On October 2, 1944, the commander of the Craiova Army, Tadeusz Komorowski, signed a surrender to Nazi Germany. This event was the tragic ending of the Warsaw Uprising, which lasted 63 days. The core of the military units controlled by the Polish government in exile was defeated, and the Polish people suffered significant losses. According to historians, such grave consequences were led by the policy pursued by the Polish authorities for ten years, starting in 1934.
Warsaw and Berlin
The rapprochement of Warsaw and Berlin began in 1934, shortly after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. The Polish authorities believed that the great powers can always agree among themselves, ignoring the interests of other countries, therefore they sought powerful allies for themselves. On January 26, 1934, at the initiative of the German Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler and the Inspector General of Poland, Jozef Pilsudski, a declaration on the non-use of force was signed between the two states. It was followed by a number of other bilateral documents, in particular the Agreement on Economic Cooperation, concluded in November 1935.
During the Czechoslovak crisis of 1938, Warsaw also sided with Berlin - Poland flatly refused to let in Soviet troops to help Czechoslovakia, and then simultaneously annexed part of Czechoslovak territory - the Tieszyn region.
However, already at the end of 1938 tension arose between Germany and Poland. Official Berlin demanded territorial concessions from Warsaw, including in the so-called "Polish Corridor" (on the lands that separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany). Repeating his demands several times, Adolf Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht leadership to prepare a plan of war with Poland. April 11, 1939 the document was prepared and approved by Hitler.
Despite the aggravation of international contradictions, official Warsaw in 1939 refused to enter into an alliance with Moscow. She hoped to continue to balance between Berlin, London and Paris, remaining in anti-Soviet positions. As a result, having failed to create an anti-Hitler international association because of the position of Western countries, the Soviet leadership was forced to sign a non-aggression pact with Germany on August 23, 1939.
Poland in World War II
At the end of August 1939, a group of SS-men dressed in Polish uniform attacked a radio station in the German border town of Gleivitz, which was used to justify the attack on the neighboring country. On September 1, 1939, German troops attacked Poland along the entire length of the common border, as well as from the territory of previously jointly occupied Czechoslovakia.
On September 3, Britain and France declared Germany a “strange war.” Despite the advantage in the military, London and Paris did not take serious offensive actions on the western border of the Reich. This allowed the Nazis to quickly deal with Poland: by September 5, the “Polish Corridor” was occupied, on September 14 the Nazis surrounded Warsaw, and two days later they took all the Polish units between the Vistula and the Bug into the ring.
On September 17, the Polish government fled the country. On the same day, units of the Red Army entered the territories annexed in 1919-1921 by Warsaw, populated by Ukrainians and Belarusians. This allowed Moscow to protect the East Slavic population and push the state border a few hundred kilometers.
- The first prisoners are transported to Auschwitz, created on April 27, 1940 by order of Heinrich Himmler
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On October 6, 1939, the last major group of the Polish army capitulated in Kotsk - 17 thousand troops surrendered to the Nazis. On October 26, the Nazis announced the creation of a special territorial-administrative unit in the territory of Poland - the Governor-General. Concentration camps and death camps were built on its lands, including Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, Travniki and Majdanek, in which Jews and representatives of other ethnic groups, prisoners of war and political opposition who were objectionable to the Nazis were massively killed. According to Hitler’s “Ost” plan, the Poles were subject to either Germanization, or eviction, or physical destruction.
The losses of Poland during the Second World War, historians today estimate approximately 5.6 million civilians.
“The Poles are divided. While some went underground to fight the invaders, others provided them with economic assistance or even fought for them. In 1941, 271 Polish enterprises carried out orders of the Wehrmacht. During the war years, only Soviet troops captured about 60 thousand Polish citizens who fought on the side of Germany with weapons in their hands. Many were satisfied with the policy of the Polish government of 1934-1938, when in Warsaw they dreamed of a campaign against Moscow together with the Nazis, ”military historian Yuri Knutov told RT in an interview.
However, already in September 1939, an underground organization, Service for the Victory of Poland, was created. In November of that year, it was transformed into the “Union of Armed Struggle”, and he, in turn, in 1942, became the Army of Craiova (AK), subordinate to the Polish government in exile in London. AK forces conducted reconnaissance, sabotage and propaganda activities directed against the Nazi invaders. Nevertheless, she also led anti-Soviet propaganda, and her command issued directives prohibiting the conduct of sabotage against the Nazis, moving to the Eastern Front.
Preparing for the rebellion
“In the summer of 1944, Soviet troops inflicted a number of painful defeats on the Wehrmacht, advancing hundreds of kilometers across the territory of Belarus and Ukraine. As a result of the Bagration operation and the Lviv-Sandomierz offensive operation, the Red Army began to liberate the eastern regions of Poland from Hitler’s invaders, ”said Yuri Knutov.
However, according to the historian, due to the high pace of the offensive, "communications stretched out, the rear was lagging behind, and the troops themselves were exhausted, and the Vistula could not advance further without strain."
“Soviet successes made the Polish exile government nervous, led by Stanislav Mikołajczyk. Its members decided to take advantage of the battles between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht in order to take control of Warsaw, ”the historian explained.
