Warsaw Uprising

Warsaw Uprising
	Part of Operation Tempest in the Eastern Front of World War II
	; Clockwise from top left:; Civilians construct an anti-tank ditch in Wola district; German anti-tank gun in Theatre Square; Home Army soldier defending a barricade; Ruins of Bielańska Street; Insurgents leave the city ruins after surrendering to German forces; Allied transport planes airdrop supplies near Holy Cross Church.
Date	1 August – 2 October 1944; (63 days)
Location	Warsaw, Poland52°13′48″N 21°00′39″E / 52.23000°N 21.01083°E
Result	German victory Surrender of Warsaw Home Army; (see capitulation agreement); Soviet Lublin–Brest Offensive halted; Allied operation failure of Warsaw airlift; 80–90% of Warsaw destroyed; Mass murder of civilians in reprisal;
Belligerents
Polish Underground State Home Army; Polish Army in the East; (from 14 September) Supported by: United Kingdom; (4 August – 21 September) ; United States; (only on 18 September) ; South Africa ; Soviet Union; (limited aid) ;	Germany General Government;
Commanders and leaders
T. Komorowski (POW); Tadeusz Pełczyński (POW); Antoni Chruściel (POW); Karol Ziemski (POW); Edward Pfeiffer (POW); Leopold Okulicki; Jan Mazurkiewicz; Zygmunt Berling	Walter Model; Nikolaus von Vormann; Rainer Stahel; E. v.d. Bach-Zelewski; Heinz Reinefarth; Bronisław Kaminski ; Oskar Dirlewanger; Robert von Greim; Paul Otto Geibel
Units involved
Home Army City Center – North; City Center – South; Powiśle; Warsaw – North; Żoliborz; Kampinos Forest; Warsaw – South; Kedyw Units; Polish First Army Warsaw Airlift:; Royal Air Force; (including Polish squadrons); US Army Air Force; South African Air Force; Soviet Air Force	Warsaw Garrison Kampfgruppe Rohr; Kampfgruppe Reinefarth; Sturmgruppe Reck; Sturmgruppe Schmidt; Sturmgruppe Dirlewanger; Schutzpolizei; Supported by:; Luftwaffe
Strength
20,000–49,000; 2,500 equipped with guns (initially) ; 2 captured Panther tanks ; 1 captured Hetzer tank destroyer ; 2 captured armoured personnel carrier ; Improvised armored vehicles Warsaw Airlift:; US Army Air Force 107 B-17s, P-51 Mustangs;	13,000–25,000 (initially) ; Throughout the course of uprising: ~50,000[citation needed] ; Dozens of tanks Luftwaffe 6 Junkers Ju 87s;
Casualties and losses
Polish resistance: ; 15,200 killed and missing ; 5,000 WIA ; 15,000 POW (incl. capitulation agreement) ; Polish First Army: 5,660 casualties Warsaw Airlift: 41 aircraft destroyed	German forces: ; 2,000–17,000 killed and missing ; 9,000 WIA Multiple tanks and armored vehicles
	150,000–200,000 civilians killed; 700,000 expelled from the city

The Warsaw Uprising (Polish: powstanie warszawskie; German: Warschauer Aufstand), shortly after the war also known as the August Uprising (Polish: powstanie sierpniowe),^[15] was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led by the Polish resistance Home Army (Polish: Armia Krajowa). The uprising was timed to coincide with the retreat of the German forces from Poland ahead of the Soviet advance.^[16] While approaching the eastern suburbs of the city, the Red Army halted combat operations, enabling the Germans to regroup and defeat the Polish resistance and to destroy the city in retaliation. The Uprising was fought for 63 days with little outside support. It was the single largest military effort taken by any European resistance movement during World War II.^[17]

