Hitler had planned for his invasion of #Poland to start #OTD on this day in 1939 - however he was momentarily spooked by the Anglo-Polish alliance and the prospect of Mussolini's arbitration and so decided to rescind the invasion order... #WW2
One detachment of #German soldiers, however, had already left their starting positions when the halt order came through, and could not be reached by radio. The group under Lt. Hans-Albrecht Herzner was invading Poland on their own.
Herzner's task was to capture and hold the strategically important rail tunnel beneath Jablunka Pass on the Polish frontier, and wait for the arrival of the German 10th Army, which he assumed would be following hard on his heels. #WW2
Herzner's men proceeded as ordered, capturing the tunnel as well as the nearby railway station at Mosty, on the Polish side of the frontier. But they soon realised that they were on their own. The 10th Army was not coming to their aid, and Polish forces were closing in. #WW2
After making radio contact and realising his error, Herzner opted for a tactical retreat. His men commandeered a train and set off back across the frontier, arriving the following morning. #WW2
The following afternoon, the local Polish commander; Gen Józef Kustroń, confronted his German counterpart to ask what had happened at Mosty, was it "peace or war" he asked. The German officer replied that the action was the work of a rogue unit, whose commander had gone insane.
A few days later, after the German invasion, Herzner posed with a few of his men outside the train station that they had captured, no doubt reminiscing about their adventure and when they single-handedly invaded #Poland. #WW2
Later that autumn, Hans-Albrecht Herzner was awarded the Iron Cross for the Jablunka action. He would not survive the war. #WW2

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Roger Moorhouse 🇺🇦

Roger Moorhouse 🇺🇦 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Roger_Moorhouse

Aug 23, 2018
On this Day - 1939, the #Nazi-#Soviet Pact was announced in Moscow. As well as a 10-year Non-Aggression Pact, Stalin and Hitler agreed to divide central Europe between them. Here, Stalin toasts the pact with Hitler's photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann.
The Nazi-Soviet Pact gave #Hitler the green light for his plans to invade Poland: a week after its signature, German forces invaded their eastern neighbour. Poland's allies - Britain and France - responded by declaring war on Germany on 3 September. #WW2 in Europe had begun.
Two weeks later, on 17 September, #Stalin's Red Army also invaded #Poland, to claim the spoils promised by the Pact with Hitler. The two invading forces met at Brest-Litovsk, where a joint Red Army/Wehrmacht parade was held, with German and Soviet troops happily fraternising.
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(