Behind the Scenes of the “Zaolzie Operation”: Financial and Organizational Problems of Corps District Command No. V Cracow on the Eve of the Outbreak of War

Abstract

The last years before the war in 1939 were spent on rearming the army, building fortifications and continuing the balance policy, in which, however, there was no place for Czechoslovakia, treated as a temporary entity. The controversial decisions of Józef Beck to incorporate Zaolzie into Poland were used for propaganda purposes and met with applause from the public, but they were strongly criticized in the international arena, and they did not find full support among some of the military. The events of 1938 were an introduction to World War II, and although diplomacy was the most important in Polish-Czechoslovak relations of that period, and the military aspect actually played a secondary role, nevertheless – besides the events of May 1926 – it was the largest military operation in peacetime conditions. Although this operation was carried out without even partial mobilization and at the lowest possible cost, its effects were severely felt in the area where it was played.