Warsaw Uprising
On 1 August 1944, the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) launched a general uprising in Warsaw against the German occupiers, timed to coincide with the rapid Soviet advance that had brought the Red Army to the Vistula's eastern bank. The uprising's leaders, loyal to the Polish government-in-exile in London, sought to liberate Warsaw independently and present the Soviets with a fait accompli — a free, non-communist Poland. For 63 days, 40,000 Home Army fighters held substantial parts of the city against 25,000 German troops, including SS units using tanks and heavy artillery in street fighting of extraordinary brutality. Stalin halted the Soviet advance and refused to permit Allied aircraft to use Soviet airfields to drop supplies to the insurgents — a decision for which he has never been forgiven in Poland. On 2 October the uprising collapsed; Hitler ordered Warsaw razed systematically, building by building. An estimated 200,000 civilians died in the fighting and massacres; 700,000 survivors were expelled. The Red Army entered ruins when it finally advanced in January 1945. The Warsaw Uprising was simultaneously one of the war's greatest acts of heroism and one of its greatest betrayals.
- Year: 1944 CE
- Category: Military
