The Second World War began in 1939 and ended in 1945. During the entire period of hostilities, a large number of people died, even more were injured, many were missing. Each period of confrontation had its own heroes and controversial personalities. All the peoples of the coalition fought each for their homeland, not sparing their lives. The liberation struggle of Poland was no exception. An important moment of this period was the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. There are discussions about it to this day. The causes and consequences of this event have a variety of interpretations.
A brief history of pre-war Poland
After the First World War, an intense struggle for power took place in Poland. Only before 1926 there was a change of 5 governments. The post-war economy was very weak, the discontent of the population increased. Against this background, there was a coup d'etat by J. Pilsudski. As a result, he became commander-in-chief of the army, and Ignacy Mościcki was elected president. In fact, a military dictatorship was established in the country. In the following years, a process of development took place in Poland. In 1935, under the new constitution, most of the rights passed to the president. A 1938was marked by the dissolution of the Communist Party.
Germany in 1938 put forward a number of demands to Poland, limiting its independence. After their rejection, on September 1, 1939, the German troops started the war. Already on September 27, the German invaders entered Warsaw. A week later, the last major Polish military unit capitulated, and the entire territory of Poland was under occupation. Several rebel movements operated on the lands of the occupied country. These include: the Ludowa Army, the Craiova Army, various independent partisan movements. It was they who organized the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.
The position of the troops before the Warsaw Uprising
The Soviet army in 1944 conducted offensives on all fronts. In a few days, the soldiers walked about 600 kilometers. The units that escaped forward were practically cut off from the supply. The air troops had not yet managed to relocate to the airfields closest to the front. According to the plan, the liberation of Warsaw was to take place on two flanks of the 1st Belorussian Front.
Before the beginning of August, the soldiers approached the suburbs of Warsaw - Prague. This was done by the 2nd Guards Tank Army, which had pulled ahead. Soon she faced a counter-offensive of the German army, which had accumulated serious forces - according to some reports, there were 5 German tank divisions there. The Soviet Army was forced to stop and start defending. Some historians claim that the offensive of the Soviet troops stopped because of this event, plus the soldiers were exhausted by the 600-kilometer throw. Othersmilitary historians say that the leadership of the army in the person of Stalin did not want to provide assistance to the Polish resistance, which started the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.
The beginning of the uprising
August 1, an uprising began in the capital of Poland. It was organized by the insurgent Craiova Army. There are both black and white days in the history of Warsaw. To which of them to attribute this period of time, the question is ambiguous. After the bells struck at one of the churches, fighting began to liberate the city from the German invaders.
The invaders missed the beginning of the Warsaw uprising and at first were absolutely not ready for it. Within a short time, the rebels managed to break into the city center and completely establish control over it. At the same time, the Poles failed to capture the barracks, the airport, and most importantly, the bridges over the river. The recovering Germans sent significant forces to the resistance and drove the rebels out of most territories.
Although after the mobilization, the size of the Home Army was greatly replenished, there was nothing to arm people with. During the first phase of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, 34 important objects were captured, 383 prisoners were released from the concentration camp. From that moment on, the rebels began to lose. It must be said that on the very first day of the uprising, the partisans lost about 2,000 fighters. A lot of dead and civilians. They took to the streets and supported the uprising as best they could: they built barricades, transferred the rebels through underground tunnels, and provided medical assistance to wounded soldiers. Since all these people had no combat experience, they were the first victims of the bombing and shelling.
A few words about the Home Army
The military group operating on the territory of Poland during the Second World War was called the Home Army. She was subordinate to the Polish government, which in 1939 left the country and continued its activities in London. The resistance of the AK extended to the entire territory of Poland and its main goal was to fight the German invaders. Often there were cases of its collision with the Soviet army. Some accuse AK of trying to destroy Ukrainian patriotic units.
The largest number of soldiers in this military formation was in 1944 - about 380 thousand people. According to its structure, it was divided into obshars - united districts and voivodeships. The composition of the AK included reconnaissance, sabotage detachments. During the Warsaw Uprising, the task of the Home Army was to liberate the territory of the city from the Germans before the arrival of the Soviet military.
