Strange War (“Strange War”,)

a common name in literature for the initial period (until May 1940) of the Second World War 1939-45 (See World War II 1939-1945) , when the governments of France and Great Britain, despite these countries declaring war on Nazi Germany on September 3, 1939, did not conduct active combat operations of ground forces on the Western Front. "WITH. V." was interrupted by the offensive of Nazi troops in the West.

Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1969-1978 .

See what “Strange War” is in other dictionaries:

World War II ... Wikipedia

Strange War World War II Evacuation by the Germans of a downed British plane Date September 3, 1939 May 10, 19 ... Wikipedia

STRANGE WAR, a term that characterized the situation on the Western Front during the first nine months (September 1939 May 1940) of the 2nd World War. The Anglo-French and German troops concentrated against them were inactive. Governments... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

A term that characterized the situation on the Western Front during the first nine months (September 1939 May 1940) of the 2nd World War. The Anglo-French and German troops concentrated against them were inactive. The UK Government and... encyclopedic Dictionary

strange war- (in Western Europe, 1939–1940) ... Spelling dictionary of the Russian language

- (war) an armed conflict between two or more parties, usually pursuing political goals. The meaning of the term is that when there is a clash of interests (usually territorial) of large political entities - states or empires ... ... Political science. Dictionary.

This term has other meanings, see War (meanings) ... Wikipedia

A war generated by the system of imperialism and which initially arose within this system between the main fascists. Mr. Germany and Italy, on the one hand, and Great Britain and France, on the other; in the course of further developments, having adopted the world... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia

A war prepared by the forces of international imperialist reaction and unleashed by the main aggressive states - fascist Germany, fascist Italy and militaristic Japan. V.m.v., like the first one, arose due to the action... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Books

• War (ed. 2013), Kozlov Vladimir Vladimirovich. A radical terrorist group is being created in one of the major Russian cities. Its participants are people of different views, ages and life ideas: left-wing anarchist youth,…
• “Strange War” in the Black Sea (August-October 1914), D. Yu. Kozlov. On October 16 (29), 1914, Germany, through the hands of Rear Admiral Wilhelm Souchon, who took over as commander of the fleet of Sultan Mehmed V, dragged Turkey into a world war, as a result of which...

1939 After German troops crossed the Polish border, France, following its treaty obligations, declared war on Germany on September 3, taking up positions on the Maginot Line. The British entered the conflict a little earlier, but nevertheless, neither one nor the other side, while active hostilities were unfolding on Polish territory and the Wehrmacht and Panzerwaffe columns were moving deeper into Polish territory, made any efforts. Why? The explanation is quite simple. Did England and France want to give Poland to Germany? Obviously not, despite the Munich agreement and so on. But everything happened so quickly that neither the military nor the political machines of these countries had time to orient themselves in space and time.

Napoleon said: “Generals are always preparing for the last war.” It can be said that the generals and politicians of England and France were also preparing for a war that was not so rapid, when victory over the enemy was achieved within two to three weeks. They thought that they would have time to think, assess the situation, and then begin to make some decisions: to support Poland in the military-technical aspect, to strike Germany from the Rhineland or not.

The fact is that by the time the Polish campaign began, the Germans on the western border, on the so-called Siegfried Line, had a negligible number of troops. Almost all aircraft and tanks were sent to the Eastern Front, to Poland, while France had great enough potential to overturn the German defense line and invade deep into German territory. This was a real risk for Hitler, but nevertheless he was confident that this would not happen.

One gets the impression that both sides, England and France, were biding their time. What? Firstly, they wanted peace (this can be seen in the example of the same Munich Agreement), they wanted to save the lives of their fellow citizens. By any means.

French soldiers during the “Phantom War” are photographed on the street of the town, December 1939

If we consider the situation after the fall of Poland. Why after this did France never send its troops into German territory? It must be said that Hitler was afraid of this deployment and after the start of the Polish campaign, literally a week and a half later, he began to transfer troops to the Western Front to the border line with France, which were released during the fighting in Poland. That is, he was really afraid of being stabbed in the back. And now the war in Poland ended, the Polish government fled, the territory was divided with the Soviet Union, which greatly strengthened the capabilities of the USSR, including pushing back the western border.

