Poland and the Commonwealth in WW2

Discussions on all aspects of Poland during the Second Polish Republic and the Second World War. Hosted by Piotr Kapuscinski.
szopen
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Joined: 21 May 2004, 16:31
Location: poznan, poland

#61

Post by szopen » 11 Jun 2005, 18:33

The Argus wrote:Right back to Poland.
force would have made it home, but I submit precious few of them. After the fall of Poland, Poles became in effect stateless
Why?!

untill the government in excile got started. Thus neutral countries like the Baltic states (for a brief period), Czechslovakia, Hungary etc, had no problem letting Poles slip through their territory as refugees to third countries who were willing to except them, mainly France. [/quote]

Not true. They were interned in every country (or almost every,m to be safe. It was jsut it was extremley easy fr Polish soldiers to escape from Hungary, and not that much harder from Romania etc, despite best efforts of German diplomats (who officially didn't care about that, while unofficially did everything to stop that).
The point I think we've both forgotten here, is that there was a government in exile who surely had the responcibility for representing their forces. If they didn't see fit (for what ever reason) to think of pulling their men out once the situation had become evident then why are we talking about Chruchill? I'm not expert on the details, but I would assume, that the POlish Govt IN exile must have had some idea of what was going on, even of the western allies didn't tell them anything about the deals with Moscow, the very fact that there were allied conferences and they were not being told what was happening with their country, should have given them some hint to which way the wind was blowing.
Yup. Mikolajczak at the end of war told Churchill something in sense, that Poland had committed so and so many divisions, and Churchill answered that he can took all his divisions back, and he don't need it (he dind't in 1944).
But this was NO option as this would totally marginalised Polish case and further legitimize communist puppets. Despite, Polish army,a s brutal as it sounds, did not existed without allied support. If Mikolajczyk would say Ok, i take out my divisions, it wouldn't hurt in 1944 allied position large, but 1) Polish army woiuld stop to exists 2) in what light would that put Polish government? The honour word had still large importance for Polish army during WWII. It was just no option to cease the fight.

Churchill knew that as well.

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thorwald77
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Joined: 25 Sep 2007, 18:42
Location: usa

Casualties in Annexed territories Polish or Soviet?

#62

Post by thorwald77 » 26 Sep 2007, 00:10

The Polish official report on war losses published in 1947 included losses for Poland in 1939 borders, The Russian report on war dead by Andreev published in 1992 included losses within Soviet borders of 1946-91. The Polish list 6 million war dead and the Russians 26.6 million. Both include the annexed territories, Wikipedia says that Polish historians claim 2 million war dead in these territories. It seems there is a double counting of losses. Can anyone comment?


dcmatkins
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Joined: 25 Sep 2004, 22:41
Location: cleveland england

polish commonwealth

#63

Post by dcmatkins » 30 Sep 2007, 23:13

Been British il try not be biased.

Every nation bungles as much as us.

Commonwealth troops were no more cannon fodder than the British troops. 1st July 1916 Somme. Lions lead by donkeys.

Every country uses two other countries against each for its own agenda. its called diplomacy. when it fails we get war.

Militarily do u win a war or does the enemy lose it. One think needs to be put in context with another.

Enigma won the war. Did Germany lose the war when it invaded Russia long term.
Enigma shortened the war. Had the Japs not attacked Pearl Harbour and Hitler not declared war on the U.S . Would the war have taken longer without the U.S economy.

Did the Polish win the Battle of Britain solely ? Or did Goring lose it when he attacked London instead of airfields.

Dieppe or D DAY failure and success.

Had Germany not invaded Russia. Would Stalin have got his opportunity to dominate Eastern Europe.
Tehran and Yalta western betrayal or Russian bluff. Remember the Russians pulled out of WW1.

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