Chapter 84:

February 5, 1940

Northern Poland, near Gdańsk (Danzig), Westerplatte

"Run, run-!"

"Gasp, air raid-!"

After the storm of tanks had swept through and cut off their retreat route, the Polish Army was being unilaterally attacked by the German infantry unit and pushed back in a frenzy.

German Hs 123 biplanes flew through the sky, strafing every Polish soldier in sight with their machine guns, and whenever the frantically fleeing Polish soldiers tried to take cover behind a friendly tank, a deafening roar would invariably split the air.

"Ugh, it's a Stuka again!"

In the plains devoid of cover, the only salvation the infantry could find was tanks, but even those were directly hit on their tops by the Stuka's dive bombing, exploding and turning into flaming coffins.

The already few and precious Polish tanks had performed reasonably well in the early stages of the war when the number of German troops was small, but once enemy reinforcements from Italy arrived and they lost air superiority, they began to be destroyed all too easily.

"General, we need help! At this rate, we will be trapped and encircled in Gdańsk and Gdynia!"

The commander of the Pomeranian Army defending the Gdańsk area, Władysław Bortnowski, shouted urgently, but the voice from the other end was not very positive either.

[What a coincidence, General Bortnowski.

We were just about to request support from the Pomeranian Army ourselves, as we are also encircled in Poznań.]

Hearing the despondent words of the commander of the Poznań Army, General Kutrzeba, General Bortnowski was too shocked to speak.

"You are encircled as well?"

[That's right. We should have pulled out as soon as the attack began if we wanted to retreat.

We've been thoroughly had. Their objective from the start was to trap us.

]

The Pomeranian Army defending Gdańsk and the Poznań Army defending Poznań are Poland's main forces. But to think they were all encircled? It was a nightmare for the Polish Army.

I wondered what the enemy tank units were doing, not attacking major strongpoints even after breaking through the front line, but it turned out they were indiscriminately driving the Polish front line into an encirclement and cutting off their connection to rear units.

It was a disaster caused by the chaos of the surprise attack at dawn, compounded by the superiors' misjudgment to hold their positions.

The Polish Army, which had already lost a significant number of its armored units in an unreasonable offensive and had its air superiority taken away, missed the timing to retreat and was pushed around according to the enemy's intention, unable to even put up a proper resistance.

"I-I've never seen a war like this.

We haven't even fought properly, yet we're already encircled!"

[I don't know who planned this operation, but their encirclement is not something we can break through on our own. We have no choice but to hold out individually until reinforcements arrive.

]

However, even General Kutrzeba, who said this, did not have high expectations for a rescue by the Polish Army.

With both of Poland's main forces encircled, the only Polish troops left in the rear were second-rate forces at best.

-

Instead of the hasty and sloppy Invasion of Poland from the original history, the German military, having prepared a sophisticated operation, struck the flaw-ridden Polish Army that was engaged in an unreasonable offensive, achieving tremendous military gains and succeeding in completely encircling the enemy's main force.

Of course, this was only possible because there were enough motorized infantry units to support the armored units thanks to the fuel and trucks purchased from America, the supply units were using trucks instead of horses, and the battlefield was Poland's vast plains.

However, the very culprit who planned and brought the operation to a huge success was feeling displeased.

"General Lutz and General Rommel's units have already completed their breakthrough to the west bank of the Vistula River?"

[That's correct, Chief of the General Staff.

]

Hearing Tresckow's voice from the other end, Manstein made an unimpressed expression. Of course, it was correct for things to turn out this way according to Manstein's operation plan.

According to his operation plan, Guderian and his armored unit were to break through and annihilate the enemy unit located between Silesia and Poznań, thereby severing the connection between Warsaw and Poznań.

And that succeeded brilliantly under Guderian and his command.

The enemy forces defending the Silesia area, bewildered by an armored breakthrough they had never seen before, were pushed back to Łódź, and the enemy's main Poznań Army was splendidly caught in Rundstedt's encirclement.

Until then, Manstein had been feeling quite triumphant, but the northern region pulled it off too?

"In the direction of the Pomeranian Army, there are the enemy's major strongpoints of Bydgoszcz and Danzig.

They broke through that and pushed the enemy into an encirclement? Isn't that a false report?"

[…I doubt they are the kind of personnel who would report in such a manner on such an important operation…]

At the sound of his subordinate's somewhat cynical voice, Manstein let out a ahem.

