Before The World War: Spies and Soldiers

[PoliticalChic]

Animosity and opportunities weigh against peaceful coexistence....next only to human nature.


German general Guderian, leader of panzer divisions, wrote in his book:

1. ""Mankind is arming on all sides, and it will go ill with a state that is unable or unwilling to rely on its own strength. Some nations are fortunate enough to be favored by nature. Their borders are strong, affording them complete or partial protection against hostile invasion, through chains of mountains or wide expanses of sea. By way of contrast, the existence of other nations is inherently insecure. Their living space is small and in all likelihood ringed by borders that are inherently open, and lie under constant threat from an accumulation of neighbors who combine an unstable temperament with armed superiority."
"Achtung Panzer!" By Heinz Guderian



Of course, on one side of the quote is the United States.

The other is Poland.



Imagine being a citizen of Poland in 1937. How could one not be anxious, fearful?

The above is from Alan Furst's novel, "The Spies of Warsaw."

Silesia - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia




2. Poland is bordered by two traditional enemies, Germany and Russia, allies of one another in 1937.

"..it was not so good to speak German in this city [Warsaw, Poland], 1937. Germany had absorbed the western part of Poland in 1795-Russia ruled the east, Austria-Hungary the southwest corner-for a hundred and twenty-three years, a period the Poles called the Partition, a time of national conspiracy and defeated insurrection, leaving ample bad blood on all sides. With the rebirth of Poland in 1918, the new borders left a million Germans in Poland and two million Poles in Germany, which guaranteed that the bad blood would stay bad. So, for a German visiting Warsaw, a current of silent hostility, closed faces, small slights:we dont want you here."
Furst,"The Spies of Warsaw," p. 3


Toward whom could the Poles, in this vise of hostility, look for help?
The League of Nations?
Hitler swore never to become a member...Russia was in it but used its membership to support Hitler. Later, Russia was expelled.
Poland had one ally. Know who it was?




In this dialogue from the novel, we see the the limits of the League.....
3. " What do you do for the League [of Nations]?

Report on legal claims, mostly, a form of arbitration. When the League redrew the Silesian border in 1921, after the third uprising, tens of thousands of Poles and Germans were in a new country, and private citizens continued to submit claims to the League, seeking satisfaction they couldnt get from local courts. Its the same up in Danzig, declared by the League a Free City, but what you have is a German population governed by Poles. All this led to local disputes-land ownership, unfair administration, tax problems. We don't have legal standing, but we try to arbitrate, and sometimes the local courts are responsive. Anyhow its a last resort, for Poles and Germans, even though Germany left the League when Hitler came to power. The League is, if nothing else, persistent: war doesnt work, try the courts."

.... now youll be in it again. Spain is just the beginning, itll spread from there.

Inevitable, you believe?

From the people I talk to, yes. Eaten up with grievance, especially the Germans. Getting even is what they think about."
Furst, Op. Cit., p.61




Poland was a poor nation, and it's military and armaments were no match even for one of the enemies....much less, both.

 

[rightwinger]

I still say we have to watch out for Canada

Never trusted them

 

[Moonglow]

..it was not so good to speak German in this city [Warsaw, Poland], 1937. Germany had absorbed the western part of Poland in 1795-Russia ruled the east,

The Prussians absorbed the Western part, the Russians the East and Pomerania went to Austria...

 

[PoliticalChic]

I still say we have to watch out for Canada

Never trusted them

Attention Toro!

 

[JakeStarkey]

We are caught between in Mexico and Canada with the Bermudas off our eastern shores and Jamaica and Cuba off our southern shores.

Achtung America!

 

[rightwinger]

We are caught between in Mexico and Canada with the Bermudas off our eastern shores and Jamaica and Cuba off our southern shores.

Achtung America!

The population of Canada is massed at our borders ready to invade

 

[PoliticalChic]

..it was not so good to speak German in this city [Warsaw, Poland], 1937. Germany had absorbed the western part of Poland in 1795-Russia ruled the east,

The Prussians absorbed the Western part, the Russians the East and Pomerania went to Austria...

While the OP began with "Animosity and opportunities weigh against peaceful coexistence....next only to human nature,".....

....perhaps this should have been in there as well: communism.
It was the culprit in over 100 million murders in the century of genocide.


4. "The Battle of Warsaw- refers to the decisive Polish victory in 1920 at the apogee of the Polish–Soviet War. Poland, on the verge of total defeat, repulsed and defeated the invading Red Army. It was, and still is, celebrated as a great victory for the Polish people over Russia and communism.

