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Operation Tannenberg
On March 17th, 1938, the Polish Government delivered an ultimatum to Lithuania, giving the country 48 hours to recognize Polish territorial claims over Wilno/Vilnius and establish diplomatic relations. To give teeth to this threat, the Polish government mobilized part of the Polish army along the Lithuanian border. Lithuania's problems were compounded by the fact that Hitler's Germany made it clear that in event of a Polish invasion of Lithuania, Germany would "be forced to intervene to protect the Germans of Memel" - meaning Lithuania faced an invasion from two sides. The United Kingdom and France, still convinced of the merits of appeasement, appeared willing to throw Lithuania to the wolves if it meant a Second Great War would be averted. Ultimately, only one nation would lift a finger in defense of little Lithuania - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
In 1938, the Soviet Union was still (for the most part) diplomatically isolated on the European continent. Stalin endeavored to remedy that isolation by forcing the other European nations to engage diplomatically with the Soviet Union and used the Lithuania ultimatum crisis as an attempted means to this end. The Soviet Union informed Poland that an attack on Lithuania would result in the non-aggression pact between the two nations being voided. However, Lithuania, mistrusting of Stalin's intentions, relented to the Polish ultimatum.
In September of 1938, Hitler would demand the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. At the Munich Conference (called in response to the German demands), British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced "peace in our time" - Czechoslovakia would cede to Germany the Sudetenland and Germany would not go to war. Poland decided to utilize this geopolitical development to settle an old score with Czechoslovakia by demanding the Teschen region. The Soviet Union informed Poland that annexing Teschen would endanger their non-aggression pact. Poland decided to call the Soviet bluff, occupying and annexing Teschen in conjunction with the German annexation of the Sudetenland.
However, the Soviets were not bluffing. The Soviet ambassador to Poland was recalled, and Moscow made it clear to Warsaw that the non-aggression pact between the two nations had been voided by the Polish annexation of Teschen. Mutual distrust led both Poland and the Soviet Union to send more soldiers to their mutual frontier, and for a time, it appeared as if armed conflict could break out. Poland, concerned about its security prospects, decided to look for potential allies should conflict with the Soviet Union break out. To the surprise of many, Adolf Hitler appeared to be that willing ally. While Poland had declined a German offer to join the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1936, Hitler indicated that the offer was still open, and invited Poland to conclude a more substantive treaty with Germany to resolve outstanding issues between the two countries – namely Danzig and the corridor. Poland agreed to negotiation with Hitler.
While the issue of the corridor and Danzig might have seemed intractable, Germany and Poland managed to reach an accommodation by April of 1940. Danzig was to be ceded to Germany (the Nazis already controlled the city since 1933), but the city would remain part of the Polish customs union and port facilities would be leased to Poland for 100 years. Just as Hitler had done in 1934 when he signed a 5-year nonaggression pact with Poland, Germany promised to respect the territorial integrity of Poland’s current borders, including the Polish corridor. However, Germany would be granted an extra-territorial corridor to allow for free transit between East Prussia and the remainder of Germany. The nonaggression pact was renewed, economic agreements were concluded, and Germany agreed to supply the Polish army with training and new technology to help the country fight the Soviet menace.
Reportedly, Hitler confided in private that “with Danzig in our hands, we can revert the treaty at our discretion and render Poland a vassal state within 6 months.” Hitler had no intentions to honor this treaty longer than it was convenient for Germany. In the meantime, however, Germany had achieved the diplomatic coup of regaining Danzig, as well as driving a wedge between the Western Allies and Poland. Poland, for its part, believed it had secured its territorial integrity and gained a strong ally with which to combat the USSR should that country invade.
However, the expected conflict with the Communist menace would never pan out. At 9:20 pm local time, as Hitler was delivering a two-hour speech in the Munich Bürgerbräukeller, a bomb exploded in one of the pillars of the meeting hall. While it was unclear if he died from the shockwave of the blast or due to the ensuing roof collapse, Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the Third German Reich, was nonetheless dead. It was quickly discovered that Georg Elser was behind the assassination. In a widely publicized trial, Elser would be sentenced to death and summarily executed by hanging by piano wire. While the procedure for succession wasn’t set in stone, Hermann Göring managed to assert his position, and because the second Führer of Germany. While a committed Nazi, Göring was much more skeptical about the prospects of Germany successfully invading the Soviet Union any time soon and resolved to focus Germany’s energies Westward before ultimately dealing with the Communist menace at some far off later date.
In fact, Göring’s Germany would intensify cooperation with the Soviet Union. When Belgium refused to accede to a German ultimatum to cede Eupen-Malmedy in May of 1940 (the government of Belgium itself was quite split on the issue, but France applied pressure to block the transfer) war broke out in Europe once more. Poland declared neutrality in the conflict but continued to trade with Germany. While Germany shocked the world by knocking France out of the conflict within 6 weeks, the United Kingdom proved to be a much more stubborn and resilient foe than Göring anticipated. To fuel the German war effort, Göring concluded an extensive commercial agreement with the USSR. Stalin for his part, was happy to see Germany and the United Kingdom bleed each other dry while the Soviets rearmed. Stalin used the conflict in the West to annex border territory from Finland, Bessarabia from Romania, and Estonia and Latvia wholesale.
The ongoing conflict with the United Kingdom provided Germany an excuse to begin tightening the economic screws on Poland as well. Out of apparent “war time necessity” Danzig was remilitarized by Germany (Göring insisted the measure was temporary, but many were skeptical), and German economic payments to Poland were being deferred or unilaterally revised by Germany to be less favorable to Poland. For a time, Poland accepted the German demands, concerned that coming into conflict with Berlin would not be worth it. However, by 1942, Polish leadership was concerned that Poland would lose effective independence if they didn’t figure out a way to get out from under the German thumb soon.
In early 1942, Polish Prime minister Slawoj Skladkowski, with the approval of Prseident Ignacy Moscicki secretly sought Soviet support for a Polish exit from the Anti-Comintern pact. After German intelligence discovered these negotiations, Göring resolved to occupy Poland to prevent the country from withdrawing from the pact and harming the strategic situation of Germany in the East. As part of a ruse to leave the Polish Army without a leader, Göring invited Moscicki to Berlin under the guise of negotiating a new commercial treaty. As soon as Moscicki arrived in Berlin, the Wehrmacht (from positions in Germany, Slovakia, Lithuania, and Romania) rapidly occupied Poland (
Operation Tannenberg). As most of the Polish army was still deployed in forward positions in the East to counter a potential Soviet invasion, the Germans encountered little organized resistance in occupying the bulk of the country. Every major city was taken within 3 days, and the Polish army formations in the West of the country were isolated. The suddenness of the German move surprised many Polish units, and the General Staff of the Polish Army was unable to agree upon a coherent action. Many Polish units were disarmed by the Germans without a shot being fired.
When Moscicki returned to Warsaw, he was greeted by a Wehrmacht soldier who relayed Göring’s demands. The price for maintaining nominal Polish sovereignty was the immediate removal of Skladkowski as Prime Minister, in addition to significant territorial concessions (justified by Göring on the basis that Poland could no longer be trusted to allow a secure line of communication and travel to the East). German units would be stationed across the country, and Poland would join the German customs union. While Poland lost much of its affective independence, the alternative presented to Moscicki was placing all of Poland under German civil administration. The Polish President reluctantly agreed to Göring’s demands.
While it took longer than 6 months, Hitler’s prediction that Poland could be easily be reduced to vassal state status was surprisingly prescient. With his Eastern flank secured, Göring once again focused his attention to forcing the United Kingdom to the peace table.