That guy, Major General Tresckow… he's been subtly arrogant ever since he made a name for himself as a working-level official and advanced his career since the early days of the new government…

[General Rommel is said to have captured Bydgoszcz on the second day of the offensive, and on the third day, struck the rear of the enemy's defense line that General Lutz was breaking through, leading to a complete collapse of the enemy.

]

"…Is that so?"

I thought that fledgling who even refused the honorable admission to the War Academy had only gotten lucky by killing Hitler, but for that drifter to achieve such an amazing military merit.

"Ahem. Well, it's a good thing it went according to plan. Good work."

Manstein ended the phone call and clicked his tongue.

The plan he had devised seemed to have similar offensive conditions for the northern and southern regions at first glance, but in reality, that wasn't the case.

The southern region that Guderian and Manstein had to break through was a wide area to cover, but the enemy's force concentration level was not very high.

So, Manstein paired Lutz, who was on a series of victories and revered as the father of German armored warfare thanks to joining the new government from the start, with the relatively clumsy infantry-background general Rommel, and deployed them to the north.

His plan was to either offer them just enough support to take the credit if Lutz and Rommel's breakthrough was delayed, or for him and Guderian to secure a wider territory and push back the enemy to claim the glory…

Lutz and Rommel successfully carried out the operation by definitively securing the west bank of the Vistula River as planned.

"If it turns out like this, we'll have to share the credit! What the hell did some infantry-background nobody who came from god-knows-where do!"

In the end, since he was the one who drew up the operation, the credit was his, but for Manstein, who wanted to stand out the most, it was far from satisfying.

It was the moment Rommel was added to Manstein's list of persons of interest, after Model and Lutz.

-

February 6, 1940

The capital of Poland, Warsaw

"The Pomeranian Army and the Poznań Army are both encircled?"

To the question from Inspector General of the Armed Forces Rydz-Śmigły, who sounded as if he couldn't believe it, General Kopański replied with his eyes squeezed shut.

"That is correct, Your Excellency, the Inspector General. They have occupied the west bank of the Vistula River from the north, and in the south, they have pushed our army back to Łódź, completely severing our main force from Warsaw."

Rydz-Śmigły slumped into his chair.

"We, our Polish Army, are in such inferiority? This can't be…"

Of course, he didn't expect to win a total war against Germany, and it was a surprise attack that caught them off guard, but for the entire main force to be encircled and pushed back to the 2nd Defense Line in just four days?

Rydz-Śmigły felt a cold sweat run down his spine.

When Italy was suffering a series of losses against the German military, he had inwardly scoffed at the incompetence of the Italian Army, which considered itself a great power, but to think they would end up in the same state.

"Is there any way to break through the enemy and rescue our forces?"

"Our forces outnumber the enemy's, but they have many armored units, while we have lost almost all of our heavy equipment and are in need of reorganization."

The Polish Army, pushed back to the 2nd Defense Line, had lost almost all of its already precious heavy equipment, including tanks and artillery, while retreating in a panic after the surprise attack.

At least the cavalry units, which were numerous in the Polish Army's formation, had good mobility for retreating and many managed to withdraw safely, but even the Polish High Command knew that facing armored units with them was a suicidal act.

At this point, the only option was to hope the main force could hold out for as long as possible, and to defend the 2nd Defense Line along the Vistula River with the remaining forces.

"France is…"

To Rydz-Śmigły's question, thrown out as a last hope, Minister of Foreign Affairs Józef Beck shook his head.

"They just keep repeating that they will enter the war soon, and to wait."

Even in the Phony War of the original history, France repeated the same words and simply stood by, watching Poland collapse.

But Poland, unaware of this, could only hang on to its last remaining hope, not knowing it was a rotten rope.

"Keep urging France to enter the war even a little sooner."

The former Polish Prime Minister, Władysław Sikorski, was a Lieutenant General by military rank, but because he had fallen out of favor with the successors of Piłsudski, represented by the Sejm and Rydz-Śmigły, he had to sit still and just watch the scene without command of any unit.

He glanced at President Mościcki, who was still silent, but Mościcki just shook his head.

Sikorski, having been favorable to liberals, had a relatively good understanding of democracy for someone in Poland, and thus saw the possibility of France entering the war as low.

But even so, there was no one here who would support him. Sikorski let out a deep sigh.

Poland is in a predicament, yet they still cling to a futile hope, not knowing when or how Stalin might turn on them.