A little about Warsaw itself
Warsaw is the capital of a European state with a rich and tragic history. The city originates somewhere in the middle of the XIII century. It was then that the first large fortified settlement appeared on the territory of the future Warsaw. In 1526, after the death of the last prince of Mazovia, the city was annexed to the Polish kingdom and received rights on an equal basis with all settlements. At the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, Warsaw became the capital of Poland. It happened because of the conveniencegeographical location of the city, as well as for purely political reasons.
At the end of the 18th century, Warsaw came under the rule of Prussia. She stayed there for a short time, and already in 1807, after the defeat of the Prussian troops by Napoleon, the Duchy of Warsaw was formed. But it also ceased to exist in 1813. This happened after the victory of Russian troops over Napoleon. Thus began a new history of Poland. Briefly, this period can be described as a stage of the struggle for independence. But the uprisings in 1830 and 1863 ended in defeat and the loss of even illusory autonomy.
After World War I, Poland finally found its own state again. The period of development of the country as a whole and Warsaw in particular began. New houses and entire neighborhoods were built. During this period, the map of Warsaw has increased significantly.
In 1939 the first country attacked by Germany was Poland. The city of Warsaw waged an unequal struggle against the invaders for four whole weeks, but the forces were unequal, and the capital fell. Almost immediately, an underground movement was formed in the city to fight the invaders. Gathering their strength, Protestants from the Home Army, as well as several hundred people from the People's Army, decided in 1944 to revolt.
Armament of the parties
The Warsaw District of the Home Army numbered approximately 30,000 soldiers, which was almost twice as many as the Germans. But the Protestants practically did not have good weapons. They had only 657 machine guns, about 47 machine guns, 2629 rifles, 50,000 grenades and just over 2500pistols. For such a large army, this was very little. We can say that the militias decided to fight with their bare hands against the powerful regular army of the Germans.
Germany, which first began to retreat under pressure from Soviet troops, then changed its mind and set the goal of holding the defense of Warsaw, pulling a large amount of weapons into the city and outskirts for this. So, the German group consisted of 600 self-propelled guns and tanks, about 1158 mortars and guns, as well as about 52 thousand soldiers.
In Warsaw itself, companies of policemen fought with protesters:
- Cossacks in the 69th battalion;
- 3rd cavalry battalion;
- Russian 29th SS Division;
- divisions of the Muslim regiment;
- Ukrainian police battalion;
- Russian Liberation People's Army (RONA) Kaminsky;
- Azerbaijani regiment.
Political alignment
At that time there were two opposing political camps in Poland. The first is the Lublin Committee, which was created by the Soviet authorities in the city of Chelm at the end of July 1944. It was assumed that for the duration of the hostilities, the Poles who supported this government were subordinate to the general military command. In the post-war period, the committee was supposed to take control of the country.
The opposite force was the current Polish government, which left for London with the outbreak of the war. It considered itself the only legitimate authority. The history of Poland briefly tells that this government was the coordinator of the Polish insurgency, includingArmy of the Territory. The main goal of S. Mikolajczyk was to liberate Warsaw on his own before the advent of Soviet power, so that an independent Poland would exist after the war. 1944 was a decisive year for these purposes.
Each of the camps wanted, in fact, the same thing - liberation from the German invaders. But if the Lublin Committee saw the future of Poland under the Soviet protectorate, then the London government was more oriented towards the West.
German counterstrike and defense of the old city
After the Germans recovered and received reinforcements, a large-scale and merciless suppression of the Warsaw Uprising began. The invaders threw on the barricades, which the rebels helped build civilians, tanks and equipment. Ahead, the invaders forced unarmed people to go, while they themselves stood behind them. The houses, where the partisans were supposedly settled, were blown up together with the residents who were there. According to preliminary estimates alone, about 50,000 civilians died in the first week of the uprising. We can say that the map of Warsaw has become two districts smaller, as they were destroyed to the ground.
