A Polish warcrime that changes a war

Many commentaries on the invasion of France mention that Germany had made good their losses from the invasion of Poland and recovered all pilots from Polish POW camps.

There doesn't seem to be much more to it than that talked about.

So I do some digging in various sources about the Luftwaffe in the invasion of Poland.

I see 285 lost aircraft and 279 damaged aircraft but what got me wondering was the 224 Luftwaffe POWs. 150 of them were pilots. Would it have changed anything in the war if those POWs were killed. Perhaps Poland equates luftwaffe with bombing raids on civilians in Warsaw and equates bombing civilians with war criminal.

Would the execution of these Luftwaffe POWs have an effect on ww2. I would imagine that launching the battle of Britain may be considered more of a risk due to the loss of so many pilots. Although they could launch and lose a little earlier. I doubt it would have an effect on France.

Please lets not focus on the fact that the mass murder of Polish civilians would be likely to begin earlier.
 

BigBlueBox

Banned
"Hey, let's put all the POWs in this warehouse."

"Oh no, the warehouse accidentally caught on fire. And there's fuel in there! Too bad we locked the doors so nobody could get out."

"We'll just say the Germans bombed the warehouse."
 

Deleted member 1487

Many commentaries on the invasion of France mention that Germany had made good their losses from the invasion of Poland and recovered all pilots from Polish POW camps.

There doesn't seem to be much more to it than that talked about.

So I do some digging in various sources about the Luftwaffe in the invasion of Poland.

I see 285 lost aircraft and 279 damaged aircraft but what got me wondering was the 224 Luftwaffe POWs. 150 of them were pilots. Would it have changed anything in the war if those POWs were killed. Perhaps Poland equates luftwaffe with bombing raids on civilians in Warsaw and equates bombing civilians with war criminal.

Would the execution of these Luftwaffe POWs have an effect on ww2. I would imagine that launching the battle of Britain may be considered more of a risk due to the loss of so many pilots. Although they could launch and lose a little earlier. I doubt it would have an effect on France.

Please lets not focus on the fact that the mass murder of Polish civilians would be likely to begin earlier.
You'd need to know how many German pilots were captured by the Poles to begin with and how many of their own soldiers in retaliation they'd like to see executed. Beyond that there is the issue of how quickly those PoW camps were overrun; likely many were liberated before they even got out of Polish field unit custody. The Poles could have also evacuated them via Romania too.
 
You'd need to know how many German pilots were captured by the Poles to begin with
150 Luftwaffe pilots 74 other aircrew.

how many of their own soldiers in retaliation they'd like to see executed.

I'd prefer not to consider the reprisals.

Beyond that there is the issue of how quickly those PoW camps were overrun; likely many were liberated before they even got out of Polish field unit custody. The Poles could have also evacuated them via Romania too.
Through the practicality could be a challenge.
 

Deleted member 1487

I'd prefer not to consider the reprisals.
You might not but the Poles would (and did historically).

Through the practicality could be a challenge.
Sure, as would mass executing Luftwaffe personnel. They knew about the German response to the Polish crackdown on Volksdeutsche uprisings.
 
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