The Red Tide

The stiffening resistance of Polish forces and the Bzura counteroffensive had slowed the German Blitzkrieg. Fearing an imminent attack from France, the Wehrmacht was under increasing pressure to conclude the Polish campaign. The Polish decision to consolidate and build a …

1939-09-19

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The stiffening resistance of Polish forces and the Bzura counteroffensive had slowed the German Blitzkrieg. Fearing an imminent attack from France, the Wehrmacht was under increasing pressure to conclude the Polish campaign. The Polish decision to consolidate and build a fighting force in the Romanian Bridgehead was a sound strategic move. The area was easy to defend and had direct access to potential Allied support through Romania. However, the Soviet attack of Sept 17th was a disaster for the Polish defense. It changed the European political balance and put an end to French plans of attacking Germany that year. The Polish border positions along the Russian front were guarded by a thin cordon of Border Defense Corps, which could not hold back the massed Soviet invasion. Only one Polish position (the Sarny Fortified Area), that was guarding the Polesie swamps, held the “Red Tide” for a few days. The Sarny Fortified Area was a line of bunkers and trenches built along both sides of the Sluch river near the town of Sarny, close to the Soviet border. For many years, the Polish military considered the Soviet Union as Poland’s main enemy. As a result, a major construction project of fortifications up to five kilometers in depth began in 1936. Most of the Sarny Fortified Area garrison had been redeployed to Poland’s western fortifications in preparation for the expected German invasion. The remaining soldiers were ordered in mid-September 1939 to abandon the bunkers and to move with their equipment towards the Romanian Bridgehead. On September 16, the eve of Soviet attack on Poland, there were only small formations remaining - altogether numbering some 4000 soldiers guarding 80 kilometers of border. The Poles had no heavy equipment, because it had been sent towards the German border in the summer of 1939. The Sarny Fortified Area was attacked by the Soviet 60th Rifle Division. The Polish defenders held the fortifications for three days, but on September 20, facing encirclement, they were forced to withdraw. However, not all of the soldiers received the order to withdraw and in some places the Poles resisted until September 25. Several soldiers in bunkers refused to surrender and had to be blown up by Red Army engineers.

Polany, Poland

The Soviet Invasion of Poland was a military operation by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, sixteen days after Germany invaded Poland from the west. Subsequent military operations lasted for the following 20 days and ended on 6 October 1939 with the two-way division and annexation of the entire territory of the Second Polish Republic by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. This division is sometimes called the Fourth Partition of Poland. The Soviet (as well as German) invasion of Poland was indirectly indicated in the "secret protocol" of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed on 23 August 1939, which divided Poland into "spheres of influence" of the two powers. German and Soviet cooperation in the invasion of Poland has been described as co-belligerence.

Wikipedia: Soviet Invasion of Poland

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