As Soviet forces invaded Poland in summer 1920, the Polish army retreated westward in disorder. The Polish forces seemed on the verge of disintegration and observers predicted a decisive Soviet victory.

The battle of Warsaw was fought from August 12–25, 1920 ..." Battle of Warsaw 1920 - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia




Lenin was in power- he died in 1924, and Stalin assumed power.

It was in this period that communism gave birth to its sibling, Nazism.

Communism: international socialism;...Nazism: national socialism.

Poland had a long history of having to battle both Germany and Russia....and in 1937, the worst was about to occur.



a. "Thus, in the summer of 1920, after fighting broke out in the Ukraine between Polish army units and Ukrainian partisan bands, and the Red Army had attacked Polish forces around Kiev, it was France that came to Poland's aid, in what had come to be known as the Russo-Polish War. In July, France sent a military mission to Poland, commanded by no less than one of the heroes of the Great War, General Maxime Weygand. The mission staff included ...Captain Charles de Gaulle-.... had returned from German prison camps in 1918, after unsuccessful attempts to escape.

... in mid-August, when the Red Army, having broken through Polish defense lines in the Ukraine, reached the outskirts of Warsaw, .... The Russians were poised for conquest, foreign diplomats had fled Warsaw, the Red Army was just a few miles east of the Vistula, and the Red Army was unstoppable.... the now-famous flank attack led by Marshal Pilsudski, cutting across the Red Army line of advance in what was later called the Miracle of the Vistula.

At five in the afternoon, on the thirteenth of August, 1920, the final assault on Warsaw began in the town of Radzymin, fifteen miles east of the city. As Pilsudski's counterattack was set in motion, the 207th Uhlan Regiment, ... was ordered to take the Radzymin railway station.... Pilsudski's daring gamble had been successful, the Red Army, in confusion, was in full flight back toward the Ukraine: thus, the Miracle of the Vistula.

The Polish army had beaten the Russians, outmaneuvered them, and outfought them. In crisis, theyd been strong-strong enough to overcome a great power, and, therefore, strong enough to stand alone in Europe."
Furst, Op.Cit., p.26-29


But.....for how long?

 

[Mad Scientist]

The Mexicans, Central and South Americans are invading from the South with help from the Traitorous US Government. No Mexican Panzers needed.

Viva la Reconquista!

 

[PoliticalChic]

France was Poland's ally.


Living under the constant, historical, threats from the east and the west, the Poles did what they could to encourage closer relations with said 'ally.'

Perhaps one can put too much faith in one's 'allies.'
Netanyahu can testify to that.



5. " Vyborg was a senior officer in the [Polish] intelligence service, the Oddzial II-the Deuxieme Bureau,named in the French tradition-of the Polish Army General Staff, known as the Dwojka,which meant the two. Vyborg worked in Section IIb, where they dealt with Austria, Germany, and France; Section IIa occupied itself with the countrys primary enemies-thus thea-Russia, Lithuania, Byelorussia, and the Ukraine. "
Furst, Op.Cit., p. 31





France was Poland's ally, and they showed gratitude by purchasing, to the extent a poor nation could, French armaments.

6. "...... the Renault people will be here the day after tomorrow. A delegation of executives and engineers was scheduled to visit Warsaw, a step in the process of selling Renault tanks to the Polish army.

They want to sell us the R Thirty-five, which was demonstrated when the delegation visited the factory. This visit is supposed to close the deal.

The R Thirty-five isnt so bad. Mercier, officially loyal to the national industries, had to say that and Vyborg knew it. For infantry support.

Vyborg shrugged. A thirty-seven-millimeter cannon, one machine gun. And they only go twelve miles an hour, with a range of eighty miles. The armour's thick enough, but you dont get much machine for the money. Truthfully, if it wasnt French, we wouldnt bother, but this is up to Smigly-Rydzs office. He meant the inspector general of the Polish army. And they may have to bow to political pressure, so, potentially, our tank crews will die for the cancan.

What do you have now? The last figure I heard was two hundred.

Thats about right, unfortunately. The Russians have two thousand, best we know, and the same for the Germans. The Ursus factory is working on the Seven TP, our own model, under license from Vickers
Hitler loves his tanks, he said.

Yes, we heard that story. These are wonderful! Make more of them! An infantry soldier in the war, he knows what the British did at Cambrai, a hundred tanks, all at once. The Germans broke and ran."
Furst, Op.Cit.



Germany alone had 25 times as many tanks as Poland did.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Some may believe that Hitler and Stalin were enemies. Actually, both National Socialism and communism spring from the same poisoned well, Marxism.

