Romanian Bridgehead
This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2013) |
The Romanian Bridgehead (
The plan was a default plan in case it was impossible to defend the Polish borders, and it assumed that the Polish forces would be able to retreat to the area, organise a successful defence until the winter and hold out until the promised
The plan is one of the reasons that the Polish–Romanian alliance was not activated by Poland. Poland and Romania had been allied since 1921, and the defensive pact was still valid by 1939. However, the Polish government decided that it would be much more helpful to have a safe haven in Romania and the safe port of Constanța that could accept as many Allied merchant ships as would be required to keep Poland fighting. Most of the Polish Navy and merchant marine had been evacuated prior to 1 September (see Peking Plan) and would operate from French and British ports and deliver the supplies through Romania.
In adherence with the secret protocol of the
Polish units were ordered to evacuate Poland and to reorganise in France. Polish units launched new counteroffensives in attempt to clear a path towards the Romanian Bridgehead, such as
As many as 120,000 Polish troops withdrew through the Romanian Bridgehead area to neutral Romania and Hungary. Most of those troops joined the newly-formed Polish Armed Forces in the West in France and the United Kingdom during 1939 and 1940. Until Germany attacked the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa and the United States joined the war, the Polish Army was one of the largest forces of the Allies.[5]
The Romanian government also received the treasury of the
Gallery
-
Crossing the border at Zaleszczyki into Romania on 15 September 1939, 2 days before the Soviet invasion from the east - passport.
-
Polish troops, escapees from Nazi-Soviet occupied Poland, being welcomed by Romanian population while crossing the Romanian border.
See also
- Romania during World War II
- Sarny Fortified Area
- Poland–Romania relations
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-78096-222-1.
- ^ Michael Alfred Peszke. The Polish Underground Army, the Western Allies, and the Failure of Strategic Unity in World War II. McFarland & Company. 2005. pp. 16, 20, 23–26.
- ^ Mieczysław B. Biskupski. The History of Poland. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2000. p. 102.
- ^ Gerhard L. Weinberg. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge University Press. 2005. pp. 51–52.
- ^ Kwan Yuk Pan, "Polish veterans to take pride of place in victory parade" Archived 2007-03-18 at the Wayback Machine, Financial Times, May 25, 2007. Last accessed on 31 March 2006.
- Dariusz Baliszewski (19 September 2004). "Most honoru". Tygodnik Wprost (in Polish) (1138). Archived from the original on 14 May 2007. Retrieved 24 March 2005.
- ISBN 0-7864-2009-X, Google Print, pp. 27–32
- (in Romanian) Toma Virgiliu, "Agresorii în ofensivă", in România Liberă, October 13, 2007
- ISBN 83-11-09255-9