What happened? Strictly speaking, nothing outwardly is as it may seem. In fact, the period from September 1939 to the spring of 1940 was a period of intense diplomatic work by the warring parties. England and France tried to come to an agreement with Hitler by any means necessary to prevent war from breaking out in the Western European theater of operations. Did they think about Hitler marching on the Soviet Union? It is absolutely obvious that no, because otherwise this colossal negotiation process simply would not have happened.

In 1939, France was the main force on the Western Front

In addition, if we go back to the beginning of 1939, then France, which, in fact, was the main force on the Western Front opposing Hitler, at that time was not so much looking for allies, but was calculating with whom it could unite in a future conflict with Germany. And it must be said that, unlike the British, the French did not reject the alliance with the USSR. But everything, perhaps, was ruined by the same notorious Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, when the anti-communists again took over in the internal political life of France, who had an indisputable argument and trump card in all discussions and conflicts. After this, the French realized that they would not be able to form any alliance with the Soviet Union. Naturally, they turned to the British.

US President Franklin Roosevelt addresses the nation on the occasion of the German attack on Poland, September 1939

This may seem strange to some, but in 1939 the French were much stronger militarily. They had quite a large potential in the field of aviation, tanks, and a large group of troops. This begs the question: why did this strange pause without combat occur? At that time, England had lost its leading position in politics: one concession to Germany after another, the lack of real military potential for conducting combat operations on European land relegated it to the background.

As for France, the position was ambivalent. On the one hand, the French did not want to fight Germany, on the other hand, they had a certain confidence in their own strengths, because their army was quite numerous and well-armed. Again, certain hopes are placed on the Maginot Line as a factor that can stop German troops. And in total, all this - fear of war and a certain self-confidence - pushed the French to negotiate with the Germans. The negotiations proceeded intensively, and it must be said that France was ready to make significant concessions in these negotiations. For example, give Germany part of its colonies in Africa.

The French tried to negotiate with Mussolini. The British did the same. But in fact, this pause gave Germany the opportunity to increase its military-technical potential. And, interestingly, neither the French nor the British took advantage of this pause in terms of building up military “muscles,” although it would seem that almost a year is enough time to launch new tanks and aircraft in order to strengthen their potential.

The "Phantom War" was used by Germany to increase power

At the same time, England and France conducted intensive negotiations with the United States, which during the “Phantom War” occupied the position of the main player. Why? The fact is that without America’s participation, France had practically no chance (it was simply ridiculous to talk about England’s military potential at that time). And at a time when the “funny war” was going on, the British and French in every possible way begged the American government, in particular President Franklin Roosevelt, to open an arms supply line, because without Lend-Lease for France and England, talk about victory in a more or less protracted war was impossible.

But here one obstacle arose in the form of American legislation, which long ago introduced an arms embargo. This was the act of 1937, the so-called embargo act.

The fact is that not everyone in the US Senate and Congress shared the need to intervene in the European conflict, based on the assumption that it would work out that way. But it didn’t work out that way, and the most far-sighted US politicians understood this. Various schemes were proposed in the form of the American government selling weapons to some private intermediary companies, which, in turn, would sell it to England and France. But all this took some time, and not a single plane or tank left American territory during this period.

German soldiers at the entrance to a bunker on the Maginot Line, May 1940

As for Roosevelt’s position, after Poland had already fallen, he asked to bring him calculations on the military-technical potential of the United States. The figures that were announced to the president turned out to be frightening. It turns out that at the time the Second World War began, there were 50 thousand people under arms in the United States, that is, a total of about five divisions, which could not be compared with the potential of Germany or France. Weapons and ammunition were stored in the warehouses of the American army for another 500 thousand people. Accordingly, Roosevelt was not ready to squander what little the United States had during the “Phantom War.” And when England and France asked him for 10 thousand aircraft, they simply did not physically exist. Although the United States managed to make certain deliveries before the end of the campaign. And what’s very funny is that during the “Phantom War” of 1939 - 1940, US aviation consisted of 160 fighters, 52 bombers and only 250 pilots capable of taking the controls of the above machines. That is, then, naturally, the United States could not talk about any active involvement in the armed conflict.

