partly because he couldn't compete with Blackmore's stage persona but mostly because he did not wish to. He was able to meld the Hammond soul to a heavy rock sound, demonstrating note control and speed to match Blackmore's technical fireworks on stage. In fact, Lord's working experience of scoring for and performing with leading orchestras far exceeded that of his rock contemporaries by the late 1970s.
Deep Purple 1968-1976
Lord continued to focus on his classical aspirations alongside his Deep Purple career. The BBC, buoyed by the success of the Concerto, commissioned him to do another work and the resulting Gemini Suite was performed by Deep Purple and the Light Music Society under Malcolm Arnold at the Royal Festival Hall in September 1970 and then in Munich with the Kammarorchestra conducted by Eberhard Schoener in January 1972. It then became the basis for Lord's first solo album, Gemini Suite, released in November 1972, with vocals by Yvonne Elliman and Tony Ashton and with the London Symphony Orchestra backing a band that included Albert Lee on guitar.
Lord's collaboration with the highly experimental and supportive Schoener resulted in a second live performance of the Suite in late 1973 and a new Lord album with Eberhard Schoener, entitled Windows, in 1974. It proved to be Lord's most experimental work and was released to mixed reactions. However, the dalliances with Bach on Windows and the pleasure of collaborating with Schoener resulted in perhaps Lord's most confident solo work and perhaps his strongest orchestral album, Sarabande, recorded in Germany in September 1975 with the Philharmonia Hungarica conducted by Schoener.
Composed of eight pieces (from the opening sweep of Fantasia to the Finale), at least five pieces form the typical construction of a baroque dance suite. The key pieces (Sarabande, Gigue, Bouree, Pavane and Caprice) feature rich orchestration complemented sometimes by the interpolation of rock themes, played by a session band comprising Pete York, Mark Nauseef and Andy Summers, with organ and synthesizers played by Lord.
In March 1974, Lord and Paice had collaborated with friend Tony Ashton on First of the Big Bands, credited to 'Ashton & Lord' and featuring a rich array of session talent, including Carmine Appice, Ian Paice, Peter Frampton and Pink Floyd saxophonist/sessioner, Dick Parry. They performed much of the set live at the London Palladium in September 1974.
This formed the basis of Lord's first post-Deep Purple project Paice, Ashton & Lord, which lasted only a year and spawned a single album, Malice in Wonderland in 1977. He created an informal group of friends and collaborators including Ashton, Paice, Bernie Marsden, Boz Burrell and later, Bad Company's Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke and others. Over the same period, Lord guested on albums by Maggie Bell, Nazareth and even Richard Digance. Eager to pay off a huge tax bill upon his return the UK in the late-1970s (Purple's excesses included their own tour jet and a home Lord rented in Hollywood from actress Ann-Margret), Lord joined former Deep Purple band member David Coverdale's new band, Whitesnake in August 1978 (Paice joined them in 1980 and stayed till 1982).
Lord as Composer
Lord's job in Whitesnake was largely limited to adding colour (or, in his own words, a 'halo') to round out a blues-rock sound that already accommodated two lead guitarists, Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody. He added a Yamaha Electric Grand piano to his set-up and finally a huge bank of synthesizers onstage courtesy of Moog (MiniMoog, Opus, PolyMoog) so he could play the 12-bar blues the band often required and recreate string section and other effects. Such varied work is evident on tracks like Here I Go Again, Wine, Women and Song, She's a Woman and Till the Day I Die. A number of singles entered the UK charts, taking the now 40-something Lord onto Top of the Pops with regularity between 1980 and 1983. He later expressed frustration that he was a poorly paid hired hand . His dissatisfaction (and Coverdale's keenness to revamp the band's line-up and lower the average age to help crack the US market) smoothed the way for the reformation of Deep Purple Mk II in 1984.
During his tenure in Whitesnake, Lord did have a chance to do two distinctly different solo albums. 1982s Before I Forget featured a largely conventional eight-song line-up, no orchestra and with the bulk of the songs being either mainstream rock tracks (Hollywood Rock And Roll, Chance on a Feeling), or - specifically on Side Two - a series of very English classical piano ballads sung by mother and daughter duo, Vicki Brown and Sam Brown (wife and daughter of entertainer Joe Brown) and vocalist Elmer Gantry. The album also boasted the cream of British rock talent, including prolific session drummer (and National Youth Jazz Orchestra alumnus) Simon Phillips, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray, Simon Kirke, Boz Burrell and Mick Ralphs. Lord used synthesizers more than ever before, principally to retain an intimacy with the material and to create a jam atmosphere with old friends like Tony Ashton.
Additionally, Lord was commissioned by producer Patrick Gamble for Central Television to write the soundtrack for their 1984 TV series, Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, based on the book by Edith Holden, with an orchestra conducted by Alfred Ralston and with a distinctly gentle, pastoral series of themes composed by Lord. Lord, now firmly established as a member of UK rock/Oxfordshire mansion aristocracy (in Lord's case, a home called Burntwood, complete with hand-painted Challen baby grand piano, previous owner, Shirley Bassey), was asked to guest on albums by friends George Harrison (Gone Troppo from 1982) and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour (1983's About Face), Cozy Powell (Octopus in 1983) and to play on an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's classic, Wind in the Willows.
Whitesnake 1978-1983
Lord's re-emergence with Deep Purple in 1984 resulted in huge audiences for the reformed Mk II line-up, including 1985s second largest grossing tour in the US and an appearance in front of 70,000 rain-soaked fans headlining Knebworth on June 22nd 1985, all to support the Perfect Strangers album. Playing with a rejuvenated Purple line-up (including spells at a health farm to get the band including Lord into shape) and being onstage and in the studio with Blackmore, gave Lord the chance to push himself once again and his 'rubato' classical opening sequence to the album's opener, Knocking at Your Back Door (complete with F-Minor to G polychordal harmony sequence), gave Lord the chance to do his most powerful work for years, including on the Zeppelinesque title track, Perfect Strangers. Further albums followed, often of varying quality and by the late-1990s, Lord was clearly keen to explore where to take his career next.
