This is the prelude to a so-far abortive series of stories about a very strange alien invasion.

Predominantly Roman Catholic Poland seems an unlikely early adopter of War Magic, but with a looming German threat on one side of them and the rising power of the Soviets on the other, Poland was one of the first countries to seek training from the Vyritya after first contact. In spite of their later reputation as top-notch War Magicians, the Nazi regime's magicians lagged badly behind Poland in the late 30s. They were also considerably behind France, Great Britain, Japan,and even Italy.

Of the Great Powers of the late 1930s, only the isolationist US and the distrustful Soviet Union were slower to adopt the new techniques than Hitler's Germany. Numbers can't capture the whole story of the gap in capabilities, but they can give a general picture.  At the beginning of September 1939, Poland had over ten thousand fully qualified first level magicians to Germany's five hundred, and the German hampered their magicians by embedding most of them in Panzer and motorized divisions where the mechanical auras of the machines around them made effective use of their powers more difficult. Poland also far outclassed Germany in upper level magicians (950 to 45) and advanced apprentices (40,000 to 1500).

With the odds stacked that heavily against them, why did the Germans attack? Partly because they overestimated the power of their machines. Their early strikes were all against mechanical targets such as aircraft, railroads, and conventional communications, rather than against centers of magical power and training. That wasn't a totally irrational plan. War Magic was untested, and there was no way of rationally assessing the relative power of panzer divisions and ground attack planes versus war fighting magicians. The Germans made the task of Polish magicians much easier by concentrating much of their machine-based war fighting capability in their Panzer divisions, providing concentrations of high-value targets that Polish magicians quickly took advantage of.

The power of the two war-fighting systems got a quick test as German panzers attempted to cut through the Polish Corridor separating East Prussia from the rest of Germany. In early fighting, Polish magicians fighting as part of the Pomeranian Cavalry Brigade nearly annihilated the German 3rd Panzer Division by creating three category four tornadoes and steering themt hrough the division, destroying most of its artillery and soft-skinned vehicles. The Poles then called fire down on the panzers themselves, suffocating German tank crews. Surviving Germans were rounded up by Polish lancers.

The Germans did initially maintain control of the air, as the Poles held back the bulk of their aircraft and fighter dragons so that inexperienced Polish air defense wizards didn't have to worry about sending fire after the wrong planes. The Polish air defenses performed reasonably well around Warsaw and a few other major cities, but a shortage of trained far-seers made early warning of German attacks a hit-and-miss thing.

On September 6, the German decided that their losses attacking Warsaw and other major communications centers were unsustainable, but they continued ground support efforts with considerable success outside of those major centers. Given the shortage of specialized anti-aircraft magicians, magicians trained in other areas were pressed into service to help the Polish anti-aircraft effort. For example,weather magicians were called away from their efforts to bring the fall rainy season on early to create storm clouds around German formations in flight,while upper level magicians fogged in German airfields.

In spite of those efforts, the continued German air superiority took its toll on the Poles, especially once they went over to the offensive. Fortunately for the Poles, German ME-110s accidentally attacked and damaged a Vyritya orbital-capable transport dragon near Lvov on September 14^th. The resulting Vyritya retaliation strikes on German logistic centers put the bulk of the German airforce in the east effectively out of the war due to fuel and munitions shortages. The Vyritya also temporarily halted training of German magicians and recalled their ambassador from Berlin.

The German setbacks in Poland precipitated the German officers' revolt that led to the death of Adolph Hitler, and after a period of instability, to the Himmler dictatorship. The defeats in Poland,and the humiliating peace forced on Germany in October 1939 led directly to the covert buildup of German magical power, and to the later emergence of Germany as one of the foremost practitioner of War Magic.

Revised on Feb 4, 2012.

More Stuff For POD Members Only

What you see here is a truncated on-line version of a larger zine that I contribute to POD, the alternate history APA.  POD members get to look forward to more fun stuff.