But the States wanted and tried to play an important diplomatic role. And we must pay tribute to Roosevelt, who, denying any behind-the-scenes negotiations, did everything possible to circumvent this embargo law. In the end he succeeded.

But the most important thing that America needed was to get out of the state of neutrality. By the way, in parallel with the name “strange war” in relation to the United States, such a concept as “strange neutrality” arose. Roosevelt, realizing that there was no escape, that the conflict was inevitable, and for all that, having refused all negotiations and peace initiatives in 1939, in 1940, in its first half, returned to the idea of ​​mediation, offering his candidacy as organizer of negotiations. He sent Welles, the US Under Secretary of State, to Rome, Paris, London and Berlin. I started with Italy, which also played a fairly important role in this whole game. The French, like the Americans, already expecting a conflict with Germany, also tried to achieve neutrality on the part of Mussolini. They offered the Italians colonies, which at that time were their bargaining chips. The British, on the contrary, refused to give up their colonies in exchange for anything.

During the “Phantom War,” the United States was the main player

However, Welles's visit to Italy was extremely unsuccessful, because when he visited Mussolini, he was constantly dozing in his chair and opened his mouth only when he wanted to make this or that declaration. That is, the dialogue did not work out.

The visit to Paris was also unsuccessful, since the French perceived the US actions, if not as a betrayal, then as a passive wait for how it would all end.

Thus, neither the British nor the French wanted to fight. England had lost its role as arbitrator in the European theater, and the United States had 50,000 men under arms and 160 combat aircraft. Deladier, the French premier, then declared: “To achieve a peaceful solution, there is only one remedy - the great neutral country of the United States must take responsibility for the negotiations and organize an international air force for police purposes.” Only in this role did the French see the participation of the United States, without relying on its armed forces.

Be that as it may, time was lost. Precious time. Then events began to develop according to a well-known scenario.

The “Phantom War” ended in May 1940, when Hitler easily bypassed the Maginot Line. The land war began in France.

In the entire history of mankind, there was perhaps no more strange and incomprehensible war than the one that began on September 3, 1939, when France and England declared war on Germany. The reason for the declaration of war was the German attack on Poland, which the French and British pledged to defend according to the treaties of May 15 and August 25, 1939. The entry of France and England into the war caused rejoicing in Poland, and at first it seemed that Hitler had made a grave mistake by getting into a war on two fronts at once. Although Hitler himself always stated that a war on two fronts, after the sad experience of the First World War, was futile for Germany, and the chances of winning it were zero. However, even without Poland’s participation in the war, the chances of defeating France and England were minimal, because in the late 1930s. these two countries were, as they would say now, superpowers, superior to Germany in almost all respects. The French army was one of the strongest in Europe, in addition, France had the third largest navy in the world, and Germany had little chance of surviving even against France alone, let alone its allies. However, in 1939, for some reason, Hitler was not very worried that he again had to fight on two fronts, and even against an enemy with superior strength. Probably, the Fuhrer really had little reason to worry. This was confirmed by subsequent events.

Border fortifications on the Maginot Line (wapedia.mobi/pl)

While the Wehrmacht was crushing the Polish army, the French and British began to slowly deploy troops, feeding the unfortunate Poles with promises that hostilities would soon begin. However, the German divisions moved deeper and deeper into Poland, and the activity of the French and British was close to zero. On September 13, small units of the French army, without encountering resistance, advanced 8 km deep into German territory, only to withdraw on October 3... back to the state border line. After which there was almost peaceful silence for a long time. By that time, Poland had ceased to exist: its army was defeated and the government fled abroad. In general, there was no one to provide help, which completely suited the French and British. But fighting the Germans, and fighting “seriously” at that, was not part of their plans.

RAF bomber dropping leaflets over Germany (ww2today.com)

The Germans also did not take any action against the Anglo-French troops, since Hitler strictly forbade violating not only the land border, but also the air border. And this situation was strikingly different, for example, from the first months of 1941, when German planes violated the Soviet border almost daily. The border of a friendly country, with which Germany also signed a non-aggression pact! And here war has already been declared, and the armies have been mobilized, but don’t cross the border or fly over!

