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Several months ago....I think It was in March I wrote an AAR called "How to survive a coming war" (my signature was Zawisza back then).
I was however never able to finish that AAR becouse my computer was infected with a virus and I had to reformate my in before having a chance to finish playing that game.
Well, here's an AAR that will be written in a similar spirit. I hope to finish this one.
As most people know the polish-uruguayan conflict begun with a state visit by the Uruguayan president Gabriel Terra in Poland during the summer of 1935. During this visit the Uruguayan president started the comming conflict by insulting the wife of the polish president, Ignacy Moscinski, although the form of insult has never been disclosed by the president, neither by anyone else who was present at the time.
The situation worsened when the Uruguayan president accused the polish nation of being bad hosts, something that leaked to the media and was on the front pages of every polish magazine the very next day.
Within a few weeks the situation worsened even more when the Uruguaians managed to persuade the argentinian government of ending their trading coorperation with Poland.
The following documents demonstrate what happened next better then a historical text can:
May 22 1936, Report from the ministry of armaments...
...the blueprints for a transport vessel able to carry a whole division to combat areas oversees has been completed and production has begun at a naval shipyard in Gdynia...
Section of development, ministry of armaments.
* * * *
June 2 1936
...One division equiped with the best tanks available in Poland has been established and is beggning combat training.
Army Staff of the republic of Poland
Clearly the events that followed in 1937 had been planned ever since the uruguayan state visit incident. The polish navy was equiped wtih transport vessels and the troops trained for invasion. In late december 1936 the polish navy set sail for the South Atlantic. The military personell apparently still believed that this was merely a demonstration of force and not the first step in a larger conflict as this document demonstrates:
Dear Agata,
Tommorow we set sail for Uruguay and I and the rest of the boys can't wait to be on our way. Even if we do not set foot in Uruguay the fleet will still have to resupply somewhere in tha latin paradise, perhaps we will spend some days in Brazil.
I'm sorry that you won't receive this letter until four weeks after our arrival in Uruguay, the army has set up a lot of rules to streanghten security.
Yours forever, Marcin
P.S.
Dont worry about me hitting it off with some latin beauty, they will all fade in comparison with you.
Polish destroyer escorting the transport vessels.
Many witnesses and documents support the believe that the expedition was only meant to be a show of force but the events of early 1937 changed all of this.
On January 14 the brittish and french officially asked Poland to join the Alliance thus sthreanghtening Polands position on the international arena.
Orders were given to attack Uruagay and on January 19 eleven divisions of infantry and 1 armoured division begun disembarking on the Urugay coast.
The fightning only lasted for two days and by nightfall on the 21 of January Uruguay had ceised to exist.
President Terra was exciled to Brazil together with the rest of his government and most anti-polish media personalities.
The polish were fairly easy going masters and Urugay was declared a autonomous dominion on February 13, 1936. The war had however shocked the population in Poland who didn't expect an oversees conflict.
The flag of the Urugay Domninion of the Polish Republic.
However easy the victory in Uruguay had been the polish authorities felt isolated and exposed in South America. Both Brazil and Argentina had authocratic governments and atleast Argentina was known to harbour groups with strong fascist sentiments.
Therefore the decision was made to preemptively invade that country.
During the whole time of preparations the polish public was not informed of anything. The leaders in Warsaw were worried about anti-war sentiments taking the uper hand and perhaos jeperdizing the whole invasion.
The soldiers in Uruguay were also unaware of any plans for invasion and even though the troops went through regular training and several wargames this was just seen as a way of keeping the army fit and ready to defend the peace.
* * * * *
The invasion of Argentina began the 10th July 1937 and only one week later the province of Corrientes was taken after some sporadic fightning.
At that time an oppurtunity revealed itself to encircle the majority of the Argentinian units at that time stationed in Buenos Aires.
Main troop movements during the Argentinian campaign
The maneuvre was completed by the 29th of July and after nearly two weeks of fightning the argentinian army was forced to surrender and hundreads of thousands soldiers were taken captive.
