Blitzkrieg Poland

These photographs are taken from three unpublished albums featuring the German invasion of Poland in 1939. One set was taken by an SS officer, another by a regular officer and a third by a soldier attached to a medical unit. Included are German units on the move, tanks, artillery and aircraft. There are several shots of recently knocked out Polish vehicles, captured Polish troops and civilians. The shots reflect the rapid pace of the German advance through Poland, some of the cities, towns and villages show signs of heavy fighting, whilst others appear to be untouched. One of the sets show a German unit mounted in fast open cars, heavily armed, speeding through the Polish countryside, another features armoured vehicles and engineers and a third the ambulance teams moving up to the front through devastation and chaos. Throughout there are numerous opportunities to see uniforms in their various guises and how they were actually worn in practice. There are shots of earlier German armour, ôantiqueô Polish armour and photographs of German troops at rest and preparing to move forward again.