Case White cover art

Case White

The Invasion of Poland 1939

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Case White

By: Robert Forczyk
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

The German invasion of Poland on 1 September, 1939, designated as Fall Weiss (Case White), was the event that sparked the outbreak of World War II in Europe. The campaign has widely been described as a textbook example of Blitzkrieg, but it was actually a fairly conventional campaign as the Wehrmacht was still learning how to use its new Panzers and dive-bombers.

The Polish military is often misrepresented as hopelessly obsolete and outclassed by the Wehrmacht, yet in fact it was well-equipped with modern weapons and armor. Indeed, the Polish possessed more tanks than the British and had cracked the German Enigma machine cipher. Though the combined assault from Germany and the Soviet Union defeated Poland, it could not crush the Polish fighting spirit and thousands of soldiers and airmen escaped to fight on other fronts. The result of Case White was a brutal occupation, as Polish Slavs found themselves marginalized and later eliminated, paving the way for Hitler's vision of Lebensraum (living space) and his later betrayal and invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.

Using a wide array of sources, Robert Forczyk challenges the myths of Case White to tell the full story of the invasion that sparked history's greatest conflict.

©2019 Robert Forczyk (P)2019 Tantor 20th Century Europe Germany Military Modern Soviet Union War Russia Imperialism Holocaust Interwar Period Polish History

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All stars
Most relevant
The reasons why so many war criminals escaped punishment still leaves me perplexed.
It's high time the list of Nazi and other war criminals was publicly reviewed.

An Excellent review of a sad period.

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This book was a real eye opener. So much about what one is taught about the German invasion of Poland appears to stem from German sources. This book seeks to dispel and correct this. It does get a bit bogged down with Unit Designations, names, ranks and serial numbers etc., but if you persevere, it is an interesting Polish counterpoint to everything you thought you knew.

So much I didn't really know about the invasion of Poland

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Eye opening and informative. An excellent book, it is informative and well paced and doesn't get bogged down in detail.Well worth a listen.

Eye opening

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The author specialises in military analysis, and having learned much from his well-researched books 'We march against England' (on Operation Sealion) and 'Case Red: the collapse of France', I was not disappointed. It appears that RF is first WQ writer to examine Polish sources and he argues that Poles put up a much better fight than e.g. Max Hastings had suggested. The latter dismissed Case White as typified by Polish cavalry (on horseback) who never stood a chance vs Guderian's tanks, and antiquated Polish Materielen e.g airforce was destroyed on the ground in the first few days of 9.1939 (casus belli for the UK).
RF also exposes the nauseating behaviour of the USSR based on the secret clauses of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (8.1939) by which the Germany + USSR carved up Poland, a nation hundreds of years old but only autonomous thanks to the Paris Peace Conference after WW1. And the carve-up led to the notorious Katyn Massacre of c. 10K Polish officers, "Normal" behaviour for Soviets who tried to pass it off as perpetrated by the Nazis..

* I recommend 'The Peacemakers' by Prof. Margaret Macmillan which is still free of charge at audible.co.uk.

Bk challenges cliche ie 3R beating Poland easily

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Really clear and easy to listen to narration. The book itself is really detailed and informative without reading like a textbook. Definitely one I will keep and listen to again.

Excellent book, excellently read.

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