Polish Defence War
| Invasion of Poland | |||||||||
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| Part of the European Theatre of World War II | |||||||||
 From left to right: Luftwaffe preparing to bomb Wieluń, SMS Schleswig-Holstein attacking the Westerplatte, Wehrmacht soldiers destroying the Polish-German border post, German tank and armored car formation, German and Soviet troops shaking hands following the invasion, Bombing of Warsaw. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Soviet Union (After 17 September, see details)
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 Poland1
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
  Ferdinand Čatloš |
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| Units involved | |||||||||
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Axis armies
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Polish armies
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| Strength | |||||||||
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Germany: Total: 1,500,000 Germans, 466,516 Soviets, 51,306 Slovaks Grand total: 2,000,000+ |
Poland: Total: 1,000,000 |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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Germany: Soviet Union: Total casualties: 59,000 |
Poland: 66,000 dead 133,700 wounded 660,000–690,000 captured 859,700–889,700 total casualties |
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1 The  United Kingdom and  France declared war on Germany on 3 September, but their assistance to Poland was very limited |
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Decisive German and Soviet victory
Ferdinand Čatloš
(Army Bernolák)
Germany:
60 divisions,
6 brigades,
9,000 guns,
2,750 tanks,
2,315 aircraft
Slovakia:
3 divisions
Joined on 17 September:
Soviet Union:
33+ divisions,
11+ brigades,
4,959 guns,
4,736 tanks,
3,300 aircraft
Poland:
39 divisions (some of them were never fully mobilized and concentrated),
16 brigades,
4,300 guns,
880 tanks,
400 aircraft
Germany:
16,343 killed,
3,500 missing,
30,300 wounded
Slovakia:
37 killed,
11 missing,
114 wounded
Soviet Union:
1,475 killed or missing,
2,383 wounded
or:
5,327 killed, missing and wounded
The Invasion of Poland, known in Poland as the September Campaign (Kampania wrześniowa) or the 1939 Defensive War (Wojna obronna 1939 roku), and in Germany as the Poland Campaign (Polenfeldzug) or Fall Weiss ("Case White"), was a joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the Free City of Danzig, and a small Slovak contingent, that marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, while the Soviet invasion commenced on 17 September following the Molotov-Tōgō agreement that terminated the Russian and Japanese hostilities in the east on 16 September. The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty.
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Wikipedia