Argentina surrendered on August 18 1937 and was, like Uruguay, annexed into the Republic of Poland but given status as a authonomous dominion.
The flag of the dominion of Argentina
As 1938 came to its end Poland had won two wars in one year, something that streangtened its position on the international arena. However the wars also led to anti-war demonstration and youglings flockning to peacful groups opposing the government.
The polish forces at the end of 1937 consisted of:
Hmm... can anyone of you see the pics? I've got a free acount on "freewebs" where I put the pictures but now they dont appear, even though the were visible yesterday when I edited the posts.
Hmm... can anyone of you see the pics? I've got a free acount on "freewebs" where I put the pictures but now they dont appear, even though the were visible yesterday when I edited the posts.
Most likely they don't allow remote linking, but yesterday you had the pictures in your browsers cache-memory so it(the browser) helpfully provided the images for you anyway. Just post the links instead, while looking for a better place (if there is any).
Ok, the pics should work now.
I checked what webspace storage provider the other AARers are using and "photobucket" seems pretty good. They allow direkt linking.
As 1938 began many poles hoped for an uneventful year. The industrial capacity of the country was higher then ever before, Poland was part of a mighty alliance and the standard of living was improving rapidly.
And in fact the first two months of the year began uneventfully with the world more peaceful then ever before.
The clouds of war soon started to loom over Europe however as austrian national-socialists started to demand an unification with germany.
Hitler, being the constant opportunist supported these demands and on March 16 German tanks rolled into Wienna and concluded what the germans caled "Anschluss", Austria had ceised to exist as anything else but a german province.
Only two days later the german government demanded the Sudetenland from Czeckoslovakia, a request that was turned down by the government of that small republic.
In Warsaw the leaders of Poland grew more and more nervous about the developments around them and after a comparing Polands industrial capacity with germanys there was a state of near panic in the HQ of the polish military.
Despite the industrial boost from Polands new oversees territories the military of the republic could not hope to hold of the Germans for long, Poland needed more of everything, and it needed it fast.
That was when an oppurtunity presented itself in the form of a submarine.
A chilean submarine was discovered by the Polish destroyer "Kosciuszko" deep inside polish-argentinian territory. The engines of the submarine had broken down and it was stuck in polish territorial waters.
The polish government ceised the opportunity and on May 27 war was declared on Chile on the grounds of Chilean agression and espionage.
The very same day the polish navy defeated a Chilean fleet twice as large off Antofagasta and began disembarking troops.
On June 1 the provice was firmly in Polish hands and an offensive was launched to conquer Santiago, the capital of Chile.
Polish advance during the Chilean Campaign
Santiago fell in June 29 and the fall of Chiles capital ended the war. The Chilean population got along fairly well with its conquerors and Chile was granted authonomy like Uruguay and Argentina.
Chile was also presented with a new flag symbolising its new position as a polish dominion.
Territories of the Polish Commonwealth in South America
Poland did now control the whole of southern South America and the industrial capacity was bossted even more. With the defeat of Chile the name of the country was officially changed to The Commonwealth of Poland and Southern South America.
Many officialls in Poland feared however that this was still not enough and in a few days their fears would be confirmed.
The ink had barely dried on the peace agreement between Poland and Chile when the course of events took a turn for the worse. On June 28 this article could be read on the front page of Rzeczpospolita:
WAR!!!
The Allies have declared war on Germany.
Hungary and Bulgaria have joined Germnay in the conflict. The Sejm has as yet not made any formal statement. IS POLAND AT WAR?
The following day it became official as this article from Gazeta Wyborcza illustrates:
POLAND JOINS THE NEW GREAT WAR! Today the Sejm formally declared itself loyal to the alliance and decalared war on the Axis. Many officials are however worried that the lack of troops in the country becouse of the oversees war with Chile has left Poland defensless.
The HQ of the army reports german units moving across the border and has asked the government to proclaim a general mobilization
.
The next weeks were the most horrid and humiliating in the history of the nation. Polish troops who were busy with post-war activities in south america did not even get a chance to defend the Polish lands. One city after another fell to german troops and Warsaw fell on July 8th.