In 1997, he created perhaps his most personal work to date, Pictured Within, released in 1998 and with a European tour to support it. Lord's mother Miriam had died in August 1995 and the album is a deeply affecting piece, inflected at all stages by Lord's sense of grief. Recorded largely in Lord's home from home, the city of Cologne, the album's themes are Elgarian and alpine in equal measure. Lord signed to Virgin Classics to release it and perhaps saw it as the first stage in his eventual departure from Purple to embark on a low-key and altogether more gentle solo career. One song from Pictured Within, entitled "Wait A While" was later covered by Norweigan singer Sissel Kyrkjebø on her 2003/2004 album My Heart. Lord finally retired from Deep Purple in 2002, preceded by an injury that required an operation. He said subsequently, 'Leaving Deep Purple was just as traumatic as I had always suspected it would be and more so - if you see what I mean'. He even dedicated a song to it on 2004s solo effort, Beyond the Notes, called De Profundis, the album was recorded in Bonn with producer, Mario Argandona between June and July 2004.
Pictured Within and Beyond the Notes provide the most personal work by Lord and together, have what his earlier solo work perhaps lacks, a very clear musical voice that is quintessentially his. Together, both albums are uniquely crafted, mature pieces from a man in touch with himself and his spirituality. Lord has slowly built a small, but distinct position and fan base for himself in Europe, collaborating with former ABBA superstar and family friend, Frida (Anni-Frid Lyngstad), on the 2004 track, "The Sun Will Shine Again" (with lyrics by Sam Brown) and performing with her across Europe and subsequently, doing concerts also to première the 2007-scheduled Boom of the Tingling Strings orchestral piece.
In 2003, he also returned to his beloved Rn'B/blues heritage to record an album of standards in Sydney, with Australia's Jimmy Barnes, entitled Live in the Basement, by Jon Lord and the Hootchie Cootchie Men, 2003. He remains one of British rock music's most eclectic and talented instrumentalists. Lord is also happy to support the Sam Buxton Sunflower Jam Healing Trust and in September 2006, performed at a star-studded event to support the charity led by Ian Paice's wife, Jacky (twin sister of Lord's wife Vicky). Featured artists on stage with Lord included Paul Weller, Robert Plant, Phil Manzanera, Ian Paice and Bernie Marsden.
Two Lord compositions, "Boom of the Tingling Strings" and "Disguises (Suite for String Orchestra)", are recorded and scheduled for Summer 2007 release on EMI Classics. Both feature the Odense Symfoniorkester, conducted by Paul Mann. Additionally, a second Hoochie Coochie Men album is in the can as of July 2006 recording in London. This album, Danger - White Men Dancing, was released in October 2007.
His Durham Concerto, commissioned by Durham University for its 175th anniversary celebrations, received its world premiere on 20 October 2007 in Durham Cathedral by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and featured soloists Lord on Hammond Organ, Kathryn Tickell on Northumbrian pipes, Matthew Barley on cello and Ruth Palmer on violin.
Lord was the next-door neighbour of former Beatle George Harrison, and played piano on the posthumously released Brainwashed (2002) album.
From Purple to Now 1984-
With Deep Purple
Gemini Suite (1972)
Windows (1974)
Sarabande (1976)
Before I Forget (1982)
Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady (1984)
Pictured Within (1998)
Live in the Basement, Jon Lord and the Hoochie Coochie Men (2003)
Beyond The Notes (2004)
Danger - White Men Dancing, Jon Lord and the Hoochie Coochie Men (2007) Solo
Trouble (1978)
Lovehunter (1979)
Ready an' Willing (1980)
Live...In the Heart of the City (1981)
Come an' Get It (1981)
Saints & Sinners (1982)
Slide It In (1984) With Whitesnake
Art Gallery (1966, with The Artwoods)
Gemini Suite Live (1970, with Deep Purple)
The Last Rebel (1971, film score with Tony Ashton)
Windows (1974, with Eberhard Schoener)
First of the Big Bands (1974, with Tony Ashton)
Malice in Wonderland (1977, with PAL)
The Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady (1984, with Alfred Ralston)
From Darkness To Light (2000, not released)
Calling The Wild (2000, film score, not released)
Boom Of The Tingling Strings (2003, not released)
Disguises (2004, not released) Further reading
'Beyond the Notes': Lord, Jon sleeve-notes by subject (Capitol Music, 2004)
'Pictured Within': Lord, Jon sleeve-notes by subject (Virgin Classics, 1997)
'Before I Forget': Jon Lord interviews by Mike Beecher and Phil Easton (1982)
'Sarabande': Notes by Vince Budd, South Uist, research by Simon Robinson, July 1998
'Burn': 30th Anniversary Edition, notes by Nigel Young, May 2004
'Made in Japan': sleeve notes to official remastered recording by Simon Robinson (1998)
'Purple Reign': Interview with Jon Lord by Lee Marlow, 26 July 2000
'Kindred Sprit' magazine: Interview with Jon Lord, Summer 2000
'Daily Mail': Weekend Magazine, Interview with Jon Lord 'On the Mauve', 1997
'Keyboard Review': Interview with Jon Lord by Cliff Douse, Issue 139, July 1997
'Classic Albums: Machine Head' (DVD): Interviews with Jon Lord, Gillan, Glover, Paice, Blackmore, Eagle Rock Entertainment Limited, 2002
'The Kids Are Alright': Interview with Bill Ashton, MBE, by Vinyl Vulture.
'Jon Lord - With Pictures', 90-minute Australian DVD documentary on Jon Lord with extensive interviews, 2003
Sunday, November 18, 2007
The Invasion of Poland, 1939 (in Poland also "the September Campaign," "Kampania wrześniowa," and "the 1939 Defensive War," "Wojna obronna 1939 roku"; in Germany, "the Poland Campaign," "Polenfeldzug," codenamed "Fall Weiss," "Case White," by the German General Staff, and sometimes called "the Polish-German War of 1939"), which precipitated World War II, was carried out by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and a small German-allied Slovak contingent.
The invasion of Poland marked the start of World War II in Europe as Poland's western allies, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand By October 1, Germany and the Soviet Union had completely overrun Poland, although the Polish government never surrendered. In addition, Poland's remaining land and air forces were evacuated to neighboring Romania and Hungary. Many of the exiles subsequently joined the recreated Polish Army in allied France, French-mandated Syria, and the United Kingdom.
In the aftermath of the September Campaign, a resistance movement was formed. Poland's fighting forces continued to contribute to Allied military operations and did so throughout the duration of World War II. Germany captured the Soviet-occupied areas of Poland when it invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, and lost the territory in 1944 to an advancing Red Army. Over the course of the war, Poland lost over 20% of its pre-war population under an occupation that marked the end of the Second Polish Republic.
