World War II began in 1939 and was completed in 1945. Over the entire period of hostilities, a large number of people died, more were injured, and many went missing. In each period of the confrontation, there were heroes and controversial personalities. All peoples of the coalition each fought for their homeland, not sparing life. The liberation struggle of Poland was no exception. An important moment of this period was the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. There are discussions about him to this day. The causes and consequences of this event have a variety of interpretations.
A brief history of pre-war Poland
After World War I, there was an intense power struggle in Poland. Only until 1926 there was a change of 5 governments. The post-war economy was very weak, the discontent of the population increased. Against this background, a coup d'etat by Yu. Pilsudsky took place. As a result, he became commander in chief of the army, and Ignati Moscitsky was elected president. In fact, a military dictatorship was established in the country. The following years, a development process took place in Poland. In 1935, under the new constitution, most rights passed to the president. And 1938 was marked by the dissolution of the Communist Party.
Germany in 1938 put forward a number of requirements to Poland, limiting its independence. After their rejection, on September 1, 1939 , German troops began a war. Already on September 27, the German invaders entered Warsaw. A week later, the last Polish large military unit surrendered, and the entire territory of Poland was under occupation. On the lands of the captured country there were several rebel movements. These include: the Army of Ludov, the Army of Craiova, various independent partisan movements. It was they who organized the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.
The situation of troops before the Warsaw Uprising
The Soviet army in 1944 launched an offensive on all fronts. In a few days, soldiers traveled about 600 kilometers. The units that pulled ahead were almost cut off from the supply. The air forces have not yet had time to relocate to the nearest airfields to the front. According to the plan, the liberation of Warsaw was to take place on the two flanks of the 1st Belorussian Front.
Until early August, soldiers approached the suburbs of Warsaw - Prague. This was done by the 2nd Guards Tank Army, which advanced ahead. Soon she faced a counterattack by the German army, which accumulated serious forces - according to some reports, there were 5 German tank divisions. The Soviet Army was forced to stop and start the defense. Some historians claim that the Soviet offensive ceased due to this event, plus the soldiers were exhausted by a 600-kilometer throw. Other scholars of military history insist that the leadership of the army in the person of Stalin did not want to provide assistance to the Polish resistance, which began the Warsaw uprising of 1944.
The beginning of the uprising
On August 1, an uprising began in the Polish capital. It was organized by the rebel Army of Craiova. In the history of Warsaw there are both black and white days. To which of them belong this period of time, the question is ambiguous. After the bell struck, one of the churches began fighting for the liberation of the city from the German invaders.
The occupiers missed the start of the Warsaw Uprising and at first were absolutely not ready for it. For 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 across the river. The Germans who had recaptured threw considerable forces into the resistance and drove out the rebels from most of the territories.
Although after the mobilization the strength of the Army of the Territory was greatly replenished, there was nothing to arm people. During the first phase of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, 34 important objects were captured, 383 prisoners were released from the concentration camp. From that moment, the rebels began to lose. It must be said that on the very first day of the uprising, partisans lost about 2,000 soldiers. A lot of civilians were killed. They took to the streets and supported the uprising as best they could: built barricades, transferred 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 bombing and shelling.
A few words about the Regional Army
The military group operating on the territory of Poland during the Second World War was called the Army of the Region. She was subordinate to the Polish government, which in 1939 left the country and continued its activities in London. AK resistance spread throughout 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 the Ukrainian patriotic detachments.
The largest number of soldiers in this military unit was in 1944 - about 380 thousand people. By its structure, it was divided into obshars - united districts and voivodships. The AK included reconnaissance, sabotage units. During the Warsaw uprising, the task of the Kraeva Army was to free 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 future Warsaw. In 1526, after the death of the last prince of Mazowiecki, the city was annexed to the Polish kingdom and received rights on a par with all settlements. At the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries, Warsaw became the capital of Poland. This happened because of the convenient geographical 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 even in 1813 it ceased to exist. This happened after the victory of the Russian troops over Napoleon. Thus began a new history of Poland. Briefly, this period can be described as a stage in the struggle for independence. But the uprisings in 1830 and 1863 ended in defeats and the loss of even illusory autonomy.
After the First World War, Poland finally regained its state. 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, Poland became the first country Germany attacked. G. Warsaw spent four weeks waging an unequal struggle with the invaders, but the forces were unequal, and the capital fell. Almost immediately, an underground movement was formed in the city to combat the invaders. Having gathered strength, the Protestants from the Kraeva Army, as well as several hundred people from the Ludova Army, decided in 1944 to rebel.
Armament of the parties
The Warsaw District of the Army of the Territory numbered approximately 30,000 soldiers, which was almost twice as many as the Germans. But the Protestants practically had no good weapons. They had only 657 machine guns, about 47 machine guns, 2,629 rifles, 50,000 grenades and a little more than 2,500 pistols. For such a large army, this was very small. We can say that the militia decided to fight with the powerful regular army of the Germans with their bare hands.
