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POD: Stalin is hurt after falling off a horse and is not present for the Polish campaign. His lack of political meddling prevents Semyon Budyonny from riding off with the First Cavalry Army to Lwow. He does move south to support the Southwest front, but returns when ordered to by Tukhachevsky. As a consequence, Warsaw is captured and the Polish severely battered.

August, 1920: The battle plan was put into motion. Tukhachevsky could not afford to wait for Budyonny to secure his southern flank, but it was enough that the 1st Cavalry Army was on the way. The Red Army was on the move and expecting a victory over the under equipped and outnumbered Poles. But as with any way laid plan, it did not survive contact with the enemy. Pilsudski, the Polish commander, had correctly diagnosed the weakness in the Soviet disposition and deployed his forces to take advantage of the undermanned southern flank of Tukhachevsky's advance. His army crashed in to the Soviet lines on the 13th pressing hard to drive the invader out of the newly established nation. But the attack had not gone unnoticed and the Soviet radio transmitters had informed Tukhachevsky of the danger developing on his southern flank. Budyonny was also made aware of the Polish victories and drove his men harder to reach the battle. While the northern flank of the Soviet advance was making progress, the disaster looming to the south threatened to collapse the lines and threaten the entire Red Army in northern and central Poland.

But on the morning of the 15th, the 1st Cavalry army had arrived. It signaled the changing of the course of battle. The Polish forces guarding the southern flank of the attack were completely caught off guard, as it was thought that Budyonny was tied up around Lwow. The assault would rupture the Polish lines and threaten to cut off the advance from supply. Pilsudski made a grim choice: he sacrificed the advanced units of the offensive as a speed bump, while he withdrew and set up a defence closer to Warsaw. However the speed of Budyonny's aggressive counter attack and the continued advance of the Red Army to the north of the city made the plan unfeasible. Warsaw needed to be abandoned to salvage the army and the war. The casualty list was massive: nearly 12,000 Polish soldiers were killed, 25,000 wounded, and nearly 50,000 captured. But the Russians were also attrited with 5,000 killed, 17,000 wounded and 15,500 missing. After the fall of Warsaw on the 25th, the advance halted to reorganize the army. Pilsudski had fallen back to Lodz with the remanents of his smashed army.

In the South, Lwow still held out and without the 1st Cavalry army of Budyonny, the outcome was uncertain. But the fall of Warsaw had demoralized the Polish defenders and the effects began to be felt at the front. On the 30th, Budyonny set out to continue the fight in the south and would contribute to the fall of Lwow on the 15th of September. Polish forces would then fall back to Przemysl and later to Tarnow, as they were harried by the feared Soviet cavalry.

Further west the loss of Warsaw had a massive impact on Paris and London. The war had for a long time been in doubt and now with the Red Tide seeming to be at the gate of Germany, time had come for action. The Allies called on Germany to take up arms against the Soviets and drive them out of Poland. This came as welcome news to the Germans, as they now held a massive trump to the Versailles Diktat. Immediately, the faltering Weimar government that had just barely survived a putsch by the right wing, began to negotiate for better terms. How could Germany, her leaders reasoned, be able to fight the Soviets with so many restrictions? As much as the republic would like to fight communism, there were uprisings in Germany too. What about French or British soldiers for the war?

These questions would be extremely uncomfortable, as Poland had little support in Britain or France among the working class, who were actively resisting even supplying the war effort. It was politically unfeasible for Allied troops to aid the Poles. Realizing their bargaining weakness, the Allies tried the carrot approach. For negotiated changes to the ToV, Germany would be enticed to enter the war. However, there was a steep price. The public in France was incensed that the Germans were going to be let off the hook for their obligations, no less in support of the Imperialistic Poles! British public opinion was no friendlier to the motion, but the government could see no other option.

For the enterance into the war, Germany would get the following changes to the ToV: The ability to assert military power in the Rhineland if necessary, but no permanent troops. There would be a moratorium on reparations for the duration of the war, and then the amount would be reduced by half (this caused riots throughout France). The German army would have unlimited expansion during the war, but afterwards would be limited to 300,000 regular, long service professionals and 400,000 reservists. Heavy artillery up to the 305mm caliber would be allowed, as would observation and fighter aircraft. Armored cars would be allowed, but no tanks or gas. Additionally, the Eastern border would be up for revisions at the end of the war. Germany would be immediately included in the League of Nations as a full member state. Several additional, smaller clauses were included, but their effects were mostly negligible.

With this mandate from the west, Germany began to reincorporate the Freikorps into the Reichswehr. Men like General Max Hoffman were called back to lead the fight. But as soon as all this began, the Germans began dragging their feet. Additional training was needed, rail lines needed to be built, supplies manufactured and transported. Though exasperated, the Allies could do little but glower. Eventually German forces began to move again, but slowly. Meanwhile, the Polish were fighting for their lives. By November, Tarnow and Lodz and fallen to the Red armies, brutal battles being waged along the way. The Polish army, what remained of it, was shattered and fighting its way west, to Germany. Pilsudski was intensely demoralized by the defeat of his dream for Polish independance. In Warsaw, the Soviet Republic of Poland had been declared, a dagger in his heart. Obvious now that the Germans would not come in time, he launched one last offensive to allow the fleeing civilians time to flee. General Pilsudski was killed leading a cavalry charge Torun, the last hurrah of the Polish army.

By December, German forces finally moved across the border into Danzig and the remaining areas of Polish control. The Red army, though battered, was veteran and scrappy. Though the initial fighting was intense, they resulted in a stalemate. Torun or Thorn was liberated by January and shortly after the 1914 border was reoccupied, the Reichswehr entrenched, waiting for the Soviets to attack. At this point, it was obvious to the leadership in Moscow that the revolution could not be extended into Germany, the greatest evidence being the quick crack down on uprisings in the Ruhr and Saxony by the Heer. Though the war was still officially on, the fighting had stopped, as both sides negotiated. The Germans had an interest in mantaining the illusion of war, so a peace would not be achieved until nearly June. In the meantime, a 'sitzkrieg' would occupy the soldiers on both sides. Ultimately, the war would end with the same, rough borders that the armies occupied. Poland would be a Soviet ally now, and Germany would be the border with the west.
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