So the Germans sat in their positions on one side, and the French and British on the other side of the border, and with nothing to do they stared at each other for several months, trying in every possible way not to disturb each other’s peace. And since it was boring to just look at each other, 10,000 soccer balls and playing cards were sent to the Anglo-French army, and the supply of alcoholic beverages increased. One word - “active” army...

You don’t have to be Suvorov to understand that everything that was happening at that moment on the Franco-German border had nothing in common with the war. In any war, it is extremely important to seize and maintain the strategic initiative, make bold and sometimes unconventional decisions, and try in every possible way to outplay the enemy, but in this case, both sides seemed to be competing in stupidity and laziness. Both armies were overcome by such cruel pacifism that a little more, and both sides would have started visiting each other for a light, playing cards or playing football. Fortunately, we repeat, there were plenty of soccer balls brought in.

Isolated skirmishes, sometimes very serious ones, took place in the air and at sea, but this had no effect on the ground armies. But the Second World War could have ended in September-October 1939. To do this, the French and British did not even need to launch a large-scale offensive, but only start bombing the Ruhr, which was the heart of the German economy. But instead, the Anglo-French bombers bombed the Germans not with bombs, as is customary to do in a “normal” war, but... with leaflets, which the Germans gladly used for hygienic purposes. The Germans stocked up on paper for a long time, because the British alone dropped them 18 million leaflets.

So it turns out that while the Polish army was agonizing under the blows of the Wehrmacht, the Polish, so to speak, “allies” were doing everything they wanted, but not providing real assistance to Poland. All possible assistance was rather provided to Hitler, who, as you know, really did not want a war on two fronts.

Such a war did not happen. Day after day, from September 1939 to May 1940, being on this front, which never became the “second”, the soldiers observed the same picture: silence, no one disturbed the enemy, not a single bomb or shell fell to either army. And so - 8 months...

Hitler (megabook.ru)

It is not surprising that this war was nicknamed “strange” and “sedentary.” The “pacifism” of the British and French ultimately allowed the Germans to quickly deal with Poland, and then the bulk of the German troops were redeployed to the West. And only on May 10, after almost openly declaring that he was opposed to the war with England and France, the “sit-down war” ended with the roar of Wehrmacht tank wedges rushing into France. The Fuhrer did not intend to play any more at “get-togethers” that smacked of outright idiocy, and, just in case, decided to liquidate the albeit harmless, but still existing “second” front.

The final and no less strange chord of the “sedentary war” was not even the defeat of France, but the miraculous rescue of the English army at Dunkirk. Instead of encircling the British divisions and brilliantly completing the defeat of the Anglo-French, Hitler showed inexplicable “restraint” and “slowness” and allowed the British to evacuate almost all of their demoralized units to the British Isles. Even Hitler’s generals could not explain such a strange “generosity” of the Fuhrer, but, apparently, Adolf Aloizych had more than compelling reasons to let the British go home.

Poles welcome fighting between “ally” England and Germany (ookaboo.com)

From the very beginning, the “Sitting War” was an example of betrayal and cynicism of Western politicians and politicians of all stripes, unprecedented in world history, whose ultimate goal was to pit Germany and the USSR against each other by all possible means and means. That is why Poland was betrayed in September 1939. And the strange behavior of the British army during the beginning of Hitler’s invasion of France casts doubt on the loyalty of the British towards their French allies. If there was anything England did, as it did before the start of the “sitty war” and then during it, it was to make Hitler’s life easier in every possible way. And the “sitting war” with its eight-month “frozen” state is the best proof of this.

Fragment of an interview with writer Nikolai Starikov on KM TV. How Hitler got out of Western control and how the Fuhrer was returned to the planned scenario.

