German invasion of Poland (from World at War)

Date Uploaded: 06/14/2024

Video Transcript

Narrator (00:00)
Hitler had signed a treaty of friendship with Poland. He had given Poland a slice of Czech territory. And now it was Poland's turn to ascend the sacrificial altar. Hitler didn't declare war. On September 1st, 1939, he struck without warning, which is the way of the aggressor. You will soon see Hitler's own photographic record of the blitz in Poland. The formula is simple enough. First, choose your victim, an army still living in the past. Few planes, fewer tanks. Outmoded guns and outmoded tactics. Choose an army relying upon courage rather than machines.
(00:49)
Then, mass your bombers. Load with your biggest bombs.
(02:20)
Strike. Strike without warning. Destroy his inadequate air force on the ground. Blast those who escape out of the air.
(02:56)
Strike again with your bombers. Wave after wave. Again, and again. Strike at the railroads, for then the victim cannot mobilize. It cannot move men and supplies. Its armies are isolated.
(03:56)
Strike on the seas. Strike on land with tanks against horses. Giant guns against sabers and rifles. Choose your time carefully, making sure the weather favors your machines. Strike at his city, so that civilians will take to the roads, hampering the army, so that women and children will be killed in the streets, or in hastily contrived shelters.
(05:00)
Strike again. Repeat the dose. Day after day. And then add a drop of treachery in the form of **. This was Warsaw. Repeat for 18 days. One Nazi pincer cuts the Polish corridor. Another races to Krakow. From east Prussia another army moves on Warsaw. Encircled, bombed, shelled and starved, Warsaw surrenders. Now over the roofless city send your *look* ** leisurely to photograph your handiwork.
(5:59)
And on the ground, let the master race assemble the first of its slave population, a stunned and shocked and hungry people, whose sufferings do not end with the armistice, nor their resistance.

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