Jennifer Grant1; 1 Queen Mary University of London, UK
Discussion
This paper aims to explore the experiences of the personnel involved in the British Military Mission to Poland as they liaised with the Polish General Staff during the September Campaign of 1939. Using official communications and personal diaries, it will explore how the Mission was faced with two challenges: operating within a rapidly evolving conflict zone and maintaining relations with the Polish military once it became clear that the British were unwilling to open a second front in support of their ally. The paper will discuss the calculations underpinning Britain offering its guarantee to Poland in March 1939, and how the guarantee was further formalized through both political and military conversations. In issuing the British guarantee to Poland in March, the British government had not fully anticipated the limitations of the assistance which the UK could offer to Poland: subsequent conversations were therefore focused on defining the extent of British willingness to contribute to loans and the supply of material or to commit to opening of a second front in case of war. The British Military Mission therefore represented the single concrete military contribution of the British during the September Campaign. The principal aim of the Mission, however, became swiftly redundant: there was no joint Anglo-Polish military effort to coordinate and daily conversation with the General Staff inevitably included a degree of embarrassment and obfuscation of the part of the British officers. The situation became more challenging once the Polish General Headquarters and British Mission were forced to leave Warsaw in the face of the German advance: there was both a physical risk due to air raids – the wife of a British intelligence officer was killed – and difficulties in maintaining communications with the UK. Diaries subsequently written by the officers involved reflect on the challenges on upholding a party line as the Polish tragedy unfolded before them, and the bonds of honour and obligation which arise from an alliance.