Opposing forces
Germany had a significant numerical advantage over the Polish and had developed a significant military prior to the conflict. The Heer (Army) had some 2,400 tanks organized into six panzer divisions, utilizing a new operational doctrine. It held that these divisions should act in coordination with other elements of the military, punching holes in the enemy line and isolating selected enemy units which would be encircled and destroyed. This would be repeated and followed up by less mobile mechanized infantry and foot soldiers. The Luftwaffe (Air Force) provided both tactical and strategic air power, particularly dive bombers that attacked and disrupted the enemy's supply and communications lines. Together the new operational methods were nicknamed Blitzkrieg (lightning war). Historian Basil Liddell Hart and A. J. P. Taylor conclude "Poland was a full demonstration of the Blitzkrieg theory". Due to its participation in the Spanish Civil War, the Luftwaffe was probably the most experienced, best trained and well equipped air force in the world in 1939.
Germany
Between 1936 and 1939, Poland invested heavily in industrialization in the Central Industrial Region. Preparations for a defensive war with Germany were ongoing for many years, but most plans assumed fighting would not begin before 1942. To raise funds for industrial development, Poland was selling much of the modern equipment it produced. In 1936 a National Defence Fund was set up collect funds necessary for improving fighting ability of the Polish Armed forces. The Polish Army had about a million soldiers but less than half were mobilized by September 1. Latecomers sustained significant casualties when public transport became targets of the Luftwaffe. The Polish military had fewer armoured forces than the Germans, and these units, being dispersed within the infantry, were unable to effectively engage the enemy.
Experiences in the Polish-Soviet War shaped Polish Army organisational and operational doctrine. Unlike the trench warfare of the First World War, the Polish-Soviet War was a conflict in which the cavalry's mobility played a decisive role. Poland acknowledged the benefits of mobility but was unwilling to invest heavily in many of the expensive and unproven new inventions since then and make these additions to its armed forces. In spite of this, Polish Cavalry brigades were used as a mobile mounted infantry and had some successes against both German infantry and German cavalry.
The Polish Air Force (Lotnictwo Wojskowe) was at a severe disadvantage against the German Luftwaffe although it was not destroyed on the ground. Although the Polish Air Force lacked modern fighter aircraft, its pilots were among the world's best-trained, a fact that was proven a year later in the Battle of Britain, in which the Poles played a major part in beating the Luftwaffe.
Overall, the Germans enjoyed numerical and qualitative aircraft superiority. Poland had only about 600 modern aircraft. The Polish Air Force had about 185 PZL P.11 and some 95 PZL P.7 fighters, 175 PZL.23 Karaś B, 35 Karaś A, and by September over 100 PZL.37 Łoś were produced. Additionally there were over a thousand obsolete transport, reconnaissance and training aircraft. However for the September Campaign only some 70% those aircraft were mobilised. Only 36 PZL.37 Łoś bomber aircraft were deployed for action. All those aircraft were of indigenous Polish design, with the bombers being more modern than fighters according to the Ludomil Rayski air force expansion plan relying on the strong bomber force. Polish fighter aircraft were a generation older than their German counterparts. The Polish PZL P.11 fighter, produced in the early 1930s, was capable of only 365 km/h (about 220 mi/hr), far less than German bombers; to compensate, the pilots relied on the P-11 maneuvrability and high diving speed.
The Polish Navy was a small fleet comprising of destroyers, submarines and smaller support vessels. Most Polish surface units followed Operation Peking, leaving Polish ports on August 20 and escaping to the North Sea to join with the British Royal Navy. Submarine forces participated in Operation Worek, with the goal of engaging and damaging German shipping in the Baltic Sea, but they had much less success. In addition, many Polish Merchant Marine ships joined the British merchant fleet and took part in wartime convoys.
The tank force consited of two armoured brigades, four independent tank battalions and some 30 companies of TKS tankettes attached to infantry divisions and cavalry brigades.
Poland
For more details on this topic, see Soviet order of battle for invasion of Poland in 1939. Soviet Union
For more details on this topic, see Slovak invasion of Poland. Slovakia
Order of battle of Poland:
Order of battle of invading forces:
Polish army order of battle in 1939
Polish Air Force order of battle in 1939
Polish Navy order of battle in 1939
Polish armaments 1939-1945
German order of battle for Operation Fall Weiss
Soviet order of battle for invasion of Poland in 1939 Order of battle
Order of battle of Poland:
Order of battle of invading forces:
Polish army order of battle in 1939
Polish Air Force order of battle in 1939
Polish Navy order of battle in 1939
Polish armaments 1939-1945
German order of battle for Operation Fall Weiss
Soviet order of battle for invasion of Poland in 1939 Order of battle
Main article: Causes of World War II Prelude to the campaign
Details of the campaign
Plans
The German plan Fall Weiss, for what became known as the September Campaign, was created by General Franz Halder, chief of the general staff, and directed by General Walther von Brauchitsch, the commander in chief of the upcoming campaign. The plan called for the start of hostilities before the declaration of war, which pursued a traditional doctrine of mass encirclement and the destruction of enemy forces. Germany's material advantages, including the use of modern airpower and tanks, were to be of great advantage. The infantry - far from completely mechanized but fitted with fast moving artillery and logistic support - was to be supported by German tanks and small numbers of truck-mounted infantry (the Schützen regiments, forerunners of the panzergrenadiers) to assist the rapid movement of troops and concentrate on localized parts of the enemy front, eventually isolating segments of the enemy, surrounding, and destroying them. The pre-war armored idea (which an American journalist in 1939 dubbed Blitzkrieg), which was advocated by some generals including Heinz Guderian, would have had the armor blasting holes in the enemy's front and ranging deep into the enemy's rear areas, but in actuality, the campaign in Poland would be fought along more traditional lines. This stemmed from conservatism on the part of the German high command, who mainly restricted the role of armor and mechanized forces to supporting the conventional infantry divisions.
Poland was a country well suited for mobile operations when the weather cooperated - a country of flat plains with long frontiers totalling almost 5,600 kilometres (3,500 mi), Poland had long borders with Germany on the west and north (facing East Prussia) of 2,000 kilometres (1,250 mi). Those had been extended by another 300 kilometres (500 mi) on the southern side in the aftermath of the Munich Agreement of 1938; the German incorporation of Bohemia and Moravia and creation of the German puppet state of Slovakia meant that Poland's southern flank was exposed to invasion.
