Pomerania, over which Hitler had been in dispute with Poland since the autumn of 1938, was taken by the Germans in four days: on 4 September 1939 their troops cut through the Pomeranian Corridor. The Einsatzgruppen, the Selbstschutz and the SS began mass executions of the Polish intelligentsia, clergy and Jews here; at Piaśnica an estimated 12,000–14,000 people were murdered. On 10 February 1945 the Red Army launched the Pomeranian operation.
1939
- 21 March 1939EventGerman demands on PolandOn 21 March 1939 Ribbentrop renewed to Ambassador Lipski the demand for Danzig and an extraterritorial route across Pomerania, now under time pressure.
- 1 September 1939EventOperation TannenbergOn 1 September 1939 Security Police and SD Einsatzgruppen followed the Wehrmacht into Poland, carrying lists of names to “neutralise” Poland’s leading strata.
- 1 September – 6 October 1939BattleInvasion of PolandFrom 1 September to 6 October 1939 Poland fought Nazi Germany, Slovakia and, from 17 September, the Soviet Union. The campaign ended in partition.
- 3 September 1939EventBloody Sunday in BydgoszczOn 3 September 1939 shooting broke out in Bydgoszcz amid retreating troops. Several hundred Germans died, and propaganda turned it into “Bloody Sunday”.
- 4 September 1939EventGermany cuts the Polish CorridorAfter the fighting in the Tuchola Forest the German 4th Army reached the Vistula and met the 3rd Army from East Prussia. The Pomorze Army lost two divisions.
- 9–22 September 1939BattleBattle of the BzuraFrom 9 to 22 September 1939 Kutrzeba's Poznań and Pomorze Armies struck the flank of the German 8th Army. After early success they were encircled and crushed.
1945
- 10 February 1945EventThe East Pomeranian offensive beginsOn 10 February 1945 Rokossovsky’s 2nd Belorussian Front struck into East Pomerania to remove the threat to Zhukov’s flank on the Oder.
- 10 February – 4 April 1945BattleEast Pomeranian offensiveIn February–April 1945 two Soviet fronts and the Polish 1st Army routed the Germans in Pomerania, reached the Baltic and took Kołobrzeg, Gdynia and Gdańsk.
- 30 March 1945EventThe capture of DanzigOn 30 March 1945 the 2nd Belorussian Front and Polish tank crews took Gdańsk. The Main Town lay in ruins, much of it burned after the fighting had ended.
People
Born or died here
- Erich von dem Bach-ZelewskiHigher SS and Police Leader in Silesia (1938–1941) and Central Russia (1941–1943), Chief of Anti-Partisan Formations (1943–1945), commander of German forces in Warsaw (1944), SS-Obergruppenführer
- Werner von BlombergHead of the Truppenamt (1927–1929), Reichswehr minister (1933–1935), war minister and commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht (1935–1938), Field Marshal (1936)