The Great Slandered War Pykhalov Igor Vasilievich

"Strange War"

"Strange War"

So, on September 1, 1939, at 4:30 a.m., the German Air Force launched a massive attack on Polish airfields, and 15 minutes later, German troops invaded Poland. It seemed that Hitler's plans would once again come true. However, the British and French governments, after considerable hesitation, were forced to yield to the public opinion of their countries. At 11:00 on September 3, England declared war on Germany, and at 17:00 France joined in. At first, this step caused some confusion in Berlin. Of course, all the planning of the Polish company was based on the assumption that there would be no Western Front. However, it was soon the Poles’ turn to be surprised, since after the formal declaration of war nothing changed on the Franco-German border.

World history knows many examples when a conscientious ally fulfilled his duty even to his own detriment. So, exactly 25 years before the events described, after the outbreak of World War I, Russian troops, rushing to the aid of France, without completing mobilization, invaded East Prussia. The unprepared offensive ended in the defeat of two Russian armies, however, the Germans, as I noted in the previous chapter, were forced to transfer two corps and a division from the Western Front, and another corps was withdrawn from the battle and prepared to be sent to the Eastern Front. As a result, the weakened German group lost the Battle of the Marne in September 1914. The plans of the German General Staff to defeat France in the “lightning war” were thwarted.

It is clear that it would be naive to expect such sacrifices from “civilized nations”. But perhaps Warsaw’s Western allies acted on the principle of reasonable selfishness? That is, not being able to immediately strike Hitler, they deliberately sacrificed Poland in order to gain time to deploy their troops?

No, there was quite enough strength for the offensive. By the beginning of September 1939, French troops on the German border numbered 3,253 thousand people, 17.5 thousand guns and mortars, 2,850 tanks, 1,400 first-line aircraft and 1,600 in reserve. In addition, over a thousand British aircraft could be used against the Germans. They were opposed by 915 thousand German troops, who had 8,640 guns and mortars, 1,359 aircraft and not a single tank. The construction of the so-called Western Wall, or Siegfried Line, on which these troops were supposed to rely, had not yet been completed.

Moreover, as the former Wehrmacht Major General Burkhart Müller-Hillebrand, who spent the entire war on the General Staff, later noted:

“To him (Hitler. - I.P.) was lucky again, since the Western powers, as a result of their extreme slowness, missed an easy victory. It would have been easy for them, because, along with other shortcomings of the German wartime ground army and the rather weak military potential, which will be discussed in the next volume, ammunition reserves in September 1939 were so insignificant that in a very short time the continuation of the war for Germany became would be impossible."

As we see, there was an opportunity to defeat Hitler. The most important thing was missing - desire. More precisely, on the contrary, there was a desire not to in any way provoke hostilities with the Germans. So, on the front line near Saarbrücken, the French hung huge posters: “We will not fire the first shot in this war!”. There were numerous cases of fraternization between French and German soldiers, who visited each other, exchanging food and alcoholic drinks. When the overly proactive commander of the French artillery regiment, occupying positions in the Belfort area, began preliminary shooting of possible targets, he was almost court-martialed for this. “Do you understand what you did?- the corps commander scolded his subordinate. - You almost started a war!”. In the future, in order to avoid such incidents, so that some hotheads would not foolishly start fighting in earnest, the advanced units of the French troops were forbidden to load weapons with live shells and cartridges.

As the French writer Roland Dorgeles, who was a war correspondent at that time, noted when he visited the front line:

“Upon returning to the front, I was surprised by the silence that reigned there. The artillerymen positioned along the Rhine looked with folded arms at the German columns with military equipment moving on the other side of the river; our pilots flew over the fire-breathing furnaces of the Saarland factories without dropping bombs. Obviously, the main concern of the high command was not to provoke the enemy."

Aviation behaved similarly. On the evening of September 6, the Polish command asked the allies to carry out bombing strikes on German territory. On September 7, Warsaw received a French response, according to which “tomorrow, and at the latest the morning of the day after tomorrow, a strong attack by French and British bombers will be carried out against Germany, which may even be extended to the rear formations on the Polish front”. On September 10, the Polish military mission in London was notified that British planes had allegedly begun bombing Germany.