German planners intended to fully utilise their advantageously long border with the great enveloping manoeuvre of Fall Weiss. German units were to invade Poland from three directions:
All three assaults were to converge on Warsaw, while the main Polish army was to be encircled and destroyed west of the Vistula. Fall Weiss was initiated on September 1, 1939, and was the first operation of the Second World War in Europe.
A main attack from the German mainland through the western Polish border. This was to be carried out by Army Group South commanded by General Gerd von Rundstedt, attacking from German Silesia and from the Moravian and Slovak border: General Johannes Blaskowitz's 8th Army was to drive eastward against Łódź; General Wilhelm List's 14th Army was to push on toward Kraków and to turn the Poles' Carpathian flank; and General Walter von Reichenau's 10th Army, in the centre with Army Group South's armour, was to deliver the decisive blow with a northwestward thrust into the heart of Poland.
A second route of attack from the northern Prussian area. General Fedor von Bock commanded Army Group North comprising General Georg von Küchler's 3rd Army, which struck southward from East Prussia, and General Günther von Kluge's 4th Army, which struck eastward across the base of the Polish Corridor.
A tertiary attack by part of Army Group South's allied Slovak units from the territory of Slovakia.
From within Poland the German minority would assist in the assault on Poland by engaging in diversion and sabotage operations through Selbstschutz units prepared before the war. German plan
The Polish defense plan, Zachód (West), was shaped by political determination to deploy forces directly at the German-Polish border, based upon London's promise to come to Warsaw's military aid in the event of invasion. Moreover, with the nation's most valuable natural resources, industry and highly populated regions near the western border (Silesia region), Polish policy centered on the protection of such regions, especially since many politicians feared that if Poland should retreat from the regions disputed by Germany (like the Polish Corridor, cause of the famous "Danzig or War" ultimatum), Britain and France would sign a separate peace treaty with Germany similar to the Munich Agreement of 1938. In addition, none of those countries specifically guaranteed Polish borders or territorial integrity. On those grounds, Poland disregarded French advice to deploy the bulk of their forces behind the natural barriers of the wide Vistula and San rivers, even though some Polish generals supported it as a better strategy. The Zachód plan did allow the Polish armies to retreat inside the country, but it was supposed to be a slow retreat behind prepared positions near rivers (Narew, Vistula and San), giving the country time to finish its mobilisation, and was to be turned into a general counteroffensive when the Western Allies would launch their own promised offensive.
The Polish Army's most pessimistic fall-back plan involved retreat behind the river San to the southeastern voivodships and their lengthy defence (the Romanian bridgehead plan). The British and French estimated that Poland should be able to defend that region for two to three months, while Poland estimated it could hold it for at least six months. This Polish plan was based around the expectation that the Western Allies would keep their end of the signed alliance treaty and quickly start an offensive of their own. However, neither the French nor the British government made plans to attack Germany while the Polish campaign was fought. In addition, they expected the war to develop into trench warfare much like World War I had, forcing the Germans to sign a peace treaty restoring Poland's borders. The Polish government, however, was not notified of this strategy and based all of its defence plans on promises of a quick relief action by their Western Allies.
Polish plan
Following several German-staged incidents (Operation Himmler), which gave German propaganda an excuse to claim that German forces were acting in self-defense, the first regular act of war took place on September 1, 1939, at 04:40, when the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) attacked the Polish town of Wieluń, destroying 75% of the city and killing close to 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Five minutes later, at 04:45, the old German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Polish military transit depot at Westerplatte, in the Free City of Danzig on the Baltic Sea. At 08:00, German troops, still without a formal declaration of war issued, attacked near the Polish town of Mokra; the battle of the border had begun. Later that day, the Germans opened fronts along Poland's western, southern and northern borders, while German aircraft began raids on Polish cities. Main routes of attack led eastwards from Germany proper through the western Polish border. A second route carried supporting attacks from East Prussia in the north, and a co-operative German-Slovak tertiary attack by units (Army "Bernolak") from the territory of German-allied Slovakia in the south. All three assaults converged on the Polish capital of Warsaw.
The Allied governments declared war on Germany on September 3; however, they failed to provide Poland with any meaningful support. The German-French border had a few minor skirmishes, although the majority of German forces, including eighty-five percent of their armoured forces, were engaged in Poland. Despite some Polish successes in minor border battles, German technical, operational and numerical superiority forced the Polish armies to withdraw from the borders towards Warsaw and Lwów. The Luftwaffe gained air superiority early in the campaign. By destroying communications the Luftwaffe increased the pace of the advance which overran Polish airstrips and early warning sites and causing logistical problems for the Poles. Many Polish Air Force units were now low on supplies, 98 of their number withdrew into neutral (at that time) Romania.
The Polish government (of president Ignacy Mościcki) and the high command (of Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły) left Warsaw in the first days of the campaign and headed southeast, arriving in Brześć on September 6. General Rydz-Śmigły ordered the Polish forces to retreat in the same direction, behind the Vistula and San rivers, beginning the preparations for the long defence of the Romanian bridgehead area.
Phase 1: German invasion
Details of the campaign
Plans
The German plan Fall Weiss, for what became known as the September Campaign, was created by General Franz Halder, chief of the general staff, and directed by General Walther von Brauchitsch, the commander in chief of the upcoming campaign. The plan called for the start of hostilities before the declaration of war, which pursued a traditional doctrine of mass encirclement and the destruction of enemy forces. Germany's material advantages, including the use of modern airpower and tanks, were to be of great advantage. The infantry - far from completely mechanized but fitted with fast moving artillery and logistic support - was to be supported by German tanks and small numbers of truck-mounted infantry (the Schützen regiments, forerunners of the panzergrenadiers) to assist the rapid movement of troops and concentrate on localized parts of the enemy front, eventually isolating segments of the enemy, surrounding, and destroying them. The pre-war armored idea (which an American journalist in 1939 dubbed Blitzkrieg), which was advocated by some generals including Heinz Guderian, would have had the armor blasting holes in the enemy's front and ranging deep into the enemy's rear areas, but in actuality, the campaign in Poland would be fought along more traditional lines. This stemmed from conservatism on the part of the German high command, who mainly restricted the role of armor and mechanized forces to supporting the conventional infantry divisions.
Poland was a country well suited for mobile operations when the weather cooperated - a country of flat plains with long frontiers totalling almost 5,600 kilometres (3,500 mi), Poland had long borders with Germany on the west and north (facing East Prussia) of 2,000 kilometres (1,250 mi). Those had been extended by another 300 kilometres (500 mi) on the southern side in the aftermath of the Munich Agreement of 1938; the German incorporation of Bohemia and Moravia and creation of the German puppet state of Slovakia meant that Poland's southern flank was exposed to invasion.
