Distributed by the Polonia Media Network

PART 2 - FIRST BLOOD

Warsaw, astride the River Vistula [Wisla], is the largest city between Berlin and Moscow. The heart of the medieval town lies on the west bank, linked by bridges with the suburb of Praga, stretching along the right bank. On the west bank there is also a small inland harbor. Directly south of Praga on the east bank is the small auxiliary harbor of Czerniakowski. The old town is elevated about sixty feet above Praga and the east bank, ensuring an unobstructed, panoramic view over the Vistula. Although the river is only 350-400 yards wide where it flows through the city, it widens to over half a mile north and south of the capital. In August, 1944, one railway and three road bridges, still intact despite the ravages of war, spanned the Vistula. In 1939, as in 1944, Warsaw had great strategic importance not only because it was Poland's capital but also because the vital traffic arteries running north-south and east-west crossed in the city. It was obvious that the Germans could on no account afford to give up Warsaw if they hoped to keep control of the Eastern Front. The Polish General Staff, of course, realized this too. That is why the Émigré Polish General Staff History [Polskie Sily Zbrojne – PSZ] makes the following comment concerning the role of Poland's towns, Warsaw in particular, in Operation Burza:

“At first AK leaders forbade any fighting in the towns. They feared violent reprisals by the retreating German army. Armed sections in the towns were to leave their garrisons, only those forces needed for the safety of the populace and the maintenance of public security were to remain in the city. Units stationed in the towns planned to infiltrate the area to the west of their homes and harass the Germans behind the lines.

“In this operation Warsaw was only one part of the general plan. Accordingly, when the front approached Warsaw all those units which were sufficiently armed were to leave the city and participate in the fighting along the main traffic arteries running from east to west. Units needed to defend the civilian population from acts of violence by the Germans remained behind, as planned. These units too had to capture those areas of the city where it was felt the Germans would not put a stiff defense because they weren't essential for communications. The main routes were to remain free, so that German traffic could retreat completely unhindered. Had these vital traffic arteries been cut, it was felt, it could have led to violent German reprisals and threatened the city's population with considerable losses.”

The Poles knew very well that the Germans would keep control over this main railhead with every means in their power and they were determined to avoid actions likely to provoke hysterical reprisals against the civilian population, The horrors inevitably accompanying urban warfare in a city with over one million inhabitants were foreseen and feared. For these reasons the planners of Operation Burza did not anticipate open conflict in Warsaw, for the time being at least. Nevertheless, the Polish leadership itself decided in the end to spark off revolt even in Warsaw, in the second half of July, and subsequent events all too tragically confirmed initial fears.

The rebellion broke out, contrary to the plan, prior to 5:00 p.m. on August 1. The premature and sporadic activity which occurred can be blamed on ineffective communications within the AK. Violence erupted throughout the Zoliborz district at 14.00 hours; the same happened in Wola, in Mokotow, on Napoleon Square and in many other places between 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Shots could be heard everywhere as the first clashes broke out. By the planned zero-hour the whole city already looked like a bubbling and spluttering witches’ cauldron.

Under covering mortar fire from rooftops, the rebels attacked all important German strongpoints, administrative offices plus those of the Police, SS and Wehrmacht, hostels, barracks, depots, bases and military hospitals. The sharp reports of pistols and small arms echoed throughout the city. The cries and groans of the first wounded mingled with the abrupt detonations of grenades and the noise of shattering glass. Unfortunately, the uprising claimed as some of its first victims innocent passersby, caught completely unawares by the revolt.

After the short preparatory mortar fire, AK units had emerged from the cover of doorways, cellars and ruins; armed with small arms and hand grenades they had hoped to storm German bases and take them by surprise. They only managed to take their least important objectives. The first wave of attacks was violently repulsed. In a flash, administrative offices and military depots had been turned into complete fortresses. Some buildings had visible defenses, such as concrete pillboxes in the doorways, and the rest nearly all had some sort of fortification not easily seen from the outside: camouflaged and reinforced doors and walls, steel screens attached to windows from inside and fitted with rifle and grenade slits. These precautions now stood the Germans in good stead.

The rebels had split up their forces according to the strength of the German garrisons in the town. On the left bank of the Vistula were the districts of old Town, Town Center, Czerniakow, Mokotow, Ochota, Okecie, Wola and Zoliborz. On the right bank was Praga. The Old Town and Town Center were the most important because of the vitally important bridges which linked the different parts of the town, and also because the most important German posts were situated there. Consequently, the Poles concentrated most of their strength in these areas.

