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That's the Explorers Podcast. Hello everyone and welcome to History of the Second World War, episode 115, the September

campaign part 7, September 1st, 1939.

Before we get started today, I wanted to just briefly discuss how the podcast is going to cover the September campaign, or the German invasion of Poland.

In my opinion, the best way to do so on a podcast like this one is to break it up into logical chunks, with the first period being

September 1st through September 4th. During those three frantic days, the German invasion would

begin, and the first major defeats of Polish forces in the field would occur, with Polish

armies all along the border retreating back back roughly in the direction of Warsaw.

Over the next five episodes, we will discuss these three days by looking at the experiences of various geographic regions of fighting, starting in the north and then working our way

to the south.

My goal with this arrangement is to make the action easy to follow, especially around geography,

which I know can be really tough in an audio-only format like a podcast. And so with all that out of the way,

on to the episode. The German invasion of Poland was scheduled to begin at 4.45 a.m. on September

1st, 1939. The order for the invasion had been given the day before,

and it had been confirmed in the evening as units began to deploy to their jumping off points.

All along the border between Germany and Poland, German troops would move forward closer to the

border, reached their jumping off points, and then begin what was at times the most difficult

...