German planners intended to fully utilise their advantageously long border with the great enveloping manoeuvre of Fall Weiss. German units were to invade Poland from three directions:
All three assaults were to converge on Warsaw, while the main Polish army was to be encircled and destroyed west of the Vistula. Fall Weiss was initiated on September 1, 1939, and was the first operation of the Second World War in Europe.
A main attack from the German mainland through the western Polish border. This was to be carried out by Army Group South commanded by General Gerd von Rundstedt, attacking from German Silesia and from the Moravian and Slovak border: General Johannes Blaskowitz's 8th Army was to drive eastward against Łódź; General Wilhelm List's 14th Army was to push on toward Kraków and to turn the Poles' Carpathian flank; and General Walter von Reichenau's 10th Army, in the centre with Army Group South's armour, was to deliver the decisive blow with a northwestward thrust into the heart of Poland.
A second route of attack from the northern Prussian area. General Fedor von Bock commanded Army Group North comprising General Georg von Küchler's 3rd Army, which struck southward from East Prussia, and General Günther von Kluge's 4th Army, which struck eastward across the base of the Polish Corridor.
A tertiary attack by part of Army Group South's allied Slovak units from the territory of Slovakia.
From within Poland the German minority would assist in the assault on Poland by engaging in diversion and sabotage operations through Selbstschutz units prepared before the war. German plan
The Polish defense plan, Zachód (West), was shaped by political determination to deploy forces directly at the German-Polish border, based upon London's promise to come to Warsaw's military aid in the event of invasion. Moreover, with the nation's most valuable natural resources, industry and highly populated regions near the western border (Silesia region), Polish policy centered on the protection of such regions, especially since many politicians feared that if Poland should retreat from the regions disputed by Germany (like the Polish Corridor, cause of the famous "Danzig or War" ultimatum), Britain and France would sign a separate peace treaty with Germany similar to the Munich Agreement of 1938. In addition, none of those countries specifically guaranteed Polish borders or territorial integrity. On those grounds, Poland disregarded French advice to deploy the bulk of their forces behind the natural barriers of the wide Vistula and San rivers, even though some Polish generals supported it as a better strategy. The Zachód plan did allow the Polish armies to retreat inside the country, but it was supposed to be a slow retreat behind prepared positions near rivers (Narew, Vistula and San), giving the country time to finish its mobilisation, and was to be turned into a general counteroffensive when the Western Allies would launch their own promised offensive.
The Polish Army's most pessimistic fall-back plan involved retreat behind the river San to the southeastern voivodships and their lengthy defence (the Romanian bridgehead plan). The British and French estimated that Poland should be able to defend that region for two to three months, while Poland estimated it could hold it for at least six months. This Polish plan was based around the expectation that the Western Allies would keep their end of the signed alliance treaty and quickly start an offensive of their own. However, neither the French nor the British government made plans to attack Germany while the Polish campaign was fought. In addition, they expected the war to develop into trench warfare much like World War I had, forcing the Germans to sign a peace treaty restoring Poland's borders. The Polish government, however, was not notified of this strategy and based all of its defence plans on promises of a quick relief action by their Western Allies.
Polish plan
Following several German-staged incidents (Operation Himmler), which gave German propaganda an excuse to claim that German forces were acting in self-defense, the first regular act of war took place on September 1, 1939, at 04:40, when the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) attacked the Polish town of Wieluń, destroying 75% of the city and killing close to 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Five minutes later, at 04:45, the old German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Polish military transit depot at Westerplatte, in the Free City of Danzig on the Baltic Sea. At 08:00, German troops, still without a formal declaration of war issued, attacked near the Polish town of Mokra; the battle of the border had begun. Later that day, the Germans opened fronts along Poland's western, southern and northern borders, while German aircraft began raids on Polish cities. Main routes of attack led eastwards from Germany proper through the western Polish border. A second route carried supporting attacks from East Prussia in the north, and a co-operative German-Slovak tertiary attack by units (Army "Bernolak") from the territory of German-allied Slovakia in the south. All three assaults converged on the Polish capital of Warsaw.
The Allied governments declared war on Germany on September 3; however, they failed to provide Poland with any meaningful support. The German-French border had a few minor skirmishes, although the majority of German forces, including eighty-five percent of their armoured forces, were engaged in Poland. Despite some Polish successes in minor border battles, German technical, operational and numerical superiority forced the Polish armies to withdraw from the borders towards Warsaw and Lwów. The Luftwaffe gained air superiority early in the campaign. By destroying communications the Luftwaffe increased the pace of the advance which overran Polish airstrips and early warning sites and causing logistical problems for the Poles. Many Polish Air Force units were now low on supplies, 98 of their number withdrew into neutral (at that time) Romania.
The Polish government (of president Ignacy Mościcki) and the high command (of Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły) left Warsaw in the first days of the campaign and headed southeast, arriving in Brześć on September 6. General Rydz-Śmigły ordered the Polish forces to retreat in the same direction, behind the Vistula and San rivers, beginning the preparations for the long defence of the Romanian bridgehead area.
Phase 1: German invasion
For more details on this topic, see Soviet invasion of Poland (1939). Civilian losses
At the end of the September Campaign, Poland was divided among Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Lithuania and Slovakia. Nazi Germany annexed parts of Poland, while the rest was governed by the so-called General Government. On September 28, another secret German-Soviet protocol modified the arrangements of August: all Lithuania was to be a Soviet sphere of influence, not a German one; but the dividing line in Poland was moved in Germany's favor, to the Bug River. Even though water barriers separated most of the spheres of interest, the Soviet and German troops met each other on numerous occasions. The most remarkable event of this kind happened in Brest-Litovsk on September 22. The German 19th panzer corps under the command of Heinz Guderian had occupied Brest-Litovsk, which lay within the Soviet sphere of interest. When the Soviet 29th Tank Brigade under the command of S. M. Krivoshein approached Brest-Litovsk, the commanders negotiated that the German troops would withdraw and the Soviet troops would enter the city saluting each other..
About 65,000 Polish troops were killed in the fighting, with 420,000 others being captured by the Germans and 240,000 more by the Soviets (for a total of 660,000 prisoners). Up to 120,000 Polish troops escaped to neutral Romania (through the Romanian Bridgehead) and Hungary, and another 20,000 escaped to Latvia and Lithuania, with the majority eventually making their way to France or Britain. Most of the Polish Navy succeeded in evacuating to Britain as well. German personnel losses were less than their enemies (~16,000 KIA).