-

February 6, 1940

The capital of France, the 'City of Light' Paris

"Poland's main force is already isolated? What on earth were they doing!"

The French Prime Minister, Paul Reynaud, was despondent upon hearing the news from Poland.

That powerful nation that had won against the Soviet Union was collapsing so quickly?

When they held off the Italian Army, he had thought it was only possible because the enemy had made good use of the advantageous terrain of the Alps and because it was a defensive battle.

However, the capability of the German military, which had launched an offensive that pushed the Polish Army into a predicament in just a few days while also deploying an additional 40 divisions to the Siegfried Line on the French border and maintaining the Italian Front, was something he could no longer underestimate.

"Poland keeps requesting that we enter the war. For now, we've postponed our reply, saying we will join in the near future, but…"

Daladier said, his words trailing off, and the French Army Commander Gamelin, who received his gaze, gave an answer different from the Prime Minister's expectations.

"Our offensive plan is still incomplete, Your Excellency, the Prime Minister. The armored divisions are only just being formed, and with the enemy having deployed considerable forces to the Siegfried Line and their morale high, a rash offensive could lead to a disaster on the scale of the last great war."

The report, which took several days to arrive via messenger, ultimately stated that more time was still needed.

France had to buy time with a Phony War during the Invasion of Poland in the original history as well, but thanks to the war of nerves between the political sphere and the military over whether to halt rearmament when the civil war broke out in Germany, the situation was even more of a chaos, if not worse.

The French military, knowing better than anyone that their own preparations were incomplete, felt a considerable burden from the immense capability the German military had shown in Poland and the fact that the German generals who had crushed the Italian Army were defending the Siegfried Line.

Prime Minister Paul Reynaud spat out miserably.

"I thought our France was great, but I guess it wasn't."

He had consistently been an anti-Germany hard-liner since the last great war, opposing reductions in war reparations and advocating for punitive measures against Germany, but he was feeling a sense of frustration at the reality that he could not stop Germany's growth.

Daladier looked at his successor, crushed by the debt accumulated from his own defeat in the Munich Agreement and the diplomatic war in London, and opened his mouth with a heavy expression.

"Prime Minister. Britain and America have also come forward to request our restraint. The public backlash is by no means small either."

The French press had downplayed Dietrich Schacht's speech as merely a politician's threat to stir up German animosity towards France, but as the British and American press praised the speech and a mood calling for French self-restraint was created, a serious backlash was beginning to rise within France as well.

Daladier had agonized and agonized, but in the end, he opened his mouth with a bitter feeling.

"We have done enough. Being more stubborn here is by no means for the good of France."

Seeing even his long-time comrade ultimately oppose him, Paul Reynaud gave a despondent laugh and muttered.

"We've lost. But this is only a defeat for the Radical Party.

France has not been defeated…"

-

On the Champs-Élysées, the central avenue of Paris, the citizens of Paris were marching with picket signs.

[Why die for Danzig!]

[I don't want to send my son to the slaughterhouse!]

The older generation of France, who already felt revulsion at the immature young men being swept up in playing soldier and propaganda and agitation, especially those who had experienced the hell of the last great war and survived by luck, gathered in large numbers, holding an anti-war protest.

When young university students with liberal tendencies also gathered here, the scale of the protest began to grow uncontrollably.

Colonel Charles de Gaulle looked out the window at the scene and spoke with a displeased expression.

"At this rate, the war with Germany is a lost cause."

"It's not bad, General. After all, the collapse of the Radical Party regime has become a fait accompli."

On the other hand, François de La Rocque leisurely sipped his wine and handed the wine glass in his other hand to de Gaulle.

"That's true. Our promise will remain valid, won't it, Party Leader?"

"Ah, of course, Colonel. Our Socialist Party is different from those who were wary of the military under the pretext of it not following civilian control. We will reform France onto a more correct path together with the military."

De Gaulle took the wine glass offered by La Rocque and made a toast with him.

Hearing the clear sound of the wine sloshing and the glasses clinking, de Gaulle savored the aroma of the wine before taking a sip.

"It's quite good."

"Isn't it?"

La Rocque looked down at the citizens marching in the street and smiled faintly.

"Don't worry too much, Colonel. Aren't those marching on the streets now also acting out of patriotism for France? If we just guide them in the right direction, their passion will be put to more appropriate use under a more excellent regime."

De Gaulle swirled the wine glass, took another sip, and spoke with calm, sunken eyes.

"It must be so. A France that is not great is not France.