80 Years Ago the sanation regime press reiterated that victory of German Luftwaffe seems to be quite out of the question

Have a look! He cannot move!

Eagle symbol as used by the (Wehrmacht) Luftwaffe, black variant, depicted as white-green by my Mozilla Firefox dark theme browser. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

As the inter-war period press reported: “What do German Air Forces look like in reality? The German Luftwaffe which fought above Spain, failed. She turned out to be weaker than expected. In the meantime, the world is still talking about some fantastic quantities of German warplanes. In the opinion of authoritative French and English circles the number of aircraft in the German Air Force is not more than 4000 pieces. That's quite a lot...

In conversation with the French Minister for Aviation...

I learned what the latest achievements of French aviation are and what opportunities the French aviation industry has at its disposal for boosting the production of combat aircraft after the outbreak of war. The most important are the production possibilities. In order to keep a squadron of 18 aircraft ready for combat, the same number of aircraft of the second contingent is required.”

The Cracow journalist wrote nonsense in his correspondence from Paris

Under the conditions of air superiority, the flying squadron, consisting of three smaller units with six fighter planes, fought on the daily basis with the use of two squadrons, where the third was reserved for defense of his own airport and other extraordinary tasks. The aviation industry had to produce six more aircraft, while the squadron still had about 10 other, less experienced pilots on its ranks who could replace their killed, injured or temporarily flightless colleagues.

These rules were created during the battles of the Condor Legion in Spain. They were developed there by fighter pilots flying with Messerschmitt Bf 109 and contributed to the victory in the fight against two generations of Soviet and French made fighter planes.

The further information and figures of "Icats" were therefore based exclusively on wishful thinking

"The use of aircraft during the war, till it would be lost and must be replaced by the next plane of the same or better type lasts 6 to 8 weeks. German aircraft replacing tempo would have to be much faster due to the poor material from which it was made. [...] Taking into account the losses (50 percent per month during the war), the German Air Force would have to have 3,000 reserve aircraft to maintain to maintain the same level of operational capabilities as at the start of hostilities. That should be considered as impossible, especially since the Germans will have to fight on two fronts in the next war. The propaganda draws exaggerated conclusions concerning some allegedly great wsar material resources of the Third Reich."

(Legenda o potężnem lotnictwie niemieckiem, "Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny", 2 sierpnia 1939, s. 2)

Unfortunately, it was the other way around! It was the heads of the leaders of the Sanators regime and the columns of his press, teeming with inaccuracies, superficialities and mistakes. This is not to be dismissed, because most of the information on the combat strength of the air forces and the production of the aviation industry of the Western powers, announced in Paris and London, had been fundamentally wrong.

The British class government, experienced and smart, was aware of a slow and staggering rearmament in its own country

The Englishmen have put the emphasis on their air forces and the air defense, and just in this area, their situation was already not hopeless, but they were still dramatically ill-prepared. Of course, this should be concealed, because it was vital to find at all costs the countries that could — by leaving them to the tender mercy of cruel enemy — gain more time for the Western powers. To give just one example, the Swiss press reported:

“The Times refers with some pride to the British squadrons flights over France, and to the even more significant fact that English aircraft production could be increased so that Britain can now also deliver aircraft to some friendly countries.”

(Russland wieder im Vordergrund, "Freiburger Nachrichten", 28 VII 1939, S. 1)

in the eyes the English upper class the war had since 18^th century an entirely different sense than, for example, from Polish, German or Russian point of view. In London rich Englishmen played at war and counted their assets, and victory should mean for them above all multiplying these assets. The second world war was to be proved as a great game changer...

Everybody is afraid of something but the sanation regime reiterated Poland fears nothing

Unfortunately, it was very easy to find the weak points of the Polish state. The foreign minister of sanation regime, Beck said the Polish Army has a surprise for the Germans and entire world. Hough! Some surprise! Contrary to the claims of the sanation press, German aircraft had not fallen from the sky as a result of the weak steel used to make them.