Some sporadic fightning took place in the suburbs of Warsaw but nothing could stop the German advance.
Some sporadic fightning took place in the suburbs of warsaw but the german advance was barely slowed down.
Kraków was lost on July 20th, Lublin 27th, and Wilno on August 4th.
The Polish government however made a daring escape through Czechoslovakia And Romania and finally made it to the provisional Capital of Montevideo. From there they would plan the first steps to resist the axis.
The Polish Forces at the end of 1938 consisted of:
Great, it would be cool if when the Germans are beggining to loose you end up making Germany and Poland once country. A Double sized poland...Does anybody know what Im talking about? I dont...
After the humiliating defeat in Poland at the hands of the german army the brightest tacticians still in freedom were rounded up in Montevideo to create a plan for further combat operations.
Since a number of options lay open to the polish military, now exiled in South America, the planning dragged on until march of 1939 when it was finally decided that Poland should adopt a strategy of attackining the weakest link in a chain, meaning Poland was to launch an attack on Bulgaria. Fairly easyly reached by see and relatively weak and isolated from the rest of the axis it was the logical target for a first strike at the enemy.
12 divisions boarded the trasport ships in Buenos Aires and set sail towards Port Said in Egypt where they were to resupply and prepare for combat.
However, as the fleet reached egypt it was clear that the polish navy would not be able to break through the masses of Italian warships blockning the way into the black sea and a reserve plan, developed at the same time as the plans to invade Bulgaria was taken into effect.
The polish trasports headed for the two Italian Islands of Rhodos and Dodekanisos and began a violent attack on the Italian forces stationed there. Rhodos fell into polish hands on May 10th and Dodekanisos on the 18th. Thus a small vicoty had been won by forcing the Italians out of eastern Medditereanian but the main objective seemed out of reach.
Two Convoy routes were dispatched to supply the units on the islands with basic provisions but the convoys soon began to experience heavy losses at the hands of german submarines and italian patrols. Several destroyer groups were removed from combat duty to convoy escort tasks and fortunatly they managed to protect the vital convoys.
In June of 1939 the allied forces won yet another victory this time further south in Abbesinia were the italian forces occupying that ancient nation were surrounded and taken prisoner to the last man.
Another important event that took place in late May and early June of 1939 was the escape of the polish transport fleet from the Mediterreanian sea.
The polish transports barely made it out of the italian-german infested waters.
As they anchored in Buenos Aires only a few days rest was given to the crews, soon they moved out again, this time loaded with field marshall Smigly-Rydz's 12 divisions bound for Tunisia.
Smigly-Rydz and his troops landed in Tunis on July 7th and assisted the French by attackning and capturing Tripoli from Italian troops on July 18th.
This was a significant victory because it allowed allied forces to trap the Italia forces between them in northern Africa and thus ending the campaign there.
After driving the Italians out of nothern Africa Smigly-Rydz decided that the time was right to attack the Italian homeland and thus his twelve divisions landed in northern Sicily on August 7th and captured the whole of the Island by August 23rd.
It was Smigly-Rydz's believe that the allies, in particular the brittish and french, would take advantage of an oppurtunity to create a beachhead in mainland Italy which can be reached from Sicily. As time went on no help arrived from the allies and Smigly-Rydz ordered the polish units to be dug-in in preparation for a potential Italian counter offensive. Poland would not give up Sicily back to the Italians!
(hmmm....it should be dig "in" in the text above....sorry about all the typos in this aar)
During August and September of 1939 the frontlines remained relatively quiet. On the western front not a single battle had been fought yet and the war was beggning to be known as the "Medditereanian War" amongst the civilian population.
One disturbing piece of news during August of 1939 was that Romania joined the axis, thus destroying the hopes of a polish invasion of Bulgaria. Germany would now have a direct line of access to Bulgaria and the bulgarians would probably be supported by Romanian units thus making any invasion a suicide.
As September was coming to its end the world held its breath in anticipation for the next stage of the war.
