Insurrection of Warsaw

The Insurrection of Warsaw (August 1st at October 2nd, 1944) was a rising armed against the German occupant organized by Polish resistance (Armia Krajowa) within the framework with the national military plan " Tempête" action;. It was accompanied by the exit of the clandestinity of the structures of Resistance and the clandestine State as well as establishment of the institutions of the Polish State on the free territory of Warsaw.

Military side, rising was directed against the German forces, but the goal of this plan was the ultimate test to preserve the sovereignty of Poland vis-a-vis advanced Red Army and the ambiguous position with the Western Allies with respect to the intentions of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet armies cross the old Polish border on June 13rd. In this situation Polish resistance is placed in front of the decision to start rising to try to release the cities of the Germans or to expose themselves to Soviet propaganda describing the AK as collaborators of the Nazis and " planqués". The urgency of an spectacular action becomes clear after some attempts at military collaboration with the Red Army in the release of the Polish cities. For example with Wilno where after the catch of the city, the NKVD which followed the face, imprisoned the resistant ones to carry out them summarily or to send them to the Gulag S.

The Soviets while advancing on the territory of Poland started to organize the political structures while resting on their vassal, the Polish Communists who before the war were not a significant political clout in the country. Following the discovery of the mass grave of the Polish officers massacred by the NKVD with Katyn, the Polish government in exile does not have any more diplomatic relations with Stalin responsible for this crime on the prisoners of war, it thus did not leave in the negotiations between the large Allies (cf Yalta will give reason to this mistrust with respect to the position of the British Allies and American vis-a-vis Stalin).

Take care of the battle

At the beginning of its existence, the Armia Krajowa foments a national rising armed against the German forces. The initial plans of 1942 created by the Polish government in exile suppose that the allied invasion of the Europe would carry out the German forces to dismantle the face of the east for the defense of the Third Reich. The Armia Krajowa wished to initiate such a rising to prevent the sending towards the west of troops and thus to make it possible the British and American forces to beat the Germany, by breaking all connections with the majority of German forces piled up in Soviet Union.

Engagements

Rising began with 17:00 (the hour W ) the August 1st, 1944 . Some regard this beginning of the engagements during the day as an error. Even if the Germans did not notice an extraordinary military activity and plans did not work out to thwart the resistant ones, they received information one hour before the beginning of the hostilities and succeeded with partially organizing the answer. The lack of effect of surprised associated with the lack of experience of risen in the engagements in full day contributed to the bankruptcy of the catch of a certain number of strategic targets. The first two days of the insurrection were capital for the continuation of the engagements since the frontline established in the city determined its unfolding.

Largest military successes were accomplished in the Center, the old city and part of the Wola district where almost the whole of the objectives were occupied. With Wola, the Germans always held nevertheless the strengthened places and the strong losses obliged the insurrectionists to beat a retreat. In the other parts of the city, as in Mokotów, the resistant ones almost completely missed their objectives. On Right Bank of the Vistula (left is of Warsaw), the concentration in German troops was so strong that the resistant ones were quickly constrained to regain the hiding-places. Most detrimental strategically was that the local units did not succeed in keeping bonds, also the sections fought they separately.

After a few hours of engagements the majority of the units adopted a more defensive tactic while the civil population set up the barricades in all the city. The day of greatest military successes of resistant, on August 4th, was also the day of the sending of the reinforcements Nazis. The general S Erich von dem Bach was named commander and at once, a counter-attack initiated to connect the pockets of resistance German in the city and to cut the insurrectionists of the Vistula. August 5th was marked by the resumption of the grounds of old the ghetto and by the massacre of Wola where the Nazis carried out approximately 40.000 civilians.

The German strategy was to sap moral Polish combatants to take again the city without having to engage of street battles: until the end of September, each captured combatant was carried out on the spot. The flights and rapes on the civilians were the rule. Later this strategy was changed, the German command having concluded that it reinforced the determination of the resistant ones. Thus, towards the end of September the captured insurrectionists started to be treated like the prisoners of war.

August 7th the punitive body reinforced by the arrival of the companies panzer engaged of the engagements in the city (the civil population was used like human Bouclier in the German offensives). The Germans sought spectacular successes in order to show with AK that the continuation of the engagements was useless. Nevertheless, they did not manage to quickly take again the districts with the hands of the resistant ones. Between the 9 and on August 18th, the engagements make rage. The Old city will hold until the end of August. September 2nd the combatants of the old city will pass by the sewers to withdraw itself in the other parts of the city.

The network of the sewers at summer largely used by the insurrectionists to carry out all types of displacements, mainly intended to maintain the bonds between the units.

The German tactics during the insurrection were based on the air raids and of artillery - the insurrectionists not having heavy weapons could not thus counteract.

The Red Army arrived at the bank east of Warsaw on September 10th. At the beginning, this situation worries the Nazis, but very quickly they understand that the Soviet leave them the freehands to complete Polish resistance in the city.

