On the night of the 31st of August 1939, as Europe stood on the brink of war, Nazi Germany staged a series of false-flag attacks along the German-Polish border, carefully choreographed to provide a pretext for their invasion of Poland.

The most notorious of these operations unfolded at the radio station in Gleiwitz, where German operatives disguised as Polish insurgents stormed the transmitter and broadcast a fabricated call for rebellion in Polish.

But Gleiwitz was no isolated incident, because that same night, similar staged assaults were carried out near the small towns of Hochlinden and Pitschen, creating the illusion of a major Polish incursion.

Dramatic in intent yet clumsy in execution, these false-flag attacks helped usher Europe into war…

Map: Here is a map giving an overview of the locations featured in this episode.

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Cover photo: Wikimedia

Sources used:

Dennis Whitehead, "The Gleiwitz Incident", Issue 142, "After The Battle" magazine, Battle of Britain International Ltd, 2009.

Tracesofwar - “Gleiwitz Incident”.