Germany, which at first began to retreat under pressure from the Soviet troops, then changed its mind and set as its goal the retention of the Warsaw defense by pulling large amounts of weapons into the city and its outskirts. So, the German group consisted of 600 self-propelled guns and tanks, about 1,158 mortars and guns, as well as somewhere around 52 thousand soldiers.
In Warsaw itself, companies of policemen fought with Protestants:
- Cossacks of 69 battalions;
- cavalry 3rd battalion;
- Russian 29th SS Division;
- divisions of the Muslim regiment;
- battalion of Ukrainian policemen;
- Russian Liberation People's Army (RONA) of Kaminsky;
- regiment of Azerbaijanis.
Political alignment
At that time in Poland there were two opposing political camps. The first is the Lublin Committee, which was created by the Soviet authorities in the city of Helm in late July 1944. It was assumed that during 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 opposing force was the current Polish government, which with the outbreak of war left for London. It considered itself the only legitimate authority. The history of Poland briefly tells that this government was the coordinator of the Polish rebel movement, including the Army of the Region. The main goal of S. Mikołajczyk was to free Warsaw on his own before the advent of Soviet power, so that after the war there would be an independent Poland. 1944 was decisive for these purposes.
Each of the camps wanted essentially the same thing - liberation from the German occupiers. But if the Lublin Committee saw the future of Poland under a Soviet protectorate, then the London government was oriented more towards the West.
German counterattack and defense of the old city
After the Germans recruited and received reinforcements, a large-scale and merciless suppression of the Warsaw uprising began. The invaders threw on the barricades, which helped the rebels to build civilians, tanks and equipment. Ahead, the invaders forced unarmed people to go, and they themselves stood behind them. The houses where the partisans were supposedly settled were blown up along with the residents there. According to preliminary estimates, about 50,000 civilians died in the first week of the uprising. We can say that the map of Warsaw has decreased by two regions, since 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, basements and tunnels, the Poles fought desperately for every home. On the south side, the outpost was a cathedral, which lasted two weeks, until it was completely destroyed with the help of a bomber. In the north, 10 days were fought for the hospital of Ian of God. The Krasinsky Palace, which was located in the west of the local defensive area, lasted the longest, thanks to which about 5000 rebels, using the underground passages of the palace, moved to other parts of Warsaw.
On August 28, having launched another counterattack, almost all the partisan forces in the old district were destroyed. The Germans ruthlessly crushed the wounded soldiers with tanks. And those who were captured, about 2,000 fighters, were killed and burned. On September 2, the defense of the old city was completely suppressed.
Air supply
Even before the uprising began, the Polish government asked the Protestants to help with the necessary weapons. So, in early August, British aviation carried out several sorties. Most of the planes were shot down by the invaders, some returned back to base. Only a few transporters managed to fly to Warsaw and dump the cargo. Due to the high altitude, part of the ammunition fell to the Germans, and only a small amount reached the Protestants. This could not have a significant impact on the situation.
The US Air Force asked the command of the Soviet Union for permission to land its aircraft on the territory of the USSR to further supply the Poles. This request has been denied. Each side interpreted the reasons for the refusal in its own way. Stalin declared that the Warsaw Uprising was an adventure, and he did not want to take any part in it.
Soviet aircraft began supporting the rebels around September 13th. Due to the release of ammunition from low altitudes, the effectiveness of such assistance was more substantial than the Anglo-American. Since that time, Soviet aircraft made more than a hundred sorties over Warsaw.
The middle phase of the rebellion
On September 9, Bur-Komarovsky made his first attempt to negotiate surrender with the Germans. Those in response promise to consider the soldiers of the Army of the Territory prisoners of war. At the same moment, Soviet troops launched an offensive, thanks to which the Germans had to leave the Vistula, burning bridges behind them. Hoping for further advance of the troops, the Poles so far refuse to capitulate and continue their armed uprising. But already on September 14, the Soviet units stopped again. Thus, the uprising in the conditions of a complete blockade and a limited number of supplies began to fade.
In mid-September, only a few areas were assigned to the rebels. Throughout the city, a struggle was fought for every house and every piece of land. The Polish army made an attempt to force the Vistula River, as a result of which approximately five battalions managed to cross. Unfortunately, the equipment and guns could not be transported, so this was a kind of adventure. As early as September 23, superior enemy forces threw 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 with awards for the heroic struggle.
Defeat and surrender
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 Zholiborz. Bur-Komarovsky on October 1 ordered a ceasefire, and the next day he accepted the conditions 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 losses range from 150,000 to 200,000. Another 700,000 Poles were ousted from Warsaw. The Germans lost: 17,000 dead, 5,000 wounded, 300 tanks. Several hundred cars and two dozen guns were also destroyed. The liberation of Warsaw occurred only after three and a half months - January 17, 1945. All this period before the entry of Soviet troops, the Germans systematically destroyed the historical and cultural heritage of the capital of Poland. Also, the invaders drove civilians to concentration camps and forced labor in Germany.
Despite the ambiguity of various interpretations, the Warsaw uprising 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 was nearing an end, decided to recoup on the Poles, wiping Warsaw from the face of the earth, along with a large number of its inhabitants. Unfortunately, serious politicians and people with 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 mankind to negotiate with each other and value a peaceful life.