When the top leaders of Warsaw received the news of the fall of the Modlin Fortress, the Polish government immediately exploded. Of course, that is if they still represented the Polish government.
Under the leadership of Smigre, most of his cronies who were greedy for life and feared death had already fled with him from the capital of his country, Warsaw.
After the Polish marshal who formed the dictatorial government fled with his cronies, the nominal Polish government also moved out of Warsaw with their departure.
The general who defended the city left in Warsaw was the only commander among all Smigre's trusted generals who was willing to stay.
His name was Filipovitz, and five days ago, he was the one who hurried from the Eastern Front battlefield to fight on the Western Front with his 13th Cavalry Division.
Unfortunately, his troops suffered a huge defeat in their first narrow encounter with the 1st SS Armored Division, losing more than 6,000 elite cavalry in one fell swoop.
And because he led this elite force to leave, the Soviet army, which had been unable to attack for a long time, actually seized the air strike and barely broke through the eastern Polish defense line under the command of Timoshenko.
Now, the remnants of the soldiers who were able to escape in the west have all arrived in Warsaw. Those who could not escape were either killed by the Germans or captured.
It was even heard that some troops actually refused to withdraw to Warsaw because of their commander's despair about the war situation, and instead took the initiative to surrender to the German army.
Not to mention the east, the large forces of Germany's Army Group North and the 1st SS Armored Division under Army Group South had already bypassed Warsaw and advanced hundreds of miles eastward.
Three days ago, Filipowicz heard on the radio the victory propaganda about the Soviet-German alliance in eastern Poland.
German Propaganda Minister Goebbels actually shouted passionately: "Salute to the Soviet Red Army composed of workers and peasants."
This is simply a joke. A capitalist country pays tribute to the army of a socialist country. Looking at the whole world, this is the first of its kind.
Before the war, the Polish government once said: "If the Germans come, we are in danger of losing our freedom. If the Soviets come, we are in danger of losing our soul."
Based on this conclusion, Poland should now lose both its freedom and its soul.
Because Polish generals have always despised defense, the Polish government was unwilling to spend energy building fortifications.
They preferred to rely on counterattacks, and even if they lacked machinery, they still believed that their troops could effectively carry out counterattack missions.
As a result, the mechanized German army was able to find the way forward without difficulty, and most of the Polish counterattacks were easily defeated. Even the only main counterattack, under Manstein's calculations, was nothing more than a surprise attack.
It just became another meritorious achievement of the German army.
Now, Smigre is leading officials of the exile government to flee to Romania, where he is trying to build connections with the United Kingdom and escape to the British Isles to establish a relatively safe government in exile.
Filipowicz, on the other hand, gathered tens of thousands of stragglers who had gradually retreated from the front line, combined with his own troops and the garrison in Warsaw, trying to defend the last shred of dignity of the Polish soldiers.
In Filipowicz's mind, he knew very well how sharp the German attack was and how fast it was advancing.
But what he didn't expect was that even the carefully constructed fortified areas would be unable to slow down the Germans!
To be fair, the soldiers of the Modlin Fortress had fulfilled their duties. But in the face of the endless new weapons of the Germans, the resistance of the Polish army seemed to be futile.
Judging from the current situation, Germany obviously used the Polish fortification area of Modlin Fortress as a testing ground, and took over all the new weapons on hand to try out the quality.
It ranges from individual flamethrowers to heavy assault guns and aviation armor-piercing bombs. I even heard that there is a certain kind of explosion that can produce high-temperature flames and sputter around, emitting a high temperature of about a thousand degrees Celsius, and can stick to other objects.
The long burning fortress nemesis on the object!
Many very inhumane weapons made this offensive and defensive battle extremely tragic. Although the Polish soldiers in the Modlin Fortress finally surrendered, they were absolutely worthy of the oath they swore when they joined the army. Many Polish soldiers there gave their last drop for Poland.
Blood!
Although the Germans also admired the Polish army's bravery, this did not seem to affect the German army's rapid advance.
After the tracks that went straight to the Wehrmacht crushed the land outside Warsaw, the noose tied to Poland's head was finally tightened completely.
This put the entire city of Warsaw into panic!
The remaining half of the Polish government continued to call on all citizens to rise up and resist the German invasion.
The Polish army in the city also built fortifications and deployed barricades under Filipowicz's arrangements, trying to fight a street battle with the Germans.
Street fighting was the last tactic he could think of.
To be fair, urban street fighting is indeed a way for the weak side to offset part of the opponent's advantages.
However, the street fighting process was very cruel. Even the elite members of the German 30th Division who were surrounded in Lodz were almost wiped out by the brutal street fighting. How long can Filipowicz hold on to these defeated soldiers now?
, he himself couldn’t even decide.
In urban street fighting, every battle that takes place in neighborhoods or ruins will become a meat grinder, continuously devouring the lives of soldiers on both sides. For the Polish side, which has been surrounded, has very few soldiers, and has no external reinforcements,
This is not a good idea.
When the German 30th Division stayed behind to fight street battles, they relied not only on their high morale, elite soldiers, and excellent grassroots commanders, but also on the hundreds of thousands of troops present on the periphery of Army Group South as foreign aid.
Now, almost all of the troops in Poland that can still fight are in Warsaw. Moreover, the morale of these troops has been low to a dangerous level, and most of their organizations have been disrupted and have no combat effectiveness.
It stands to reason that such a unit is not suitable for street fighting at all. But apart from street fighting, is there anything else they can do?
On the outskirts of the city, the besieging Army Group South frantically charged towards the Polish positions again and again.
Lundstedt, who was striving to advance quickly, went against his usual cautious approach. Facing the Polish remnant army with few guns and soldiers, he mobilized a large number of main troops like a killing blow and called for air strikes many times.
Rundstedt was worthy of being a famous infantry general of his generation. When he commanded the infantry, he was like a mountain bearing down on the top, steadily advancing the battle line toward the center of the city in circles. Although Filipowicz tried several times to prevent the retreat of the Polish army's front line.
, but because they could not find any loopholes in Lundstedt, they could only watch helplessly as the German army got closer and closer to their headquarters, but there was nothing they could do.
The approaching crisis of national subjugation made Filipowicz, the commander of the defense of Warsaw, unable to sleep well for two days in a row.
If he continues like this, he might have to sleep in a German prisoner-of-war camp before long!
Indeed, there are still many civilians in Warsaw, and if they are all brought to the front line as cannon fodder, it seems to be an objective amount.
However, there is a fundamental difference between civilians and soldiers!
The battle taking place on the outskirts of the city has become more brutal with the arrival of German engineer reinforcements.
These engineers can sometimes place large amounts of explosives with the help of terrain or the cover of armored vehicles.
Then, they were able to directly blast the entire resisting building and instantly clear out all the Polish defenders who were planning to resist!
Sometimes, the German army would use individual flamethrowers to attack the basement where bullets were being fired, turning the Polish soldiers hiding in the dark into a pile of black coke!
In just two days, the brutal fighting brought the elite Polish soldiers who Filipowicz specially arranged to buy time at the front to the edge of collapse.
This is true for well-trained soldiers, let alone cannon fodder for militiamen who have only been using guns for a few days.