However, all this was an outright lie. The only combat episode took place on September 4, when the British Air Force attacked German warships located in the Kiel area, as a result of which the light cruiser Emden received minor damage. The rest of the time, British and French aircraft were limited to reconnaissance flights, and also, in the words of Churchill, “they scattered leaflets appealing to the morality of the Germans”. The first of these “truth raids,” as the English Minister of Aviation Kingsley Wood pompously called them, took place on the night of September 3, when 6 million copies of “Letters to the German People” were dropped on German territory. Another 3 million copies of this moving message were scattered over the Ruhr on the night of September 4-5. On the morning of September 8, British aircraft dropped 3.5 million leaflets over Northern Germany. On the night of September 9–10, British planes again scattered leaflets over Northern and Western Germany. There were some oddities too. So, on September 9, French planes mistakenly dropped their “deadly” paper cargo over the territory of Denmark.

In total, from September 3 to 27, the British Air Force alone rained down 18 million leaflets on the heads of German citizens. As Air Marshal Arthur Harris, later famous for his carpet bombing of German cities, self-critically noted:

“I personally believe that the only thing we have achieved is to provide the toilet paper needs of the European continent for five long years of war. Many of these leaflets were so stupidly and childishly written that it was perhaps a good thing that they were kept from the English public, even if we had to risk needlessly losing crews and aircraft by dropping these leaflets on the enemy.”

Attempts to incite Allied aviation into real combat operations were vigilantly suppressed. The post of Minister of Aviation in the Chamberlain government was held by Sir Kingsley Wood, a lawyer by training, who back in 1938 formulated the following three principles for the use of the British Air Force:

1. Intentional bombing of the civilian population is excluded.

2. Aviation attacks only military targets.

3. However, pilots must be careful to avoid bombing any gathering of civilians.

Immediately after the outbreak of World War II, the British and French governments published a declaration in which “solemnly reaffirmed their decision to conduct military operations with the firm intention of sparing the civilian population” and preserve ancient monuments, and also reported that their Armed Forces were instructed not to bomb any objects other than “purely military in the narrowest sense of the word”.

In early September, one of the Labor leaders, Hugh Dalton, who had many close friends among the Poles, proposed setting fire to the Black Forest with incendiary bombs in order to deprive the Germans of timber: “The smoke and smoke of German forests will teach the Germans, who are very sentimental about their forests, that war is not always pleasant and profitable and that it cannot be waged exclusively on the territory of other nations.”.

On September 5, a prominent figure in the Conservative Party, Leopold Emery, former First Lord of the Admiralty, made a similar proposal. Amazed by the legal illiteracy of his fellow party member, Sir Kingsley indignantly declared: “What are you talking about, this is impossible. This is private property. You will also ask me to bomb the Ruhr.".

As Emery later recalled: “I was speechless with amazement when he told me that there was no question of bombing the Essen military factories, which were private property, or the lines of communication, because this would alienate the American public from us.”.

“Until 7.9.39 10 o’clock there is virtually no war in the west. Neither the French nor the Germans shoot at each other. Likewise, there is still no air action. My assessment: the French are not carrying out any further mobilization or further action and are awaiting the results of the battle in Poland."

However, according to the opinion of the Chief of the French General Staff, General Maurice Gamelin, expressed on the eve of the war, such a development of events should only please the Poles:

“In the early stages of the conflict there is very little we can do against the Germans. However, the mobilization itself in France will be a certain relief for the Poles, tying up some German units on our front... In the first stages, the very fact of mobilization and concentration of our troops can provide Poland with assistance almost equivalent to our entry into the war. In fact, Poland is interested in us declaring war as late as possible, thereby creating the possibility of maximum concentration of our troops.”

Finally, on the night of September 7, French search parties crossed the German border west of Saarbrücken for the first time. Without encountering resistance from the German troops, who were ordered to evade battle, the French advanced several kilometers, after which on September 12 they received an order from General Gamelin, who by that time had become commander-in-chief, to stop the offensive and begin to dig in.

This little walk was inflated by Western propaganda to downright epic proportions. Thus, the Associated Press agency hastened to report that “On the night of September 6-7, French troops captured the first line of concrete machine gun nests of the Siegfried Line”. The official communiqué of the French General Staff, published on the evening of September 8, modestly announced: “It is, however, impossible to accurately list the areas and positions already occupied.”.