Within the Soviet armies which arrive this day at the edge of the Vistula, it there with the first Polish Army (of the popular Army formed by the Soviets). On order of the general Zygmunt Berling, certain units crossed the river and came into contact with AK . But these units left without support of artillery or aviation will be liquidated by the Germans or forced with the retirement towards the east. Following this operation, the general Zygmunt Berling was raised of the command of the 1st Army.

Rising received a limited support of the Western Allies in the form of parachutings of weapons and another material (RAF and Polish aviation carried out 223 missions and lost 34 planes), but the effect of these flights was more psychological than military. The planes were to carry out rotations since bases located in Italy, the Soviets not having authorized the apparatuses reserved for these missions of support to use the tracks which they controlled in Poland - they have even drawn on and having cut down certain planes of the Allies. The Americans, in front of the reserve of Stalin compared to the rising of Warsaw, almost did not provide of assistance.

As from the moment when the hostility of the Soviet armies appeared to the Polish combatants clearly, the insurrection was regarded as a failure. The capitulation of the insurrectionists was signed the October 2nd by the general Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski.

Loneliness of the insurrectionists

The Varsovians are given up by the Soviets who stop their projection towards west, but a true military effort as a political pressure of the Western Allies on Stalin are also cruelly lacking.

Indeed, the attitude of the Americans and the British with respect to the Polish Government in exile in London (compound of the representatives of the parliamentary political parties of before the war) - the " First allié" - is increasingly dependant on the relations with new powerful allied Soviet.

The feeling of abandonment even of treason on behalf of the their allies was well depicts in the order of September 1st, 1944 of the Supreme leader of the Polish Armies (the general Kazimierz Sosnkowski) at the time of the fifth birthday of the beginning of the Second world war (order n°19): Five years passed since the day when Poland, with the encouragement and the guarantees of the British government, launched out in the combat against the German power (…) Today, for one month the combatants of Armia Krajowa together with the people of Warsaw, have bled as a recluse on the barricades in the unequal fight with a surpuissant adversary. (…) The people of Warsaw, were left with itself on the face of the common war against the Germans - here it tragic and monstrous enigma, which Polish, do not manage us to decipher in the context of the technical superiority of Allied this fifth year of the war. (…) The experts explain us that the assistance to Warsaw is technically difficult, one makes us the lesson of optimization of the costs and the profits. If to count it is necessary then let us remember that the Polish fighter pilots during the Bataille of England lost more than 40% men - 15% of the planes were lost during the tests to carry assistance to Warsaw. (…) If the inhabitants of the Polish capital were to perish under the ruins, if the passivity, the indifference or cold calculation let them be made massacre - then on the conscience of the world a weight of horrible suffering new in the history would weigh.

Losses

The Polish combatants resisted until the October 2nd is 63 days on the whole. The losses rose with 18.000 killed soldiers, 25.000 wounded and between 120.000 and 150.000 killed civilians. German side 17.000 soldiers were killed and 9.000 wounded. Rising failed, because the insurrectionists counted on the progression of the Soviet armies massed opposite Warsaw, on the other side of the Vistula.

The Soviets intervened only after the complete eradication of the insurrectionists, in January 1945. That is explained by the preparation of the post-war period in Poland. The Soviets knew that the Polish combatants were not very well laid out with respect to a " news occupation" by the Communists - especially after the invasion of Poland the September 17th 1939 by the Red Army, of coordination with the German forces. Consequently, Polish became an obstacle in the plans of Stalin aiming at dominating the area. This is why " libérateurs" preferred to observe the massacre, fascinating care to block the access to the ammunition with the Polish units of the popular Army (LWP - allied of Soviets) so that they do not act of their own initiative vis-a-vis the tragedy lived by their compatriots, being held in front of their eyes on other bank of the Vistula.

During the combat approx. 25% of the city were completely destroyed and after the end of the hostilities, on personal order of Hitler, additional 35% were systematically destroyed. During the seat of the in September 1939 city, approx. 10% of the buildings were destroyed and still 15% in 1943 following the rising of the Ghetto of Warsaw. On the whole, at the end of the war the city was shaven with height of approximately 85% !

Polish units implied in the engagements:

In the district of Warsaw the AK counted approximately 50.000 soldiers including 23.000 equipped and ready with the combat. The units lacked weapons and of ammunition, in particular after having partly transferred them towards the forces to the east, where the Tempête plan was initially to be started - the decision to include Warsaw in this military action was made only on July 21st. Put aside the soldiers of Armia Krajowa, others went voluntary - including a certain number of released Jews of the concentration camp in the ruins of the ghetto.

Pro-London:

Armia Krajowa, AK ( Armed with the Interior) - approx. 50.670 combatants

Pro-Soviet:

Armia Ludowa, Al ( Armed popular ) (communist) - approx. 800 combatants
ALP, 500 combatants
KB, 700 combatants

Others:

Narodowe Siły Zbrojne, NSZ ( independent national Forces ) - approx. 500-600 combatants
Szare Szeregi ( Gray Rows , the scouts combatans)
Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, ŻOB (Jewish organization of combat)

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