Neither side—Germany, the Western Allies or the Soviet Union—expected that the German invasion of Poland would lead to the war that would surpass World War I in its scale and cost. It would be months before Hitler would see the futility of his peace negotiation attempts with Great Britain and France, but the culmination of combined European and Pacific conflicts would result in what was truly a "world war". Thus, what was not visible to most politicians and generals in 1939 is clear from the historical perspective: The Polish September Campaign marked the beginning of the Second World War in Europe, which combined with the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and the Pacific War in 1941, formed the conflict known as World War II.
The invasion of Poland led to Britain and France to declare war on Germany on September 3; however, they did little to affect the outcome of the September Campaign. This lack of direct help during September 1939 led many Poles to believe that they had been betrayed by their Western allies.
On May 23, 1939, Adolf Hitler explained to his officers that the object of the aggression was not Danzig, but the need to obtain German Lebensraum and details of this concept would be later formulated in the infamous Generalplan Ost. [8] [9] The blitzkrieg decimated urban residential areas, civilians soon became indistinguishable from combatants, and the forthcoming German occupation (General Government, Reichsgau Wartheland) was one of the most brutal episodes of World War II, resulting in over 6 million Polish deaths (over 20% of the country's total population, and over 90% of its Jewish minority),-including the mass murder of 3 million Poles, regardless of religious beliefs,[10]- in extermination camps like Auschwitz, in concentation camps, and in numerous ad hoc massacres where civilians were rounded up, taken to a nearby forest, machine-gunned, and then buried, regardless of whether they were actually dead or not.
The Red Army occupied the Polish territories with mostly Ukrainian and Belarusian population. Soviets, met at the beginning as liberators by local people, shortly after started to introduce communist ideology in the area. This led to a powerful anti-Soviet resistance in the West Ukraine. Soviet occupation between 1939 and 1941 resulted in the death or deportation of least 1.8 million former Polish citizens, when all who were deemed dangerous to the communist regime were subject to sovietization, forced resettlement, imprisonment in labour camps (the Gulags) or murdered, like the Polish officers in the Katyn massacre. Part of these casualties were retributions for the attacks of the Ukrainian nationalists on the Polish villages in the West Ukraine, where vengeful feeling was particularly strong. Soviet atrocities commenced again after Poland was "liberated" by the Red Army in 1944, with events like the persecution of the Home Army soldiers and execution of its leaders (Trial of the Sixteen).
Aftermath
There are several common misconceptions regarding the Polish September Campaign:
The Polish military was so backward they fought tanks with cavalry: Although Poland had 11 cavalry brigades and its doctrine emphasized cavalry units as elite units, other armies of that time (including German and Soviet) also fielded and extensively used horse cavalry units. Polish cavalry (equipped with modern small arms and light artillery like the highly effective Bofors 37 mm antitank gun) never charged German tanks or entrenched infantry or artillery directly but usually acted as mobile infantry (like dragoons) and reconnaissance units and executed cavalry charges only in rare situations, against enemy infantry. The article about the Battle of Krojanty (when Polish cavalry were fired on by hidden armored vehicles, rather than charging them) describes how this myth originated.
The Polish air force was destroyed on the ground in the first days of the war: The Polish Air Force, though numerically inferior, was not destroyed on the ground because combat units had been moved from air bases to small camouflaged airfields shortly before the war. Only some trainers and auxiliary aircraft were destroyed on the ground on airfields. The Polish Air Force remained active in the first two weeks of the campaign, causing damage to the Luftwaffe. Many skilled Polish pilots escaped afterwards to the United Kingdom and were deployed by the RAF during the Battle of Britain. Fighting from British bases, Polish pilots were on average the most successful in shooting down German aircraft . Poland also never officially surrendered to the Germans.
The German Army used astonishing new concepts of warfare and used new technology daringly: The myth of Blitzkrieg has been dispelled by some authors, notably Matthew Cooper. Cooper writes (in The German Army 1939–1945: Its Political and Military Failure): "Throughout the Polish Campaign, the employment of the mechanised units revealed the idea that they were intended solely to ease the advance and to support the activities of the infantry…. Thus, any strategic exploitation of the armoured idea was still-born. The paralysis of command and the breakdown of morale were not made the ultimate aim of the … German ground and air forces, and were only incidental by-products of the traditional manoeuvers of rapid encirclement and of the supporting activities of the flying artillery of the Luftwaffe, both of which had as their purpose the physical destruction of the enemy troops. Such was the Vernichtungsgedanke of the Polish campaign." Vernichtungsgedanke was a strategy dating back to Frederick the Great, and was applied in the Polish Campaign little changed from the French campaigns in 1870 or 1914. The use of tanks "left much to be desired...Fear of enemy action against the flanks of the advance, fear which was to prove so disastrous to German prospects in the west in 1940 and in the Soviet Union in 1941, was present from the beginning of the war." Many early postwar histories, such as Barrie Pitt's in The Second World War (BPC Publishing 1966), attribute German victory to "enormous development in military technique which occurred between 1918 and 1940", citing that "Germany, who translated (British inter-war) theories into action… called the result Blitzkrieg." John Ellis, writing in Brute Force (Viking Penguin, 1990) asserted that "…there is considerable justice in Matthew Cooper's assertion that the panzer divisions were not given the kind of strategic (emphasis in original) mission that was to characterise authentic armoured blitzkrieg, and were almost always closely subordinated to the various mass infantry armies." Zaloga and Madej, in The Polish Campaign 1939 (Hippocrene Books, 1985), also address the subject of mythical interpretations of Blitzkrieg and the importance of other arms in the campaign. "Whilst Western accounts of the September campaign have stressed the shock value of the panzers and Stuka attacks, they have tended to underestimate the punishing effect of German artillery (emphasis added) on Polish units. Mobile and available in significant quantity, artillery shattered as many units as any other branch of the Wehrmacht." Myths
Armenian quote
History of Poland (1939–1945)
Oder-Neisse line
Polish cavalry brigade order of battle
Polish contribution to World War II
Timeline of the Polish September Campaign
Western betrayal
Blitzkrieg
Vernichtungsgedanke
War crimes of the Wehrmacht
Treatment of the Polish citizens by the occupiers Notes
Cooper, Matthew The German Army 1939-1945: Its Political and Military Failure. Stein and Day, Briarcliff Manor, NY, 19781 (ISBN 0-8128-2468-7)
Baliszewski Dariusz, Wojna sukcesów, Tygodnik "Wprost", Nr 1141 (10 October 2004), Polish, retrieved on 24 March 2005
Dariusz Baliszewski Most honoru, Tygodnik "Wprost", Nr 1138 (19 September 2004)], Polish, retrieved on 24 March 2005
Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan. Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939-1947. Lexington Books, 2004 (ISBN 0-7391-0484-5).
