==Operation Himmler and the Gleiwitz incident==
Operation Himmler was a [[false flag]] operation planned by the SS and SD to create the appearance of a Polish attack on Nazi Germany. In doing so, Nazi [[propaganda]] used the "attacks"" as justification to go to war with Poland. [[Heinrich Himmler]] was the architect of the plan, [[Reinhard Heydrich]] supervised the planning, and Heinrich Müller was the overall manager. Himmler had the approval of Hitler for the duration of the operation.
The Gleiwitz incident occurred on the night of August 31st. A small party of German operatives dressed in standard Polish uniforms took over the Gleiwitz radio station.<ref name="Ailsby">Christopher J. Ailsby, ''The Third Reich Day by Day'', Zenith Imprint, 2001, ISBN 0-7603-1167-6, [https://books.google.com/books?id=TMdZSJGWaIYC&pg=PA112&dq=Gleiwitz+incident&as_brr=3&sig=WzKCJ2wdK-HI3d_BbZR49ofZspg#PPA112,M1 Google Print, p. 112]</ref> They then began to broadcast an anti-German message in Polish. To make the attack seem more plausible, the Germans used human corpses evidence of the attack. Several prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp were brought to the site, drugged, and shot.<ref name="WirtzGordon">James J. Wirtz, Roy Godson, ''Strategic Denial and Deception: The Twenty-First Century Challenge'', Transaction Publishers, 2002, ISBN 0-7658-0898-6, [https://books.google.com/books?id=PzfQSlTJTXkC&pg=PA100&ots=ouNc9JPz4y&dq=Gleiwitz+incident&as_brr=3&sig=WZF91Hk_0WybC1nqbS8Ghw7nTzw Google Print, p.100]</ref> <ref name="Ailsby">Christopher J. Ailsby, ''The Third Reich Day by Day'', Zenith Imprint, 2001, ISBN 0-7603-1167-6, [https://books.google.com/books?id=TMdZSJGWaIYC&pg=PA112&dq=Gleiwitz+incident&as_brr=3&sig=WzKCJ2wdK-HI3d_BbZR49ofZspg#PPA112,M1 Google Print, p. 112]</ref>
==Fall Weiss==
The day after the Gleiwitz incident occurred, the [[Wehrmacht]] invaded Poland. The Germans possessed a numerical advantage in every aspect. 2,400 tanks, mainly Panzer Is and IIs, were organized into 6 panzer divisions. Around 2,500 planes were used in the Polish campaign, the majority modern. At this time, the Luftwaffe was probably the most experienced air force in the world, thanks to its participation in the [[Spanish Civil War]].
During the first few days of the invasion, the Germans made good progress, but casualties were high due to stiff Polish resistance. As the days went on, Polish resistance grew weaker and weaker. The Polish army didn't have an effective countermeasure to the revolutionary blitzkrieg, and many Polish divisions were encircled and destroyed. The Germans suffered 49,000 casualties compared to 199,700 total casualties for the Polish.
==Soviet invasion from the east==
Honoring the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Stalin invaded from the east on September 17th. The relatively sparse Polish forces were easily swept aside by the Red Army. His forces were organized into two ''fronts'', or army groups. At the end of the campaign, the Soviets had captured 99,000 Polish soldiers, at the cost of around 13,000 casualties.
==References==