British-French guarantee statement

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The declaration of the governments of Great Britain and France dated March 31, 1939, which deals with the independence of Poland , is called the Anglo -French Guarantee . The content was the assurance of assistance in any form, should a situation arise in which Poland would be forced to military defense of its territorial integrity . The statement was made before the House of Commons by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on behalf of his government and that of France .

After the Italian occupation of Albania (April 7-12, 1939), Great Britain made a similar declaration on April 13 (again before the House of Commons) to support and protect Romania and Greece .

Effects

The guarantee did not mean that Great Britain and France were now ready for war against Nazi Germany . Rather, it was intended to warn Hitler for the very last time against further aggression: the aim was to continue to negotiate a lasting peace order in which Germany was also to be included.

Hitler considered this declaration of guarantee to be a deterrent with no real intent to act. In order to strengthen its negotiating position, France subsequently expanded its alliance with Poland, which had existed since 1921, to include mutual assistance in the event of a German attack (Kasprzycki-Gamelin Convention, May 19, 1939). During a visit by Polish Foreign Minister Józef Beck in early April 1939, Great Britain agreed to formalize it in the form of an assistance pact, the exact content of which was still to be discussed.

With the steel pact with Italy (May 22) and the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union (August 23), which provided for the division of Poland and other states of Eastern Europe in a secret additional protocol, one of Hitler's aims was to prevent the Western powers from intervening in Poland's favor to hold. On August 25 (shortly after the Hitler-Stalin Pact became known), the plenipotentiaries of the two governments ( Lord Halifax and Edward Raczyński ) signed the Agreement of Mutual Assistance (Often referred to as the "assistance pact with Poland").

In the event of an attack by troops against Poland, Great Britain and France announced that they would declare war on this power . The main text of the British-Polish treaty does not name the attacker; "European power" was defined as " Germany " in a secret additional protocol . Great Britain was therefore not obliged to react if the Soviet Union invaded Poland. France did not finalize its pact with Poland until September 4th, one day after the French declaration of war on Germany.

The "Treason of the West"

The support of the Western powers after the German invasion of Poland then fell far short of the expected level ( seat war ). According to the Franco-Polish agreement, a major French offensive on the German western border should have taken place no later than 15 days after the German troops marched into Poland. In fact, French troops crossed the border on September 9, 1939 in the Saar offensive ; on September 12th they stood up to eight kilometers on German territory (whereby they occupied twelve German villages along the cleared border zone in the Saar region in front of the Siegfried Line). According to the orders, troops of the Wehrmacht offered no resistance - Germany wanted to avoid a two-front war.

This lack of military support is now known in Poland as the “betrayal of the West”. However, the fact that Poland had not reacted to the invasion of Soviet troops in its own country with a declaration of war on the Soviet Union (or even with a declaration of a state of war with aggressors other than Germany) had an additional complicating effect, but rather initiated a declaration of war the Soviet Union urged Great Britain instead - a move the UK refused to agree to take. Whether the ambassador of Poland in London, Count Raczyński , was aware of the existence of the secret additional protocol (which limited the assistance of Great Britain to aggressive acts by Germany) when he asked Great Britain to take this step is controversial.

See also

literature

  • Anita Prażmowska: Britain, Poland and the Eastern Front, 1939 . Cambridge University Press, 1987. Reprinted 1989, first paperback 2004, ISBN 0-521-52938-7 .
  • Keith Sword: British Reactions to the Soviet Occupation of Eastern Poland in September 1939. In: The Slavonic and East European Review , 1991, pp. 81-101.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ full text (PDF)
  2. ↑ Klaus Hildebrand : The Third Reich . Oldenbourg, Munich 2009, p. 46.
  3. ↑ Anglo-Polish communiqué issued on April 6, 1939 (full text)
  4. ^ Text of the assistance pact without additional protocol , full text also on Wikisource : Agreement of Mutual Assistance between the United Kingdom and Poland
  5. ^ Agreement of Mutual Assistance between the United Kingdom and Poland ( Wikisource )
  6. ↑ Martin S. Alexander: The Republic in Danger: General Maurice Gamelin and the Politics of French Defense, 1933-1940. Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-521-52429-6 , p. 312.
  7. ^ Anita Prażmowska: Britain and Poland 1939–1943: The Betrayed Ally. Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-521-48385-9 .