And indeed, this was impossible, considering that the actual advance of the French troops was 7-8 km on a front length of about 25 km. Otherwise, the French command, as in the famous joke, would have to report the capture of “strategic objects” such as a forester’s house.

However, it has come to this. The following communiqué proudly stated:

“September 9, evening. The enemy is resisting along the entire front line. Several counterattacks of a local nature were noted on his part. The brilliant offensive of one of our divisions ensured that we occupied an important fold of the terrain.”

In fact, if you report that they broke through the Siegfried Line, as the British United Press news agency did on September 7, then, you see, they will be caught in a lie. And so, “they occupied an important fold of the terrain” - simply and tastefully.

On September 10, the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in France, General Maurice Gamelin, assured the Polish leadership that “More than half of our active divisions of the North-Eastern Front are fighting. After we crossed the border, the Germans confronted us with strong resistance. Nevertheless, we have moved forward. But we are stuck in a positional war, facing an enemy prepared for defense, and I do not yet have all the necessary artillery. From the very beginning, the Air Force was deployed to participate in positional operations. We believe that we have a significant part of the German aviation against us. Therefore, I fulfilled my promise ahead of schedule to launch an offensive with powerful main forces on the 15th day after the announcement of French mobilization.”.

On the same day, the Paris correspondent of the United Press, citing information "obtained from reliable sources", claimed that Germany had transferred at least 6 divisions from the Eastern Front to counter the French advance. In fact, not a single German soldier, gun or tank was transferred from the Polish front.

An equally “reliable” source reported that on September 7 the Germans launched "fierce counterattack", throwing into battle "70-ton tanks with 75 mm guns". It should be noted here that the heaviest T-IV tank then in service with the German army, actually armed with a 75-mm cannon, weighed only about 20 tons. In addition, all these tanks, like their counterparts of other models, were thrown against Poland. At that time, the Germans had no tanks at all on the Western Front.

Despite the fact that the French offensive ceased on September 12, the press continued to spread stories about the “successes” of the Allied forces. Thus, on September 14 it was reported that “Military operations on the Western Front between the Rhine and Moselle continue. The French surround Saarbrücken from the east and west.". On September 19 there was a message that “the fighting, which was previously limited to the Saarbrücken area, now covered the entire front with a length of 160 km”.

Finally, on October 3-4, French troops left German territory. On October 16, the advanced units of the Wehrmacht returned to their original positions. In general, the results of this “heroic” campaign were as follows:

“The German High Command report of October 18 announced total German losses on the Western Front: 196 killed, 356 wounded and 144 missing. During the same period, 689 French were captured. In addition, 11 aircraft were lost.".

At one time, our free-thinking intellectuals, sitting in their kitchens, loved to tell jokes about the newspaper Pravda. However, as we see, in the “free world” the media can lie so brilliantly that the communists never dreamed of. In the case of the fake assault on the Siegfried Line, the main goal was to create a picture of real battles in pursuance of the Franco-Polish military convention concluded on May 19, 1939. Then Paris assumed very specific obligations, and now “fulfilled” them, if not in practice, then at least in words.

As Churchill later recalled:

“This strange stage of the war on the ground and in the air amazed everyone. France and England remained inactive during those few weeks when the German military machine with all its might destroyed and conquered Poland. Hitler had no reason to complain about this."

However, Sir Winston himself is also not without sin. Thus, in a letter to Prime Minister Chamberlain dated September 10, 1939, he spoke quite clearly:

“I still believe that we should not be the first to bombard, except perhaps in the area immediately adjacent to the zone of action of the French troops, whom we, of course, must help.”

The parody of military operations, called the “strange war,” could have only one explanation: influential circles of the English and French leadership stubbornly tried, despite everything, to create a common front with Hitler to fight against the USSR. For this, they actually betrayed Poland, once again showing the whole world the true price of their “guarantees.” It is not difficult to guess what awaited the USSR if, instead of concluding the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, we, as the current liberal fraternity advises, had trusted such “allies.”