Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: The Fall of Poland (2)
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The war situation unfolded exactly as expected, without the slightest deviation.
The Polish army put up a good fight in battles like the Corridor and Bzura, but they were ultimately overwhelmed by the German forces' superior firepower and numbers, suffering repeated defeats.
In this situation, the Soviet ambassador Mikhail Slavutsky requested an audience.
‘I can guess what this is about.’
I met the ambassador in the reception room.
The Soviet ambassador looked like an ordinary office worker, but his overall impression was sharp and somewhat neurotic.
We exchanged greetings and quickly got down to business. With relations between our countries running smoothly, the conversation proceeded in an extremely cordial manner.
“Here is a letter from the Secretary-General for you, Chief of Staff.”
“May I read it here?”
“Please do.”
I broke the seal and skimmed the message written on the fine stationery.
The gist was simple.
“We intend to ‘protect’ half of Poland from Germany. We’d appreciate your understanding or at least your tacit approval. If Korea agrees, we’re willing to cooperate with whatever Korea is doing.”
Hmm, sounded like something I’d heard even in the 21st century.
Didn’t German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declare rearmament, citing the need to build up the military to protect the Czech Republic, Austria, and Poland?
Of course, I knew—and that butcher knew too—that Stalin wasn’t sincerely deploying troops to protect his neighbors like Scholz claimed.
This was obvious theater.
But there was no reason not to play along.
“I fully understand the Secretary-General’s position. Korea will look the other way.”
“Really?”
Absolutely.
In this imperialist era, would we pick a fight with a massive neighbor just to defend the security of a country we weren’t even close to?
Especially not from my position, where I was considering the Soviets as a potential long-term ally.
The Soviet ambassador expressed his gratitude at my friendly response.
“Thank you, Chief of Staff. The Secretary-General won’t forget Korea’s generosity.”
You’d better not.
That’s why I was acknowledging you carving up half of Poland.
I intended to make sure this favor I’d granted came back at a hefty price.
Exactly six hours after the Soviet ambassador left, the Red Army crossed the Polish border.
It was as if they’d been ready and waiting.
With nearly a million troops in a massive invasion force pushing in, the Polish border guard units—numbering only a few tens of thousands—were swept aside without a chance to resist.
“The Polish friends are done for.”
Already outnumbered, how were they supposed to handle a million Soviet troops?
The front lines were visibly collapsing one after another.
As far as I could see, Poland had at most three weeks left.
Maybe even less.
“They should’ve handled diplomacy better.”
September 17, 1939, was a day of catastrophe for Poland.
In the west, the Polish main forces—the Pomorze Army and Poznań Army—got caught in encirclement at Bzura and suffered devastating losses. In the east, a million Soviet troops poured in.
Poland was pushed to a point where hope was no longer feasible.
Even the bare minimum expectation of dragging out the war to wring generous armistice terms from Germany was now impossible.
Forget an armistice—the country was on the verge of total annihilation.
“At this rate, they’ll have to cling to the Nazis’ pant legs.”
I admired the Polish people’s tenacity in holding out to the end, but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for them.
And then the fateful day arrived.
On September 28, 1939, Poland’s capital, Warsaw, fell.
To be precise, they’d agreed to a ceasefire the day before, so it had effectively collapsed then—but it was no great difference.
Our generals were deeply shocked by Poland’s fall.
It wasn’t the fall itself that surprised them, but the speed of it.
“I can’t believe it. How could Poland, the top dog in Eastern Europe, go down so easily?”
The older generals couldn’t easily accept that Poland, the largest land power in Eastern Europe by army size, had crumbled in just over four weeks—even seeing it with their own eyes.
In contrast, the younger generals in our National Salvation Military Committee had a different take.
“This is the product of mechanized infantry, tanks, artillery, and air support from the army aviation working in organic unison. The blitzkrieg Germany has demonstrated is the goal we should aspire to—the endpoint itself!”
Uh, well.
That’s not quite right.
