Richard, your books are a good read in any language
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
best regards, Bill
Moderator: sniper1shot
Aha, danke.Jan-Hendrik wrote:Well, he says that you did overall a good job (and accepts, that Your book was done for the anglian market (where for sure 95% of the readers know next to nothing about the september campaign *JH comment out*)). And that, in his opinion, you rely too much on german sources...but he admits that not many polish works have had a chance to see a translation into a foreign language.
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Jan-Hendrik
Nor from someone who had sworn like a trooper,when he had to memorize the declensions ,the Imperfekt des Konjunktivs and the Zweite Partizip ;I am still shuddering when I rememberJan-Hendrik wrote:No comment on this from someone who's mother tongue is german![]()
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Thank you, dear friend
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Jan-Hendrik
They only write that it is "controversial" because you base almost entirely on German sources (including German accounts), and some of these German sources (especially accounts) are controversial, namely - Nazi or Nazi-like. But the fact that you based your book almost entirely on German sources is only the fault of the Polish side. There is simply a very minimal amount of valuable Polish works on the Defensive War of 1939 translated into foreign languages, so far. There is even a nice conclusion somewhere in these links to reviews (Histmag probably): "we should concentrate on promoting Polish works on this aspect abroad [...], otherwise we will only have fairy tales about Spartans near Wizna". I would only add to this that Poles don't even have fairy tales about Spartans near Wizna because it is Swedish.I keep reading elsewhere that the book is 'controversial'...
But as well was the war of 1940 (during which armoured-motorized divisions constituted just 12% of German forces, while in Poland in 1939 - 26%, so other twice that percentage) and the war of 1941 in the USSR, where encircling enemy forces in pockets was practiced as well as in Poland but on a much bigger scale. And yet this doesn't mean that Blitzkrieg is a myth, as you of course noticed in your book, so I will not pick at it.The war of 1939 was closer to the war of 1914 than the German propaganda machine would have the world believe.
Oh, probably they did before (Mongols, for example). But certainly they did later. It is quite surprising that 1. Gebirgs-Division (not any Panzer division) was the fastest advancing division in Poland in 1939 (since 05.09.1939 until 12.09.1939 - when it was stopped by heavy Polish resistance near Lemberg, after the failed attempt of capturing it - it was advancing on average 23,6 kms per day). And I don't know if it is surprising or not, but in France in 1940 and in the USSR during the so called "fast part" of Barbarossa, German fast divisions were advancing much faster than in Poland in 1939. In Poland for example 1. Panzer-Division was advancing on average 16,5 kms per day in period 01.09.1939 - 07.09.1939 (later of course it was almost not advancing at all, as it was involved in combats near Warsaw and then in liquidating the Bzura pocket), speed of other armoured-motorized units oscilated between 16,5 and 23,5 kms per day (during the "fast periods" of the campaign of course - because later in the campaign almost all of these units were not advancing but were involved in heavy fightings liquidating pockets, resistance nests, etc.). The highest result - 23,5 kms per day - is Guderian (mainly 3. Pz.Div.) in period 09.09.1939 - 18.09.1939. While for example in France in 1940 Panzer Gruppe "Kleist" was advancing on average 27 kilometres per day (during the period 10.05.1940 - 21.05.1940). Hoth was advancing - shocking - 61 kilometres per day in period 13.06.1940 - 19.06.1940 (from the Seine river to the city of Brest). Guderian between 13.06.1940 and 17.06.1940 had got similar advances to Hoth - around 60 kms per day. At the section of 2nd Army (and there Germans had got mainly horse-drawn infantry) they were advancing on average 33,4 kilometres per day between 13 and 25.06.1940. In the USSR (22.06.1941 - 16.07.1941) Guderian and Hoth were advancing on average 30 kms per day - also faster than in Poland.Even with no opposition, armies had never moved so fast before.
Germans found the way how to - maybe not hold positions, but survive inside enemy territory - using armoured forces (namely - "fortified", well protected camps).Theorists had always said that only infantry could take and hold positions.
E-p-h-i-a-l-t-e-s, Ephialtes - this appears to be the correct English spelling.Ephiliates
These were not even utterly Nazi ideals, but yet Prussian ideals from the 19th century.showing how much Nazi ideals had permeated German society.
Hard question.Out of interest, do the many Polish accounts make use of German sources, or are they based largely on Polish sources?
In popular culture, yes. But in professional literature - not.The impression I always get is that the September campaign to many Poles has been so lionised, so mythologised that it's a nolite tangere (do not touch!)
Not necessarily the nearest, I think that the same can be said about mythology surrounding some historical events of every nation.the nearest comparison I can think is the mythology surrounding the evacuation of Dunkirk and Battle of Britain here in the UK.
Just to mention the battle of Crete, which is considered as "pyrrhic German victory" (if against the British, then always must be pyrrhic) and the discovery of 5,500 German graves on the island after the war ended which caused the statement that they were all killed during the battle - this is always repeated in all publications on the battle (while de facto many were members of the Crete garrison who died from natural causes or were killed by local partisans between 1941 and 1945).British people are also mythologizing their country's participation in WW2 (not only Dunkirk and BoB), even nowadays.