Russia doesn't invade Poland in 1939

[davethelight]

If Russia didn't invade Poland in 1939 just two weks after the Germans, how much longer could the Poles have held out against the Germans?

Would they have had even a chance at holding on long enough for the Brittish and French to send forces there to help in the fight?

[Lord Styphon]

Whether the Soviets invaded or not, Poland was doomed.

Also, how are the British and French going to get there? Going by sea exposes transports to minefields in the Skattegat, not to mention to the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. And when they get to Poland, they'd have to assault German-held harbors.

Going by land, they'd have to fight their way across Germany.

[Sieger]

Operation Barbarossa would have started at the original border of Poland and USSR. This could have made the difference between capturing Leningrad and Moscow and being stopped short of them.

[Musashi]

Poland would resist much longer, of course with no chance to win. The impet of German advance got very low after the first decade of September. The terrain of the present western Belarus was very suitable for defence (its all big swamp). The Polish soldiers could defend there very long, because its imposible to use tanks there, aircrafts (dense fog) and also artillery (no road, or road made of wooden logs layed on swamp).




Best regards

[Andy H]

Musashi your sentiment is admirable but no further meaningful resistance would have come from Poland if Russia hadn't invaded. Maybe a guerilla movement could have survived in the Eastern regions, but on the whole it was a done deal in terms of German victory.

Andy from the Shire

[Musashi]

Musashi your sentiment is admirable but no further meaningful resistance would have come from Poland if Russia hadn't invaded. Maybe a guerilla movement could have survived in the Eastern regions, but on the whole it was a done deal in terms of German victory.

Andy from the Shire

Of course, I agree. I wrote Poland had no chance to win. However Polish resistance could last many days longer.


SALUDO (aprenda espanol )

[Tim Smith]

No, Polish resistance would have only lasted a few days longer, maybe a week at most - just long enough for the Germans to advance to the eastern border and encircle the last outposts of resistance.

In 1939 the Poles threw everything they had against the Germans - when the Russians invaded over two weeks later there were hardly any Polish forces left in the east to oppose them - only a few border guards, scattered reserve units and a few remnants of divisions smashed earlier by the Germans. The Russian invasion of Eastern Poland was a walkover.

So, given the lack of any strong Polish units in the east, the Polish collapse could not have been long delayed.