The militias were driven back to the Old City, where their main forces remained. Thanks to the narrow streets, cellars and tunnels, the Poles fought desperately for every house. On the south side, the outpost was the cathedral, which held out for two weeks until it was completely destroyed with the help of a bomber. In the north, battles were fought for 10 days for the Yan Bozhiyi hospital. The Krasinski Palace, which was located in the west of the local defensive area, lasted the longest, thanks toto which about 5,000 rebels, using the underground passages of the palace, moved to other districts of Warsaw.
August 28, having launched another counterattack, almost all the forces of the partisans in the old area were destroyed. The Germans mercilessly crushed the wounded soldiers with tanks. And those who were taken prisoner, about 2,000 fighters, were killed and burned. September 2, the defense of the old city was completely crushed.
Air Supply
Even before the uprising, the Polish government asked to help the Protestants with the necessary weapons. So, in the first days of August, British aviation carried out several sorties. A greater number of aircraft were shot down by the invaders, some returned back to their bases. Only a few transporters managed to fly to Warsaw and drop the cargo. Due to the high altitude, part of the ammunition got to the Germans, and only a small amount reached the Protestants. This could not significantly affect the situation.
The US Air Force asked the command of the Soviet Union for permission to land their planes on the territory of the USSR for further supply of the Poles. This request was denied. Each side interpreted the reasons for the refusal in its own way. Stalin declared that the Warsaw Uprising was a gamble and he did not want to take any part in it.
Soviet aviation began supporting the rebels somewhere on September 13th. Thanks to the release of ammunition from low altitudes, the effectiveness of such assistance was more significant than the Anglo-American. Since that time, Soviet aircraft have made more than a hundred sorties overWarsaw.
Middle Uprising Phase
September 9 Bur-Komarovsky makes the first attempt to negotiate with the Germans on surrender. In response, they promise to consider the soldiers of the Home Army prisoners of war. At the same moment, the Soviet troops make an offensive, thanks to which the Germans have to go beyond the Vistula, burning bridges behind them. Hoping for a further advance of the troops, the Poles still refuse to capitulate and continue their armed uprising. But already on September 14, the Soviet units stopped again. Thus, the uprising, with a complete blockade and limited supplies, began to fade.
Only a few areas were assigned to the rebels in mid-September. Throughout the city there was a struggle for every house and every piece of land. The Polish units of the army made an attempt to cross the Vistula River, as a result of which about five battalions managed to cross. Unfortunately, the equipment and guns could not be transported, so it was a kind of gamble. Already on September 23, superior enemy forces pushed these units back. The loss of Polish soldiers amounted to approximately 4,000 fighters. Subsequently, the soldiers of these units were awarded by the Soviet command for heroic struggle.
Defeat and surrender
The Protestants left without support did not resist for long. So, on September 24, German soldiers launched an attack on Mokotov, which defended for only three days. On September 30, the invaders defeated the last center of resistance in Zholibozh. Bur-Komarovsky on October 1 ordered a ceasefire, and the next day he acceptedterms of surrender, which were almost immediately violated by the German invaders. Thus ended the Warsaw Uprising.
During the fighting, the rebel army of the Poles lost about 20,000 soldiers, another 15,000 were captured. According to various estimates, civilian casu alties range from 150,000 to 200,000 people. Another 700,000 Poles were forced out of Warsaw. German losses were: 17,000 killed, 5,000 wounded, 300 tanks. Several hundred vehicles and two dozen guns were also destroyed. The liberation of Warsaw took place only three and a half months later - on January 17, 1945. Throughout this period, until the entry of Soviet troops, the Germans systematically destroyed the historical and cultural heritage of the capital of Poland. The invaders also drove the civilian population to concentration camps and forced labor in Germany.
The Warsaw Uprising, with all the ambiguity of different interpretations, is one of the most tragic events of the Second World War and a difficult period for the Polish people. The cruelty of the Germans in the suppression of resistance crossed all conceivable boundaries. The German Empire, which felt the end was near, decided to take revenge on the Poles, sweeping Warsaw off the face of the earth along with a large number of its inhabitants. Unfortunately, serious politicians and people in power never take into account the lives of ordinary people, and even more so with their opinion. May each such period of history, similar to the Warsaw Uprising, teach humanity to negotiate with each other and appreciate peaceful life.