The Uprising began on 1 August 1944 as part of a nationwide Operation Tempest, launched at the time of the Soviet Lublin–Brest Offensive. The main Polish objectives were to drive the Germans out of Warsaw while helping the Allies defeat Germany. An additional, political goal of the Polish Underground State was to liberate Poland's capital and assert Polish sovereignty before the Soviet-backed Polish Committee of National Liberation could assume control. Other immediate causes included a threat of mass German round-ups of able-bodied Poles for "evacuation"; calls by Radio Moscow's Polish Service for uprising; and an emotional Polish desire for justice and revenge against the enemy after five years of German occupation.^[18]^[19]

Scholarship since the fall of the Soviet Union, combined with eyewitness accounts, has questioned Soviet motives and suggested their lack of support for the Warsaw Uprising represented their ambitions in Eastern Europe. The Red Army did not reinforce resistance fighters or provide air support. Recently declassified documents show Joseph Stalin tactically halted his forces to let the operation fail and allow the Polish resistance to be crushed.^[20] Scholars note the two month period of the Warsaw Uprising marked the start of the Cold War.^[21] According to the historian Alexandra Richie, for instance, the Warsaw Uprising "laid bare the differences between Poland’s desire for a Western style democracy and freedom, and Stalin’s brutal ambitions to Sovietize postwar Central and Eastern Europe."^[22]

Casualties during the Warsaw Uprising were catastrophic. Although the exact number of casualties is unknown, it is estimated that about 16,000 members of the Polish resistance were killed and about 6,000 badly wounded. In addition, between 150,000 and 200,000 Polish civilians died, mostly from mass executions. Jews being harboured by Poles were exposed by German house-to-house clearances and mass evictions of entire neighbourhoods. The defeat of the Warsaw Uprising also further decimated urban areas of Poland.^[23]

^ Cite error: The named reference Davies 2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Airlift to Warsaw. The Rising of 1944 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference BW was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference AB1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Borodziej, p. 75.
^ Cite error: The named reference WUmuseumcom was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Cite error: The named reference wufaq was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Tadeusz Sawicki: Rozkaz zdławić powstanie. Niemcy i ich sojusznicy w walce z powstaniem warszawskim. Warszawa: Bellona, 2010. ISBN 978-83-11-11892-8. p. 189.
^ Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski: Armia Podziemna. Warszawa: Bellona, 1994. ISBN 83-11-08338-X. p. 443.
^ Marek Getter. Straty ludzkie i materialne w Powstaniu Warszawskim. "Biuletyn IPN". 8–9 (43–44), sierpień – wrzesień 2004., s. 70.
^ Ilu Niemców naprawdę zginęło w Powstaniu Warszawskim? Paweł Stachnik, ciekawostkihistoryczne.pl 31.07.2017 Accessed 12 September 2019
^ Meng, Michael (2011). Shattered Spaces. Encountering Jewish Ruins in Postwar Germany and Poland. Harvard University Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0674053038.
^ Bartrop, Paul R.; Grimm, Eve E. (2019). Perpetrating the Holocaust: Leaders, Enablers, and Collaborators. ABC-CLIO. p. 12. ISBN 978-1440858963.
^ Wolfson, Leah (2015). Jewish Responses to Persecution: 1944–1946. Rowman&Littlefield. p. 534. ISBN 978-1442243378.
^ Stolica uczci poległych bohaterów w pierwszą rocznicę Powstania Sierpniowego. In: Kurier Codzienny, no. 5. 12 July 1945, p. 8.
^ Cite error: The named reference sb was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Duraczyński, Eugeniusz; Terej, Jerzy Janusz (1974). Europa podziemna: 1939–1945 [Europe underground: 1939–1945] (in Polish). Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna. OCLC 463203458.
^ Davies 2008, pp. 268, 271.
^ Warsaw Uprising 1944 www.warsawuprising.com, accessed 12 September 2019
^ Cienciala, Anna M.; Hanson, Joanna K. M. (January 1984). "The Civilian Population and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944". Military Affairs. 48 (1): 49. doi:10.2307/1988362. ISSN 0026-3931. JSTOR 1988362.
^ Rock, William R. (June 1995). "The Origins of the Cold War in Europe: International Perspectives". History: Reviews of New Books. 23 (4): 179–180. doi:10.1080/03612759.1995.9946252. ISSN 0361-2759.
^ Garliński, Jarek (1 April 2015). "Warsaw 1944: Hitler, Himmler, and the Warsaw Uprising". The Polish Review. 60 (1): 111–115. doi:10.5406/polishreview.60.1.0111. ISSN 0032-2970.
^ Alfred Peszke, Michael (December 2005). "A Review of: "Norman Davies.Rising '44. The Battle For Warsaw."". The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. 18 (4): 767–769. doi:10.1080/13518040500357003. ISSN 1351-8046. S2CID 219625918.

