Rank and File
A Clerk’s War
30th and 31st May 1939
Early into the office today – time to get ready for the end of month reports. Yesterday’s front-line updates were waiting for review, but the file was very slim. General Hopner has been joined by 60.Infanterie (motorised), and 3.Infanterie Division is attacking Ostrow Wielkopolski from Gostyn. The Danes are making a tactical withdrawal in Sondeborg, and our Gebirgsjagers in Ruzomberok are reeling back in shock.
The updates did mention that 5th Panzer’s attack in Grajewo was in trouble, but it was overtaken by events. At 1AM General Model conceded defeat and called off his attack. His division had lost 1786 men, while causing 1601 casualties to the Poles. Not a great start for our new medium Panzer units, but it has possibly saved East Prussia by tying up so many enemy troops.
But the shattering news that morning did not come from a standard report. I had noticed a lack of senior Heer officers in the corridors when I arrived before 7AM, but assumed that, like me, they were taking advantage of the steady progress in Poland to catch up on some sleep. (If it had not been month end, there is no way I would have been at work that early!). It was about 7.30 when Gisela said something about the French stabbing us in the back. When I questioned her, she said all the secretaries were talking about the French attacks in the West! Really, what good is security around here!
Once I know something was up, it wasn’t hard to get the information. A quick trip to the radio room and a chat with a contact there, a visit to the telegraph office to check on correct storage of copies of recent high level telegraph messages and a telephone call to an administrative officer I know in General Blomberg’s office and I knew all I needed.
The French have launched an enormous attack against the Westwall in the province of Pirmasens, starting just after midnight. General Zaiser’s 35.Infanterie (about 10.000 men) is facing General Jeannel leading more than 55,000 men. There are so many enemy units attacking that not all can fit into the front line, even though they are attacking from two directions, from Sarreguemines and Wissenborg. As if this were not enough, at 3AM Pirmasens was hit by three Groupes de Bombardement, and even though it was night, casualties were heavy. Zaiser is judged to be a good, steady officer, but he is not a star and is fairly set in his ways. (As you would expect – I mean he is commanding what is basically meant to be a garrison division.) He can’t perform miracles.
The Luftwaffe for once has reacted swiftly. News of the bombing had hardly reached Westwall Army headquarters than Christiansen led four geschwaders of Bf 109D and Bf 109E fighters against Valin’s bombers. The “Schlageter” is among the units committed: while I hope my brother is safe, I also hope he is making sure that not one bomber gets through again. The fighters clashed with the bombers several times during the day, and calm to have inflicted at least 10% casualties on the French.
Troops of the 3rd AA Brigade, attached to 35.Infanterie Division, prepare for another attack by French bombers
There have also been some quick decisions at the highest possible level. At 4AM an executive order sent Sperrle’s 1st Taktischeluftflotte to Munchen, reassigned to the Westwall Army (from Polen Army Nord). An hour later, Wolff’s 6th Taktischeluftflotte was told to move to Munchen as well. I am sure the Poles will be happy at the reduction in intensity of our bombing campaign.
While there will probably be a public statement about “holding firm” and “defending the Fatherland”, the reality is that no-one in the Wehrmacht thinks Zaiser can hold more than a few days. The absence of senior officers is due to their having been locked away since dawn trying to come up with a strategy to contain the French while not weakening our stranglehold on the Poles. There is a generally held belief that the Poles have demanded the French relieve some of the pressure on them, and that this shows a much greater level of Allied co-operation than we had expected. As there will already be a Cabinet meeting tomorrow, there is to be no emergency meeting, but the French attack is to be the first item on the agenda.
Von Sodenstern’s attempt to regain Johannisburg was completely overshadowed, though if he can pull it off with his single division against Krzyanowski’s three divisions he will astound everyone. But there is not a lot of hope, the forests of Johannisburg will now help the Poles.
Second Battle of Johannisburg
Later in the morning our marines had their first victory, and captured Copenhagen. Given all the difficulties of an invasion from one island to another, casualties among the highly trained troops were low (419), and the Danes are retreating leaving 1296 of their troops behind.
Danish soldiers captured in Copenhagen
If the Poles thought that the attack in the west would cause us to pause in our attacks on them, they were soon disillusioned. At 8PM, in the summer twilight, von Boehm-Bezing gave the order to advance into Chojnice, and 3.Infanterie moved forward from Stolp and 3rd Leichte Panzer from Naklo nad Notecia. Once again the Poles have the advantage, being dug-in and having heavy forest cover, but early reports are promising. We need swift victories so that troops can start to move west.
That was then end of action for the 30th – like many others I did not go home, wanting to be on hand for developments from the west, but there was no news. The daily update has nothing from the Westwall Army, only mention of a counter-attack in Allenstein and a tactical withdrawal in Gniezno, both of which were easily handled by local commanders.
At 9AM there was an important looking note delivered, but it only referred to the fact that General Halder’s 1st Marinekorps headquarters unit was loading onto troopships in Rostock, bound for Copenhagen. I suppose it was important, our first overseas HQ posting, but it wasn’t what we were waiting for.
Soon after we were informed of that General Barckhausen has attacked the Polish Armia Poznan headquarters units which was attempting to flee through Bielsko-Biala, right on the axis of our advance. He doesn’t expect any problems, not after the belting the Armia Poznan received from Rudke’s men only a day or so ago. His light tanks shouldn’t even slow down, despite having to cross the Oder.
Lunch at the Kanzlei was a quiet affair, probably because the military men were nearly all absent, and those present were looking very serious. The situation in the west must be even worse than I thought.
During the afternoon a series of battles were decided. Morale was certainly lifted when the first result came in – Allenstein has been freed, although at a cost of 2500 men. 3740 Poles died during the battle. East Prussia has seen some of the bloodiest fighting of the campaign, with a “butcher’s bill” being presented to both sides after every battle.
