‘In Warsaw, starving people still clung to hopes of aid from the west. An air-raid warden confided to an acquaintance: “You know the British. They are slow in making up their minds, but now they are definitely coming.” Millions of Poles were at first bewildered, then increasingly outraged, by the passivity of these supposed friends. A cavalry officer wrote: “What was happening in the west, we wondered, & when would the French & British start their offensive? We could not understand why our allies were so slow in coming to our assistance.” On 20 September, Poland’s London ambassador broadcast to his people at home: “Fellow countrymen! Know that your sacrifice is not in vain, & that its meaning & eloquence are felt to the utmost here… Already the hosts of our allies are assembling…” Yet even as he spoke, Count Raczyimageski was conscious… that his words were “little more than a poetic fiction. Where were the Allied hosts?”
‘In Paris, Polish ambassador Juliusz Łukasiewicz exchanged bitter words with French foreign minister Georges Bonnet… “A treaty is a treaty & must be respected! Do you realise that every hour you delay the attack on Germany means… death to thousands of Polish men, women & children?” Bonnet shrugged: “Do you then want the women & children of Paris to be massacred?” American correspondent Janet Flanner wrote from Paris: “It would seem, indeed, as if efforts are still being made to hold the war up, prevent its starting in earnest… by government leaders reluctant to go down in history as having ordered the first inflaming shots… Certainly this must be the first war that millions of people on both sides continued to think could be avoided even after it had officially been declared…”
‘The Poles should have anticipated the passivity of their allies, but its cynicism was breathtaking. A modern historian… has written: “The Polish government & military authorities had been double-crossed & betrayed by their western allies. There was no intention of giving Poland any effective military support.” As Warsaw faced its doom, Stefan Starzyimageski declared in a broadcast: “Destiny has committed to us the duty of defending Poland’s honour.”
~ Max Hastings
