ON THIS DAY ·
Siege of Warsaw
8–28 Sep 1939 — Warsaw endures three weeks of bombardment before the capital falls. Its allies watch from behind the Maginot Line. By the end of the month, Poland has been partitioned.
WW2 is free in full, and chapter 1 of every atlas is free. A free account opens 3 more chapters a day. Starter, at $9 a month, opens all 21 with no daily limit — see the plans.
The moment in context
The occupation of Prague in March 1939 changed the argument over Hitler’s intentions. Germany had previously presented its demands as a way to unite Germans; it now took control of a predominantly Czech population. Britain answered on 31 March with a guarantee to Poland. The promise was intended to warn Hitler that an attack would bring a wider war, though Britain could not put an army in Poland in time to stop him.
From Outbreak of WW2 in Europe, chapter 8 of The Road to War, 1931–1941 (1939).
The place: Siege of Warsaw — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — Prague changes the British calculation. Britain’s earlier willingness to negotiate had rested partly on the idea that German demands concerned minorities, plebiscites and treaty…
- The turn — The Kremlin, 23 August 1939. The pact brought together two regimes whose ideologies proclaimed hostility. Their immediate interests made the bargain possible. Hitler reduced the…
- What it changed — The spheres become annexations. The secret protocol allocated spheres on paper; annexations soon gave them a place on the map. Eastern Poland was absorbed after a staged…
Then ask the room: Should Britain and France have guaranteed Poland — a promise they could not keep — or was the guarantee the necessary end of appeasement? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
THE FREE PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE
Get the printable study guide for The Road to War free. I’ll send you a few short letters, then one when a new atlas opens. That’s all. — Paul
NO TRACKING · YOUR ADDRESS IS USED FOR THE DISPATCH AND NOTHING ELSE · UNSUBSCRIBE ANYTIME