Ellis, John. Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War. Viking Adult, 1st American ed edition, 1999. (ISBN 0-670-80773-7)
Fischer, Benjamin B., "The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field", Studies in Intelligence, Winter 1999-2000, last accessed on 10 December, 2005
Gross, Jan T. Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002 (ISBN 0-691-09603-1).
Hooton, E.R (2007). Luftwaffe at War; Gathering Storm 1933-39. London: Chervron/Ian Allen. ISBN 978-1-903223-71-7.
Kennedy, Robert M. The German Campaign in Poland (1939). Zenger Pub Co, 1980 (ISBN 0-89201-064-9).
Lukas, Richard C. Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944. Hippocrene Books, Inc, 2001 (ISBN 0-7818-0901-0).
Majer, Diemut et al. Non-Germans under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe, with Special Regard to Occupied Poland, 1939-1945. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003 (ISBN 0-8018-6493-3)
Prazmowska, Anita J. Britain and Poland 1939-1943 : The Betrayed Ally. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995 (ISBN 0-521-48385-9).
Rossino, Alexander B. Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkrieg, Ideology and Atrocity. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003 (ISBN 0-7006-1234-3).
Smith, Peter C. Stuka Spearhead: The Lightning War from Poland to Dunkirk 1939-1940. Greenhill Books, 1998 (ISBN 1-85367-329-3).
Sword, Keith The Soviet Takeover of the Polish Eastern Provinces, 1939-41. Palgrave Macmillan, 1991, (ISBN 0-312-05570-6).
Wacław Stachiewicz (1998). Wierności dochować żołnierskiej. OW RYTM. ISBN 83-86678-71-2.
Taylor, A.J.P. and Mayer, S.L., eds. A History Of World War Two. London: Octopus Books, 1974. ISBN 0-70640-399-1.
Zaloga, Steve, and Howard Gerrard. Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2002 (ISBN 1-84176-408-6).
Zaloga, Steve. The Polish Army 1939-1945. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1982 (ISBN 0-85045-417-4).
Encyklopedia PWN 'KAMPANIA WRZEŚNIOWA 1939', last retrieved on 10 December 2005, Polish language
At the end of the September Campaign, Poland was divided among Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Lithuania and Slovakia. Nazi Germany annexed parts of Poland, while the rest was governed by the so-called General Government. On September 28, another secret German-Soviet protocol modified the arrangements of August: all Lithuania was to be a Soviet sphere of influence, not a German one; but the dividing line in Poland was moved in Germany's favor, to the Bug River. Even though water barriers separated most of the spheres of interest, the Soviet and German troops met each other on numerous occasions. The most remarkable event of this kind happened in Brest-Litovsk on September 22. The German 19th panzer corps under the command of Heinz Guderian had occupied Brest-Litovsk, which lay within the Soviet sphere of interest. When the Soviet 29th Tank Brigade under the command of S. M. Krivoshein approached Brest-Litovsk, the commanders negotiated that the German troops would withdraw and the Soviet troops would enter the city saluting each other..
About 65,000 Polish troops were killed in the fighting, with 420,000 others being captured by the Germans and 240,000 more by the Soviets (for a total of 660,000 prisoners). Up to 120,000 Polish troops escaped to neutral Romania (through the Romanian Bridgehead) and Hungary, and another 20,000 escaped to Latvia and Lithuania, with the majority eventually making their way to France or Britain. Most of the Polish Navy succeeded in evacuating to Britain as well. German personnel losses were less than their enemies (~16,000 KIA).
Neither side—Germany, the Western Allies or the Soviet Union—expected that the German invasion of Poland would lead to the war that would surpass World War I in its scale and cost. It would be months before Hitler would see the futility of his peace negotiation attempts with Great Britain and France, but the culmination of combined European and Pacific conflicts would result in what was truly a "world war". Thus, what was not visible to most politicians and generals in 1939 is clear from the historical perspective: The Polish September Campaign marked the beginning of the Second World War in Europe, which combined with the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and the Pacific War in 1941, formed the conflict known as World War II.
The invasion of Poland led to Britain and France to declare war on Germany on September 3; however, they did little to affect the outcome of the September Campaign. This lack of direct help during September 1939 led many Poles to believe that they had been betrayed by their Western allies.
On May 23, 1939, Adolf Hitler explained to his officers that the object of the aggression was not Danzig, but the need to obtain German Lebensraum and details of this concept would be later formulated in the infamous Generalplan Ost. [8] [9] The blitzkrieg decimated urban residential areas, civilians soon became indistinguishable from combatants, and the forthcoming German occupation (General Government, Reichsgau Wartheland) was one of the most brutal episodes of World War II, resulting in over 6 million Polish deaths (over 20% of the country's total population, and over 90% of its Jewish minority),-including the mass murder of 3 million Poles, regardless of religious beliefs,[10]- in extermination camps like Auschwitz, in concentation camps, and in numerous ad hoc massacres where civilians were rounded up, taken to a nearby forest, machine-gunned, and then buried, regardless of whether they were actually dead or not.
The Red Army occupied the Polish territories with mostly Ukrainian and Belarusian population. Soviets, met at the beginning as liberators by local people, shortly after started to introduce communist ideology in the area. This led to a powerful anti-Soviet resistance in the West Ukraine. Soviet occupation between 1939 and 1941 resulted in the death or deportation of least 1.8 million former Polish citizens, when all who were deemed dangerous to the communist regime were subject to sovietization, forced resettlement, imprisonment in labour camps (the Gulags) or murdered, like the Polish officers in the Katyn massacre. Part of these casualties were retributions for the attacks of the Ukrainian nationalists on the Polish villages in the West Ukraine, where vengeful feeling was particularly strong. Soviet atrocities commenced again after Poland was "liberated" by the Red Army in 1944, with events like the persecution of the Home Army soldiers and execution of its leaders (Trial of the Sixteen).
