Polish History Column by* Stef Komar
Warsaw Uprising of 1944
 

On August 1, 2009, at 5 PM in Warsaw, Poland, sirens wailed, church bells rang, and the entire city stopped in its tracks to reflect on the moment 65 years ago when the first shots rang out that started the liberation of Warsaw by the Polish Home Army from the German Nazis after five years of cruel occupation. For 63 days the city will continue to remember each=2 0day of the Uprising, the largest military action undertaken by any civilian force against the Germans during World War II. While the fighting was intended to last only several days the city fell again into the hands of the Germans after 63 days when the insurgents ran out of ammunition, food, water, ... and hope.

On August 1, 1944 the German army was in retreat in all of Europe. The allies were advancing steadily in France, Italy, the Balkans, as well as Eastern Europe. The United States and Britain were capable of flying their planes over Poland, and indeed were already doing so to conduct surveillance and to deliver military equipment to the Soviets. Almost immediately after Warsaw was occupied in 1939 the city prepared for the moment to rise up against the Germans. Polish leaders in England made plans in conjunction with the British to provide support to the city. Airlifts of weapons, including anti tank guns, ammunition and other supplies were to be available. A 10,000 strong, highly motivated, well trained and equipped Polish Paratrooper brigade had been created in England precisely to be sent to help liberate Warsaw and could be parachuted into the partisan filled Kampinos forest just west of the city. The long awaited moment had arrived as Soviet tanks had reached the eastern outskirts of the Polish capital while Soviet planes commanded the skies over Warsaw.

Polish Underground units had previously cooperated with the Soviet army in liberating smaller Polish cities from the Germans, only to have the leaders of the Polish underground units arrested or killed by the Soviets. The rank and file were disarmed and shipped to the Gulag or incorporated into a Soviet controlled Polish army. The Polish underground leadership in Warsaw anticipated a similar scenario as the Soviets began to broadcast messages to the population of Warsaw to start fighting the Germans. Although the leaders of Warsaw had no delusions as to the Soviets having any good intentions towards Poles it was determined that the inhabitants of Warsaw should fight to liberate the city from within, rather than stand by and allow the city to be devastated by two foreign armies battling in the streets. The leadership of the underground also realized that the population was becoming restless watching the German occupiers fleeing the city in advance of the arrival of the Soviet army. They feared that spontaneous attacks by armed residents against the Germans could not be stopped and would most likely provoke harsh reprisals by the German army. It was therefore decided that an organized and coordinated uprising by the underground was the best option to protect the city and its residents. The Soviet army could then easily enter to completely secure the liberation from the Germans ...and then most likely start persecutions against members of the Polish Underground, as had happened in other cities.

Within several days of the Uprising most of the city was cleared of German forces and the insurgents had captured water pumping stations, power plants, reserves of weapons, ammunition and flour. The population was jubilant and organized itself to administer the city, care for the wounded, prepare and distribute food to the residents, and even deliver mail The people en masse supported the efforts of the Home Army and involved themselves in building barricades, fighting fires, producing weapons such as Molotov cocktails, grenades, machine guns, mortars and flame throwers . They volunteered as medics, nurses, messengers, etc. The city was blanketed with Polish flags, Varsovians started living their lives in freedom and awaited the arrival of the Soviet army.

Surprisingly, on Stalin’s orders, the Soviet army stopped advancing and Soviet planes withdrew from the airspace over Warsaw. The British abruptly decided that the Polish Paratrooper brigade would be used in Western Europe, not Warsaw, and massive airlifts with supplies did not take off because Stalin refused to allow any planes with help for Warsaw to refuel in Soviet held territory, although airlifts with supplies for the Soviets continued. With the Soviets idle, the German army was able to send tanks, heavy artillery and planes to face off with the lightly armed underground. While the number of fighters on both sides was 40,000 to 50,000, only one in ten in the underground had a weapon at the start of the uprising. The German artillery and air force began to indiscriminately turn the city into ruins while SS units began committing mass executions of thousands of civilians, including women, children, elderly, wounded and infirm.

The rebels fought with dwindling supplies that were replenished with those captured from the Germans. British, Canadian, South African, Polish, and American planes that were able to make the trip and back without refueling did make occasional airdrops. These airlifts and the supplies they provided were limited in number because the planes flew at lower altitudes, were smaller and more vulnerable to antiaircraft guns and many were in fact shot down. Ammunition was produced with gunpowder retrieved from unexploded bombs and artillery shells. A sniper-like “one bullet - one German” efficiency goal was encouraged ... and adhered to! The use of Molotov cocktails forced the German tanks to remain only on the wider boulevards and the sewers were used to pass under them.

After six weeks of relatively unassisted fighting by the Poles, Stalin, under growing pressure by Churchill, finally allowed American and British high flying planes to drop badly needed supplies over Warsaw. Most, however, fell into German controlled territory, since by this time, the area of Warsaw controlled by the underground had decreased substantially and thus there was only one such massive airdrop. A token force from the Soviet controlled Polish army was allowed to make an attempt to cross the Vistula to enter the city but because the insurgents no longer held secure areas by the river, these forces were decimated and beaten back. In the end the leaders of the underground, seeing no help in sight, negotiated an orderly surrender.

The population was taken out of the city and whatever buildings remained standing were systematically, building by building, dynamited, torched and destroyed. In the end 85% of Warsaw was turned into rubble, 200,000 inhabitants had died, including 18,000 fighters. The German forces lost 270 tanks, artillery and armored carriers, 17,000 killed, 9,000 wounded and 2,000 temporarily held prisoners. What was unusual in these numbers is how disciplined and deadly the civilian paramilitary force had proven to be, in spite of their disadvantages, in that the number of combatants killed on the German side was double that of those wounded when the number of wounded in battle is usually several times more than the number of those killed.

The Warsaw Uprising was a painful experience made the more bitter by the fact that as it was coming to an end Paris also rebelled against the Germans, but was promptly assisted by American and British troops for a quick, successful, joyful and relatively painless conclusion. Had it not been for the calculated treachery of Stalin, Warsaw, once known as the Paris of the East, would have also been saved. To add insult to injury was that members of the Polish Underground including those that participated in the Uprising were persecuted for years by the Soviet installed Communist regime; the Nazi criminals that were responsible for the mass killings of unarmed civilians were never charged at Nuremberg or elsewhere; Poland was never recompensed by Germany for the immense destruction of Warsaw; and Stalin was placed on a pedestal as a hero by western institutions such as the New York Times for the role the Soviet Union played in defeating Germany.

The Warsaw Uprising is looked upon by Poles as a source of great pride considering the heroism and sacrifice exhibited in the face of overwhelming odds. It gave warning to the West as to the true nature of t he Soviet Union and has been therefore called the beginning of the Cold War. The Uprising was an inspiration to the Solidarity Movement which openly alluded to the legacy of the Warsaw Uprising as it amazingly toppled the Soviet installed Communist government of Poland. In a free and independent Poland the veterans of the Uprising are openly held in high esteem and a law declaring the first day of the fighting as a Polish National Holiday just passed without dissent.


References:
Marek Chodakiewicz
Rising 44 by Norman Davies
Dni Powstania by Stanislaw K opf