Only two weeks at war the rain remained in the West. Science should have explained it
to the Poles since long that the war prevented raining. (Story 2)
Posted 01 November 2017 – Comments welcome!
What a horror! To ambush Poland on 1st September 1939 the Germans employed, or had available, forces estimated at approximately 1,250,000 men comprising 60 to 70 divisions. Their Air Force possessed 7,000 first-line airplanes. After just two weeks the Polish Army lost 20 divisions, some 100.000 dead or wounded, and another 100.000 prisoners (NYT, 10/15/1939). Three weeks later the numbers are 123’000 dead, 134’000 wounded, 700’000 prisoners (plus 220’000 taken by the Soviet Union). This mischief must, at least partly, be attributed to the weather conditions as well. The usual rain did not came, which may have hampered the advance of the highly merchandized German army significantly. The Poles prayed for rain, in vain.
Poland’s tragic in September 1939 had been so horrible that it seems inappropriate to talk about the weather. But it is necessary, as Poland deserves an explanation. The topic is lack of rain, and all those who suffered and prayed for rain, as their descendant up to today, should know, that it was not ‘natural’ but caused by Adolf Hitler’s ruthlessness, through war activities on land, at sea and in the air. And as science has failed desperately in this respect over more than seven decades, it is high time to remind them that they failed to serve the Polish people appropriate.
Fact is that there was water in the air over Western Europe abundantly. From Dover to Germany the rain exceeded 200% above September average, [Berlin-Dahlem (197 %); Frankfurt/Oder (197 %); Breslau (204 %); Ratibor (210 %); Karlsruhe i.B. (208 %); Stuttgart (199 %); Ulm (226%); Wuerzburg (215 %); Muenchen (212%) ] with little to nothing left for Polish soil. This sharp demarcation had been so extreme, that science should have taken the chance to explain the situation by human input thoroughly. Here we can only raise some basic aspects.
Actually the sharp West-East demarcation can derive from warfare on land, in the air or at sea. Thousands of air planes were suddenly in the air, uncountable bullets, shells, mines and bombs got activated, thousand naval vessels sailed the sea. The sudden movements of several hundred warships at Heligoland could have attracted a low-pressure center to move in the German Bight (see last post) and further to Belgium, instead of moving to the southern Baltic bringing rain to Central Europe.
Although the maritime influence on the weather scene has –for sure – had a great influence from the first day of WWII, the September rain-matter is certainly strongly related to ‘all the stuff’ man pushed into the air, at sea, along the Maginot Line and West Wall, or the land war in Poland.
By the third war week Warsaw was encircled. The Red Army marched into Poland from the East. Days of the Polish Republic were numbered. The Nazis had deployed 5,000 planes in Poland (NYT, 10/25/1939). On September 25, 1939, 240 German planes bombed Warsaw, dropping 560 tons of bombs, including the first 1,000 kg bomb. Meanwhile 1,000 batteries shelled the city. 30 transport aircraft dropped 70 tons of fire-bombs. Warsaw was on fire for many days. No rain arrived to end the burning down of the city. The silence of science speaks not for their competence.
A better understanding of the weather situation in Poland September 1939 is still possible. Actually September 1939 it was not necessarily a solely European matter, as Russia and Japan were at war in the Far East (August 9 – September 2, 1939), which subsequently saw weather extremes in California, and heavy rain in Western Europe until November 1939, which will be discussed in the next post.
Further Reading on Autumn 1939: Climate Change and Naval War, 2004 – Chapter 2_31