Stalin backed Hitler's aggressions and provided materials that Germany didn't possess. What was the essential difference between them? Both agreed with Marx's view of genocide....

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact or Nazi–Soviet Pact signed in the late hours of 23 August 1939.



7. Archival footage shows Nazi and Russian officers partying together. The USSR became the supplier of oil, iron ore, construction materials for Hitler's Blitzkrieg. And trainloads of grain were delivered to Hitler by the Soviet dictator- even while the Russian people were starving.


a. Communist party members throughout Europe were ordered to sabotage their nation's forces, and aid the Nazi attackers. The French Communist Party, July 1940: "It is comforting to see workers talking to German soldiers as friends,...'well done, comrades, and keep it up,' ...the brotherhood of man will not be forever a hope, it will become a living reality."



8. Need more proof of the kinship of Stalin and Hitler?

The Soviet Premier Molotov warned the West not to fight Nazi ideology. And in his address to the Supreme Soviet in the Kremlin, Molotov declared that fighting Nazi ideology was actually a crime.....because the two ideologies and methods were the same. Molotov oversaw the extermination of 7 million Ukrainians; Hitler, the Jews.



a. Many Jews fled to the USSR....where Stalin rounded them up, and delivered them to the Gestapo as a gesture of friendship.


Imagine what lunicy it would be if a United States President decided to partner with one these two savages.


Oh....wait........



....he did.

 

[PoliticalChic]

The Nazis and the Soviets were joined-at-the-hip identical twins.
Yet....we helped one destroy the other, and gave communism a cozy home in the highest levels of government.

Today, our most powerful political party espoused the same aims as the post-war communist party.

All thanks to our longest serving President.




So....what evidence that Nazis and communists were brothers-under-the-uniforms?

9. "The Soviet NKVD trained the SS, taught them how to build concentration camps, as they had been operating for 20 years before the origin of the Nazis." Viktor Suvorov, former Soviet Military Intelligence Officer.

"According to Suvorov,Stalin planned to use Nazi Germany as a proxy (the “Icebreaker”) against the West. For this reason Stalin provided significant material and political support to Adolf Hitler, while at the same time preparing the Red Army to “liberate” the whole of Europe from Nazi occupation." Viktor Suvorov - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia


a. "Hitler often stated that he learned much from reading Marx, and the whole of National Socialism is doctrinally based on Marxism."
George Watson, Historian, Cambridge.


b. "Socialists in Germany were national socialists, communists were international socialists."
Vladimir Bukovsky.


The big question about Franklin Roosevelt's actions.......why?

 

[PoliticalChic]

With Karl Marx as their 'mother,' the siblings Adolf Hitler was protected by his older 'brother,' Joseph Stalin.


10. "Early socialists publically advocated genocide, in the 19th and 20th centuries. It first appeared in Marx's journal, Rheinishe Zeitung, in January of 1849. When the socialist class war happens, there will be primitive societies in Europe, two stages behind- not even capitalist yet- the Basques, the Bretons, the Scottish Highlanders, the Serbs, and others he calls 'racial trash,' and they will have to be destroyed because, being two stages behind in the class struggle, it will be impossible to bring them up to being revolutionary."
George Watson, Historian, Cambridge University.


a. "The classes and races, too weak to master the new conditions of life, must give way...they must perish in the revolutionary holocaust."
Karl Marx, People's Paper, April 16, 1856, Journal of the History of Idea, 1981


b. "Before Marx, no other European thinker publically advocated racial extermination. He was the first."
George Watson.
This remains part of the doctrine of totalitarians; if not strong enough to actually slaughter political enemies.....they find other ways to punish, as they do in America.




11. Before it became advantageous to disavow communism, the Nazis claimed kinship with them.

A year after Lenin's death, 1924, the NYTimes published a small article about a newly established party in Germany, the National Socialist Labor Party, which "...persists in believing that Lenin and Hitler can be compared or contrasted...Dr. Goebell's....assertion that Lenin was the greatest man second only to Hitler....and that the difference between communism and the Hitler faith was very slight...."
NYTimes, November 27, 1925.

Hitler and Stalin had agreed to split Europe between them. In June of 1941, as expected by both Stalin and by the American State Department, Hitler broke his treaty and attacked Russia.


But....but.....FDR......he had to ally us with the communists!!!!

Did he?


12. Hanson Baldwin, military critic of the New York Times, declares in his book, "Great Mistakes of the War: 'There is no doubt whatsoever that it would have been to the interest of Britain, the United States, and the world to have allowed and indeed to have encouraged-the world's two great dictatorships to fight each other to a frazzle.'