Aftermath
There are several common misconceptions regarding the Polish September Campaign:
The Polish military was so backward they fought tanks with cavalry: Although Poland had 11 cavalry brigades and its doctrine emphasized cavalry units as elite units, other armies of that time (including German and Soviet) also fielded and extensively used horse cavalry units. Polish cavalry (equipped with modern small arms and light artillery like the highly effective Bofors 37 mm antitank gun) never charged German tanks or entrenched infantry or artillery directly but usually acted as mobile infantry (like dragoons) and reconnaissance units and executed cavalry charges only in rare situations, against enemy infantry. The article about the Battle of Krojanty (when Polish cavalry were fired on by hidden armored vehicles, rather than charging them) describes how this myth originated.
The Polish air force was destroyed on the ground in the first days of the war: The Polish Air Force, though numerically inferior, was not destroyed on the ground because combat units had been moved from air bases to small camouflaged airfields shortly before the war. Only some trainers and auxiliary aircraft were destroyed on the ground on airfields. The Polish Air Force remained active in the first two weeks of the campaign, causing damage to the Luftwaffe. Many skilled Polish pilots escaped afterwards to the United Kingdom and were deployed by the RAF during the Battle of Britain. Fighting from British bases, Polish pilots were on average the most successful in shooting down German aircraft . Poland also never officially surrendered to the Germans.
The German Army used astonishing new concepts of warfare and used new technology daringly: The myth of Blitzkrieg has been dispelled by some authors, notably Matthew Cooper. Cooper writes (in The German Army 1939–1945: Its Political and Military Failure): "Throughout the Polish Campaign, the employment of the mechanised units revealed the idea that they were intended solely to ease the advance and to support the activities of the infantry…. Thus, any strategic exploitation of the armoured idea was still-born. The paralysis of command and the breakdown of morale were not made the ultimate aim of the … German ground and air forces, and were only incidental by-products of the traditional manoeuvers of rapid encirclement and of the supporting activities of the flying artillery of the Luftwaffe, both of which had as their purpose the physical destruction of the enemy troops. Such was the Vernichtungsgedanke of the Polish campaign." Vernichtungsgedanke was a strategy dating back to Frederick the Great, and was applied in the Polish Campaign little changed from the French campaigns in 1870 or 1914. The use of tanks "left much to be desired...Fear of enemy action against the flanks of the advance, fear which was to prove so disastrous to German prospects in the west in 1940 and in the Soviet Union in 1941, was present from the beginning of the war." Many early postwar histories, such as Barrie Pitt's in The Second World War (BPC Publishing 1966), attribute German victory to "enormous development in military technique which occurred between 1918 and 1940", citing that "Germany, who translated (British inter-war) theories into action… called the result Blitzkrieg." John Ellis, writing in Brute Force (Viking Penguin, 1990) asserted that "…there is considerable justice in Matthew Cooper's assertion that the panzer divisions were not given the kind of strategic (emphasis in original) mission that was to characterise authentic armoured blitzkrieg, and were almost always closely subordinated to the various mass infantry armies." Zaloga and Madej, in The Polish Campaign 1939 (Hippocrene Books, 1985), also address the subject of mythical interpretations of Blitzkrieg and the importance of other arms in the campaign. "Whilst Western accounts of the September campaign have stressed the shock value of the panzers and Stuka attacks, they have tended to underestimate the punishing effect of German artillery (emphasis added) on Polish units. Mobile and available in significant quantity, artillery shattered as many units as any other branch of the Wehrmacht." Myths
Armenian quote
History of Poland (1939–1945)
Oder-Neisse line
Polish cavalry brigade order of battle
Polish contribution to World War II
Timeline of the Polish September Campaign
Western betrayal
Blitzkrieg
Vernichtungsgedanke
War crimes of the Wehrmacht
Treatment of the Polish citizens by the occupiers Notes
Cooper, Matthew The German Army 1939-1945: Its Political and Military Failure. Stein and Day, Briarcliff Manor, NY, 19781 (ISBN 0-8128-2468-7)
Baliszewski Dariusz, Wojna sukcesów, Tygodnik "Wprost", Nr 1141 (10 October 2004), Polish, retrieved on 24 March 2005
Dariusz Baliszewski Most honoru, Tygodnik "Wprost", Nr 1138 (19 September 2004)], Polish, retrieved on 24 March 2005
Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan. Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939-1947. Lexington Books, 2004 (ISBN 0-7391-0484-5).
Ellis, John. Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War. Viking Adult, 1st American ed edition, 1999. (ISBN 0-670-80773-7)
Fischer, Benjamin B., "The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field", Studies in Intelligence, Winter 1999-2000, last accessed on 10 December, 2005
Gross, Jan T. Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002 (ISBN 0-691-09603-1).
Hooton, E.R (2007). Luftwaffe at War; Gathering Storm 1933-39. London: Chervron/Ian Allen. ISBN 978-1-903223-71-7.
Kennedy, Robert M. The German Campaign in Poland (1939). Zenger Pub Co, 1980 (ISBN 0-89201-064-9).
Lukas, Richard C. Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944. Hippocrene Books, Inc, 2001 (ISBN 0-7818-0901-0).
Majer, Diemut et al. Non-Germans under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe, with Special Regard to Occupied Poland, 1939-1945. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003 (ISBN 0-8018-6493-3)
Prazmowska, Anita J. Britain and Poland 1939-1943 : The Betrayed Ally. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995 (ISBN 0-521-48385-9).
Rossino, Alexander B. Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkrieg, Ideology and Atrocity. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003 (ISBN 0-7006-1234-3).
Smith, Peter C. Stuka Spearhead: The Lightning War from Poland to Dunkirk 1939-1940. Greenhill Books, 1998 (ISBN 1-85367-329-3).
Sword, Keith The Soviet Takeover of the Polish Eastern Provinces, 1939-41. Palgrave Macmillan, 1991, (ISBN 0-312-05570-6).
Wacław Stachiewicz (1998). Wierności dochować żołnierskiej. OW RYTM. ISBN 83-86678-71-2.
Taylor, A.J.P. and Mayer, S.L., eds. A History Of World War Two. London: Octopus Books, 1974. ISBN 0-70640-399-1.
Zaloga, Steve, and Howard Gerrard. Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2002 (ISBN 1-84176-408-6).
Zaloga, Steve. The Polish Army 1939-1945. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1982 (ISBN 0-85045-417-4).
Encyklopedia PWN 'KAMPANIA WRZEŚNIOWA 1939', last retrieved on 10 December 2005, Polish language
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