Położenie polityczno-wojskowe Rzeszy Niemieckiej u progu II wojny światowej w świetle wykładu szefa wywiadu wojskowego pułkownika dyplomowanego Tadeusza Pełczyńskiego

After Adolf Hitler took power in Germany, the country was quickly remilitarised. Large-scale rearmament and expansion of the armed forces were closely monitored by the Polish military intelligence, which kept the supreme military authorities of the Second Polish Republic informed about the Third Reich’s preparations for war. The main task of the Second Department was to determine the probable date of the attack from this country. Already at the end of 1934, it was estimated that Germany would be ready for war within 6-8 years. The information reaching the headquarters of the “two” showed that at the turn of 1937 and 1938, the Third Reich’s preparations for a future armed conflict were intensified. At the end of the 1930s, the Second Department organized special lectures for senior commanders of the Polish army, presenting the military, political, economic and social situation of the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, i.e. the countries from which Poland faced the greatest danger. The idea was to make the senior command staff of the Polish Army acquainted with the current military and political situation of the Second Polish Republic and the scale of the threat from the two most dangerous neighbours. The presented lecture was delivered by the head of Polish military intelligence on November 29, 1937 in Rembertów and concerned Germany. It has great cognitive value because it allows us to understand the assessments of the Second Division regarding the military potential of the Third Reich and the expansion of the German armed forces. It is, in fact, a synthesis of the knowledge that the military intelligence of the Second Polish Republic had in 1937 about the German state ruled by the National Socialists.