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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
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