The eagle unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War

The Second World War gripped Poland as it did no other country in Europe. Invaded by both Germany and the Soviet Union, it remained under occupation by foreign armies from the first day of the war to the last. The conflict was brutal, as Polish armies battled the enemy on four different fronts. It was on Polish soil that the architects of the Final Solution assembled their most elaborate network of extermination camps, culminating in the deliberate destruction of millions of lives, including three million Polish Jews. In The Eagle Unbowed, Halik Kochanski tells, for the first time, the story of Poland's war in its entirety, a story that captures both the diversity and the depth of the lives of those who endured its horrors.

"First published in the United Kingdom by Penguin Books ... 2012"--Title page verso.

Definitions of Poland and the Polish -- Guide to Polish Pronunciation -- The Rebirth of Poland -- Polish Foreign Policy, 1920-1939 -- The September 1939 Campaign -- The German and Soviet Occupation of Poland to June 1941 -- Exile in the Soviet Union -- Escape from the Soviet Union -- Poland's Contribution to the Allied War Effort, 1940-1943 -- Polish Non-combatants Outside Poland, 1939-1945 -- The Dark Years : Occupied Poland, 1941-1943 -- The Holocaust, 1941-1943 -- Sikorski's Diplomacy, 1941-1943 -- Threats to the Standing of the Polish Government-in-Exile and the Polish Underground Authorities -- The Polish Dilemma : The Retreat of the Germans and the Advance of the Red Army -- Poland : The Inconvenient Ally -- Fighting under British Command, 1943-1945 -- The End of the War -- The Aftermath of the War -- The Final Chapter -- Appendix 1: Order of Battle of the Polish Army, 1939-1945 -- Appendix 2: Principal Polish Personalities.