I wondered if they knew that most of the German army was still on foot, traveling by horse-drawn carts.
In propaganda films, sure, every German soldier rides in trucks and tanks.
But reality? Not even close.
And even if we took their bluff at face value, there was still a problem.
Could we actually pull it off?
“You. How do you plan to mechanize a million imperial troops?”
Where’s the money? The budget?
The costs for tank and self-propelled gun development alone were already bending us over backward.
Mechanize the entire army in this situation?
Pure fantasy.
“But if we don’t follow the trend of the great powers, won’t we collapse miserably like Poland? We have to catch up, even if it means tightening our belts.”
Not entirely wrong.
But not right, either.
The core of the German army was infantry doped up on drugs.
Those infantry could rush through the breakthroughs carved by their limited mechanized and tank units, protect the flanks, and form encirclements.
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to print drugs instead of vehicles?
More efficient, too.
Hmm.
I vaguely remembered pitching a war on drugs as a vision someday, but that was irrelevant.
Of course—what mattered was national survival, not wiping out petty crime.
“You. Without money, you can’t do anything. We need economically feasible alternatives.”
Even the Japanese Empire had done the same.
Lacking the ability to produce portable anti-tank missiles like the Germans’ Panzerfaust to stick into tanks, they made bamboo spears tipped with explosives to ram right into them—human-guided bombs (user safety not guaranteed).
Lacking the tech for radio-controlled Goliaths that drove under tanks and exploded, they sent soldiers under tanks with explosives to lie down and blow up—human anti-tank mines.
Why did Japan do that?
Because it was cheaper and easier to mass-produce those than copying Germany’s high-tech weapons.
We were no different from Japan.
“Sir. Then increase the budget. For the army to survive in future tank warfare, we need more investment.”
Budget? I’d love to increase it.
But to do that, we’d have to cut elsewhere, and most sectors were already choking.
The only ones with breathing room were the Navy Ministry—fellow military branch.
But we’d already pissed them off once by cutting their 1938 supplemental budget.
Touch them again, and it wouldn’t be surprising if the admirals revolted.
What could I do?
We had no money.
Even if we ramped up munitions exports, what then?
We’d already sold everything sellable to the Allies.
That thought sparked a lightning-bolt idea.
‘What if we do indirect exports of ammo to Germany?’
Thinking about it, routing ammo sales through the Reds would probably slip past the Allies unnoticed.
Even in 21st-century Korea, they’d supplied hundreds of thousands of shells to Ukraine via third parties.
And Russia didn’t even complain, thanks to the excuse of handing them off to the Americans.
I could do the same.
‘The Secretary-General already owes me one, right?’
Sell our ammo to the Soviets, have them sell it to Germany—perfect fit.
The Soviets could skim a commission in the middle, making it work for everyone.
They were already set to openly supply Germany with oil, chrome, and tungsten down the line anyway.
I immediately fleshed out the idea.
“Call in the Foreign Ministry director.”
Exactly one day later, a positive reply came from the Soviets.
“We’ll cooperate. How much are you sending?”
Relations between us and the Nazis weren’t exactly smooth anymore, but the Soviets were different.
With Moscow as the middleman, the ammo sales to the Nazis proceeded without a hitch.
The Nazis, already short on ammo, gladly accepted the deal.
On October 5, 1939, as we began our ammo exports, Germany’s dictator Adolf Hitler visited Warsaw to review his troops.
The next day, October 6, the last Polish forces surrendered, bringing the Polish campaign to an official end.
The Second Polish Republic, founded in 1919, vanished into history after just twenty years.
Some soldiers escaped overseas with the government-in-exile, but most remained in the country.
The losses Poland suffered in this brief war were beyond imagination.
Civilian massacres, looting, rapes, ethnic cleansing—virtually every evil humanity could conceive was unleashed.
The Geneva Conventions, which at least tried to enforce minimal rules in war, collapsed amid mockery.
Truly regrettable.
That’s why it hardened our resolve.
We must never let this nation, Korea, become a second Poland.