According to Yuri Knutov, the Western allies reacted to the ideas of the Polish émigré government without enthusiasm and recommended coordinating their actions with Moscow. However, government leaders in exile did not.
“The very idea of organizing an uprising in Warsaw was such that it was directed both against Germany and against the Soviet Union,” said Vadim Volobuev, senior researcher at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with RT.
On July 25, 1944, the AK command confirmed that it was ready for an uprising. Commander of the Craiova Army Tadeusz Komorowski requested the London government of Poland in exile to support people, weapons and arrangements with the British Air Force. However, Britain did not want to take an active part in hostilities in Poland.
- Tadeusz Komorowski
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- © Scherl
By that time in Warsaw there were about 50 thousand underground members considered to be members of the AK, but they were weakly armed. The rebels had 3846 pistols and revolvers, 2629 carbines, 657 machine guns, 192 machine guns and a number of flamethrowers, grenade launchers and mortars.
Warsaw Uprising
On July 30–31, 1944, German troops stopped the advanced units of the Red Army east of Warsaw. The Red Army did not have forces to break through the Nazi line of defense on the Vistula. At this moment, the command of the Craiova Army decided to speed things up - on July 31, General Tadeusz Komorowski ordered the start of the August 1 uprising.
“The problem of the rebels was that the Germans immediately became aware of all their steps and decisions. A significant number of traitors were in the ranks of the Craiova Army, ”said Yuri Knutov.
According to Vadim Volobuev, the Nazis did not attach particular importance to the plans of the Warsaw underground.
“In Warsaw, in order not to weaken the front, at first they didn’t even transfer combat units, limiting themselves to the redeployment of SS units and all kinds of collaborationist formations,” the historian said.
At the same time, according to Yuri Knutov, the Germans managed to strengthen the administrative institutions and organizations responsible for the life support of the city.
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After lunch on August 1, only 20-25 thousand underground workers arrived at the gathering places of the rebels, possessing 3 thousand units of firearms and several tens of thousands of grenades.
The rebels wanted to use the surprise factor to seize administrative buildings, barracks, train stations, an airfield, and weapons depots, but punitive warriors were waiting for them everywhere.
“None of the more or less significant objects of the uprising failed to capture,” - said Yuri Knutov.
On the very first day of the uprising, about 2 thousand underground workers and 3 thousand random civilians in Warsaw died. The rebels captured a number of residential areas, but they had no strategic importance. In two days of fighting, the Nazis lost just 500 people dead and wounded. Making sure that the effect of surprise was not achieved, some AK fighters left the capital of Poland.
Komorowski sent a telegram to London, demanding that the Allies organize a Soviet offensive on Warsaw.
- Fighters of the Polish Army are fighting for Warsaw
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“The AK command wanted the Red Army, straining, to deploy 200-300 thousand troops on the Vistula, and then tell the Soviets:“ Get out, ”Knutov emphasized.
In turn, by the beginning of August, the Nazis deployed in Warsaw about 16 thousand SS fighters and collaborationist units, reinforced by several dozen tanks and self-propelled guns. Subsequently, fresh SS forces, artillery and aviation were sent to help them. In mid-August, the German group reached 25 thousand people. There were one and a half times more rebels - about 40 thousand people, but the rebels were extremely poorly armed.
Great Britain began to transfer weapons and ammunition to the participants in the uprising on August 4. On September 13, the Soviet Union joined it. Western allies dropped 1344 weapons and 45 tons of food from the rebels, while the USSR dropped more than 3 thousand small arms, 156 mortars and 131 tons of food. In addition, the Soviet side supported the participants in the uprising by the actions of bomber aircraft and artillery. On September 15-23, the pro-Soviet Polish Army tried to force the Vistula, but was forced to retreat under Nazi pressure.
- Warsaw rebel surrender
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On September 24, the Nazis launched a decisive offensive. By this time, the Nazis had transferred separate parts of the Wehrmacht to Warsaw. On September 28, the AK command entered into negotiations with the Nazis, and on October 2, Tadeusz Komorowski officially signed the surrender and surrendered.
According to historians, about 10 thousand AK fighters died during the uprising, about 17 thousand surrendered.
“The civilians in Warsaw suffered the most from the uprising - about 200 thousand people died, several hundred thousand ended up in concentration camps,” said Yuri Knutov.
According to the expert, after the massacres and the raids, only 22 thousand local residents were able to hide from the Nazis in the left-bank part of Warsaw.
“Warsaw has almost been wiped off the face of the earth. She became one of the most affected European cities during World War II, ”said Vadim Volobuev.
According to Yuri Knutov, as a result of the Warsaw uprising, the core of the Craiova Army in Poland was destroyed, and the emigrant government, who wanted to seize power at any cost in the country, lost the last mechanism of influence on the situation in Eastern Europe. Moreover, the military effect of the uprising was minimal - the Nazis lost only about 3 thousand people killed.
“The result of AK actions in Warsaw was only in vain casualties. Thousands of people with their lives paid for the ambition and the pure adventure of the members of the government in exile, ”summed up Yuri Knutov.