The next win was by Hopner in Bielsko-Biala. In contrast to the slaughter in the woods of Allenstein, he lost not a single man. The Poles must have been moving fast, as they only lost 39 soldiers while retreating.
Mid-afternoon, we heard that General Jahn’s 2nd Sturm-Marine Division had been ordered to clear the Danes from Slagelse. Jorgensen’s 1st Infantry Division is in no condition to fight, particularly not against the marines, so this should not take long.
Battle of Slagelse: note the Nordseeflotte – its failure to move to the Balts may have allowed the Danes to escape.
Another victory was reported from Slupca. Kleeburg’s tricks could not save him, as Neuling’s 71.Infanterie forced him to withdraw, losing 973 men. Our losses were reasonable, 485, but they are mounting up.
The frontline in East Prussia remains fluid. Only hours after we regained Allenstein came news that Johannisburg has been held by the Poles. Von Sodenstern suffered only 603 casualties, but the Poles lost only 231. Our intelligence is that all three divisions remain in the province. Any hope of a quick advance on Warsaw from the north has been dispelled for good.
Marching into Bielsko-Biala after the formality of beating the Armia Poznan HQ, Barckhausen’s 44.Infanterie Division ran into a slightly tougher opponent – General Bor-Komorski with his 23rd Dywizjon Piechoty. This province could still be easily captured, however, as the Poles are completely disorganised from previous heavy fighting.
Second Battle of Bielsko-Biala
We suffered a hard-fought loss in Ruzoberok. Engelbrecht’s Gebirgsjagers fought well, but after taking 1826 casualties from a starting force of 13076 (including the Slovak militia who didn’t even make it to the fighting), he had no choice but to order them to withdraw to avert a catastrophe. The Poles did not get a cheap victory, as they lost 1519 men.
Pionieres from Engelbrecht’s 4th Gebirgsjager scramble over a damaged canal bridge while escaping from Ruzomberok.
Better news from Denmark – only 8 men lost in throwing the Danes back from Slagelse. Copenhagen should now be secure. The Danes lost 31 men and have successfully evacuated their men to Odense, despite the presence of our Nordseeflotte nearby. A missed opportunity?
That was all the news of the day, other than the bombing reports which are again extensive.
Zywiec: Keller with 2 x He 111: 60, 118, 152, 63
Allenstein: Udet with 2 x Ju 87B: 57, 76, 54, 48, 44, 70, 43
Ostrow-Wielkopolski: Wolff with 2 x He 111: 55
Gniezno: Kesselring with 2 x Ju 87B: 23, 43, 51, 49
Slupca: Kitsinger with 4 x He 111: 54, 153, 150, 76
Gniezno: Muller-Michiels with 2 x He 111: 84
Ostrow-Wielkopolski: Lohr with 2 x Ju 87B: 65, 72, 48, 44
Gniezno: Kesselring with 2 x He 111 and 2 x Ju 87B: 110, 83
Chojnice: Muller-Michiels with 2 x He 111: 108, 90, 78
Slupca: Kitzinger with 2 x He 111: 70, 90, 97
Zywiec: Grauert with 4 x He 111: 117, 181, 211
Pirmasens: Valin with 3 x tactical bombers: 82, 115 (after two raids our fighters had driven them off)
The Cabinet meeting was short, over before 10PM. The standard reports were scanned but few comments made. Research espionage caused on 7% losses, but it was pointed out that it had hot over 18% during the month. The Fuhrer was insistent that we must speed up research – we are outnumbered and we must give our brave soldiers the most modern equipment and training possible. He also queried why our ally, Yugoslavia, was disrupting our research program. No-one could answer him.
It was noted that while research espionage is manageable, industrial disruption is getting out-of-hand. Spies from France, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Oman and Tannu Tuva are active in our factories, and who knows how this impacting production? This must be watched closely, the Cabinet decided.
A new development was the presence of cells targeting military intelligence. From the United Kingdom, Yemen and South Africa, these agents are concentrating on obtaining details of our armed forces – size, location and activity. Another area that must be shut down quickly before it impacts our military performance.
The Cabinet also received a report from Grossadmiral Raeder. As it concerned U-boat performance, I am sure he wasn’t really interested, but had probably been instructed to provide it. (The Minister’s preference for surface vessels is well known, as is his distaste for anyone who believes that submarine warfare can replace the impact of the “fleet in being”).
Apart from the damage done to Donitz’s 10th and 11th Unterseebootsflottille back on 20th May (when they were attacked in the Nordsee by carrier planes and forced to return to port for repairs), we have suffered no submarine losses. We have inflicted only a few losses on the merchant fleets of the Allied nations, but given that we only had two Flottes committed, the results were not too bad.
2 ships (Copenhagen-Boston) Mouth of the Thames
1 ship (Trinidad- Plymouth) Galician Bank
2 ships (Georgetown – Plymouth) East Azores Fracture Zone
1 ship (Nauru –Plymouth) East Azores Fracture Zone
The unanimous comment was that this needs to be drastically increased. 2 Unterseebootsflotte is nearly repaired, and should be ready for active service within a few weeks. Minister Raeder suspects the Allies have re-routed their convoys, so we may need to send fresh orders to the U-boat commanders.
Fall Weiss at the end of May - at least the Polish counter-attacks seem to have ended, although several provinces remain in their hands.
Once again I made use of my truckle bed and slept in my office. I have learnt from the last weeks, and now keep some spare clothes in the Kanzlei. From the noises I heard as I drifted off to sleep, I was not the only one reluctant to leave while our western borders were under assault. Was this the start of the two front war that we fear so much?