Baldwin writes that the United States put itself "in the role-at times a disgraceful role-of fearful suppliant and propitiating ally, anxious at nearly any cost to keep Russia fighting. In retrospect, how stupid!"

a. 'When the (anticipated) event that Hitler would attack Stalin's Russia occurred, as he did on June 21st, 1941, America should have done nothing...no more than relaxing restrictions on exports to the Russians...but at the same time securing a quid pro quo for further assistance! Lend-Lease should not have been the automatic and unlimited buffet that it turned into!

"Finally, should the Soviet regime fall,...we should refuse to recognize a Communist government-in-exile,leaving the path clear for establishment for a non-Communist government in Russia after the war."

These were the words of Loy Henderson, Soviet and Eastern European affairs expert and Foreign Service officer, as quoted by Martin Weil in "A pretty good club: The founding fathers of the U.S. Foreign Service," p. 106.


One can only puzzle over FDR's tireless efforts on behalf of the far greater psychopath, Joseph Stalin.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Just as Franklin Roosevelt was always there when Joseph Stalin needed him, so Joseph Stalin was there when Adolph Hitler needed him!


13. When Hitler began his advances on other countries, Stalin refused to join the nations talking of stopping him. Stalin was, in fact, pleased that Hitler was destroying the old order throughout Europe.
"There will be no parliaments, no trade unions, no armies, no governments....then Stalin will come as the liberator...millions of people will be sitting in concentration camps, hoping someone will liberate them, then Stalin and the Red Army will come and liberate them. That was his plan."
Vladimir Bukovsky.





14. But Hitler didn't have the supplies nor resources he needed, so August 23, 1939, Soviet Russia' Foreign Minister Molotov signs the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact while German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop and Soviet leader Josef Stalin look on, while standing under a portrait of Lenin –materials to be provided in later economic agreements.


a. "1939- At the same time, Stalin helps supply the German war effort, providing the Nazi regime with oil, wood, copper, manganese ore, rubber, grain, and other resources under a trade agreement between the two nations.

German troops invade Poland on 1 September. Britain and France declare war on Germany two days later. The Second World War has begun.

Stalin views the war against Germany as a conflict "between two groups of capitalist countries", saying there is "nothing wrong in their having a good fight and weakening each other."
Georgy Zhukov hero file

 

[PoliticalChic]

This thread began with Poland, 1937, preparing for war.....


15. September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland....on September 17, Stalin attacks from the East. The Soviet radio transmitter in Minsk guided the Nazi bombers attacking Polish cities. Newsreel footage showed the Red Army in Nazi helmets, marching side by side with the SS. One photo shows the hammer and sickle along side the swastika.


a. The Soviet press depicted the battle as a fight against Polish fascism, with the peace-loving Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union fighting aggressive Polish fascism.


16. "I know. Too bad about the Poles, but they’ve got to be made to understand we aren’t coming to help them, no matter what the treaties say. We might be able to, if de Gaulle and his allies-like Reynaud-had their way, but they won’t get it. French military doctrine is in the hands of Marshal Petain, de Gaulle’s enemy, and he won’t let go.”

“Defense. And more defense. The Maginot Line.”

“Precisely. De Gaulle’s up at Metz, commanding the Five-oh-seventh Tank Regiment. But there won’t be many more, no armoured divisions, not until nineteen-forty, if then.”

“May I ask why?” Mercier said.

“It’s what I ask myself,” de Beauvilliers said. “What some of us have been asking since Hitler marched into the Rhineland in ‘thirty-six. But the answer isn’t complicated. Petain, and his allies, are committed to the theory of Methodical Battle. Hitler to be appeased-to gain time, to cement our alliance with Great Britain-then a battle of attrition. The British navy blockades, the Germans starve, and we launch a counteroffensive in two to three years. It worked in nineteen-eighteen, after the Americans showed up.”

“It won’t work again, general. Hitler is committed to armoured regiments. He was there, in nineteen-eighteen, he saw what happened.”
Furst, Op. Cit.





Poland had counted on France coming to their aid by attacking Germany from the west.

But.... “Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests.”
Lord Palmerston

....France sat on their Maginot Line while Poland was destroyed.

 

[whitehall]

American lives were sacrificed by Woodie Wilson (or his wife) in a make believe scenario that the U.S. could have influence in the tribal warfare that infected Europe for a thousand years. The courage of 75,000 dead Doughboys saved France and we had to do it all over again under another democrat administration 25 years later.