[Davies_2004-1] Cite error: The named reference Davies 2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Airlift_to_Warsaw._The_Rising_of_1944-2] Cite error: The named reference Airlift to Warsaw. The Rising of 1944 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[BW-3] Cite error: The named reference BW was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[AB1-4] Cite error: The named reference AB1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[5] Borodziej, p. 75.

[WUmuseumcom-6] Cite error: The named reference WUmuseumcom was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[wufaq-7] Cite error: The named reference wufaq was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[8] Tadeusz Sawicki: Rozkaz zdławić powstanie. Niemcy i ich sojusznicy w walce z powstaniem warszawskim. Warszawa: Bellona, 2010. ISBN 978-83-11-11892-8. p. 189.

[9] Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski: Armia Podziemna. Warszawa: Bellona, 1994. ISBN 83-11-08338-X. p. 443.

[10] Marek Getter. Straty ludzkie i materialne w Powstaniu Warszawskim. "Biuletyn IPN". 8–9 (43–44), sierpień – wrzesień 2004., s. 70.

[stachnik-11] Ilu Niemców naprawdę zginęło w Powstaniu Warszawskim? Paweł Stachnik, ciekawostkihistoryczne.pl 31.07.2017 Accessed 12 September 2019

[12] Meng, Michael (2011). Shattered Spaces. Encountering Jewish Ruins in Postwar Germany and Poland. Harvard University Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0674053038.

[13] Bartrop, Paul R.; Grimm, Eve E. (2019). Perpetrating the Holocaust: Leaders, Enablers, and Collaborators. ABC-CLIO. p. 12. ISBN 978-1440858963.

[14] Wolfson, Leah (2015). Jewish Responses to Persecution: 1944–1946. Rowman&Littlefield. p. 534. ISBN 978-1442243378.

[15] Stolica uczci poległych bohaterów w pierwszą rocznicę Powstania Sierpniowego. In: Kurier Codzienny, no. 5. 12 July 1945, p. 8.

[sb-16] Cite error: The named reference sb was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[17] Duraczyński, Eugeniusz; Terej, Jerzy Janusz (1974). Europa podziemna: 1939–1945 [Europe underground: 1939–1945] (in Polish). Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna. OCLC 463203458.

[FOOTNOTEDavies2008268,_271-18] Davies 2008, pp. 268, 271.

[19] Warsaw Uprising 1944 www.warsawuprising.com, accessed 12 September 2019

[20] Cienciala, Anna M.; Hanson, Joanna K. M. (January 1984). "The Civilian Population and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944". Military Affairs. 48 (1): 49. doi:10.2307/1988362. ISSN 0026-3931. JSTOR 1988362.

[21] Rock, William R. (June 1995). "The Origins of the Cold War in Europe: International Perspectives". History: Reviews of New Books. 23 (4): 179–180. doi:10.1080/03612759.1995.9946252. ISSN 0361-2759.

[22] Garliński, Jarek (1 April 2015). "Warsaw 1944: Hitler, Himmler, and the Warsaw Uprising". The Polish Review. 60 (1): 111–115. doi:10.5406/polishreview.60.1.0111. ISSN 0032-2970.

[23] Alfred Peszke, Michael (December 2005). "A Review of: "Norman Davies.Rising '44. The Battle For Warsaw."". The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. 18 (4): 767–769. doi:10.1080/13518040500357003. ISSN 1351-8046. S2CID 219625918.

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