in the early morning the Third Reich attacked Poland without warning. None of the major participants — Germany, the Western Allies, the Soviet Union,which attacked Poland on September 17, or Poland itself — expected that this German invasion of Poland would lead to a war that would surpass the First World War in scale and cost. This military operation marked the start of the Second World War in Europe as the invasion led Poland’s allies, the United Kingdom and France, to declare war on Germany on September 3.
The world had been plunged into its second world war in 25 years. Six long and bloody years of total war, fought over many thousand of square kilometres followed. From the Hedgerows of Normandy to the streets of Stalingrad, the icy mountains of Norway to the sweltering deserts of Libya, the insect infested jungles of Burma to the coral reefed islands of the Pacific Ocean
On land, sea and in the air, Allied fought Axis, in a conflict which was finally settled with nuclear weapons. World War 2 involved every major world power in a war for global domination and at its end, more than 60 million people had lost their lives and most of Europe and large parts of Asia lay in ruins.
Salute to all the victims of these horrible times, in esp. to Polish soldiers and civilians who had to fight against a much more powerful enemy without any help from their Allies during the hot September off 1939.
Let’s hope such tragedy will never happen again.