One AK battalion planned to emerge from the ruins of the Royal Castle, and take the Kierbedzia Bridge by surprise, while simultaneously another group, advancing from Praga, took possession of the eastern end of the same bridge. However, the attempt failed and the attackers suffered severe losses. As ill luck would have it, a German engineer unit had been posted to the pumping plant dominating the bridge only a few days before, and these troops successfully defended it. The attack on the Poniatowski Bridge failed too, the German defenses on the east bank unexpectedly receiving artillery support. The AK’s Konrad Battalion, which attacked the central bridge, was repulsed because it was too weak and ill-equipped. In the end the rebels did not even attempt to take the Citadel Bridge, as had been planned, because determined German troops and strong defensive fire repulsed the attack on the Citadel itself (in the northern part of the city) which dominated the bridge. This succession of failures meant that the Germans retained command of all the bridges; the rebels in the city center therefore could not link up with those in Praga. This was a severe handicap; they were deprived of maneuverability and the Germans themselves were given the whip-hand in any future fighting.

Additionally, as we have seen, the Russians, advancing from the east, did not even want to help the uprising; firm possession of at least one of the Vistula bridges intact could have considerably raised its worth in their eyes.

When the rebel-occupied zones later split up into pockets, a process accelerated by the failure to capture the bridges, it became easier for the Germans to keep control of the spearhead, which stretched into the town center as far as Pilsudski Square.

On this first day of the uprising, rumors of one disaster after another circulated among General Bor’s staff. The attack on the Parliamentary area around Saxon Square had collapsed because of massive counter-fire. The rebels had failed to capture the complex housing the HQ of the Police, Gestapo and Security Police. In comparison with the disasters of the first hour, the capture of one supply dump in Stawki Street, which contained food and uniforms, seemed of little importance. But all the camouflaged SS combat uniforms, soon to be the rebels standard dress, came from this one source, and later one could often only tell the rebels from their enemies by a cap badge or armband in the White and red colors of Poland. Some minor victories of the first hour, of no great significance for the later fighting, were the capture of a series of weaker German bases, mainly in the suburbs.

At nightfall the Poles attacked again, but without much success. They only managed to set fire to some of the smaller German bases and to capture a few of them. In general the attackers were ruthlessly repulsed, wounded and bleeding. Even the most enthusiastic young Poles had to admit that spirit and contempt for death alone were not enough to beat an experienced and well-equipped enemy. Hundreds of AK supporters, both men and women, perished in front of the German strongholds; above them rose smoke from the ruins of their burning and devastated homes.

On that first day alone, 2,000 AK troops (about 15% of their entire force in Warsaw) fell, in comparison with 500 Germans. At this early stage of the struggle, Warsaw had a foretaste of the inhuman atrocities, perpetrated above all by the Germans, which were to become horrifyingly typical of the whole uprising. From the start of the fighting the Poles too took hardly any prisoners. Take, for example, the following incident. The main center for wounded, situated between Litewska and Koszykowa Street, was recaptured on 2nd August. All the inmates had been killed, in order to save ammunition, by having their throats cut. And on Koszykowa Street itself, the barracks of an Azerbaijan Legion fighting on the German side was stormed and captured after hours of bitter resistance--the defeated German auxiliaries had their throats cut. One who escaped hid for over twenty four hours in a broom-cupboard; then, stripped and clad only in his underpants, he fought his way over roof-tops, through back-yards and gardens to a German base in Aleji Ujasdowskie Street.

In the Deutsches Eck [German Corner], a pub on Nowy Swiat [New World] frequented almost solely by Germans, Wehrmacht and SS soldiers, railway workers, postmen and civilians put up a desperate defense against a far superior force of Polish attackers until far into the night. Every half hour they telephoned a message through to a neighboring base. A call came shortly after midnight then there were no more.

Thus ended the first scene of what became the Polish capital’s dance of death, an incredible military tragedy for both sides. By the first night the rebels had only managed to occupy a part of the town center, the Germans still retaining possession of the most important points in the district, which could not, therefore, be used as a strong base for renewed attacks. German forces still held the stations, bridges and both airports. There, the rebels had suffered cruel losses because of their own weakness.

The inhabitants of Warsaw could not have realized the extent of the first day’s defeat at once. A wave of heady euphoria temporarily seized the districts liberated and occupied by the AK. Polish flags appeared in the windows and people left their homes in great excitement to celebrate the great hour of national liberation which seemed to have dawned. Waclaw Zagorski describes the scene in the city center that night in this way:

“We hung out a red and white flag on the factory, which our detachment now occupied. Then, as though this were a signal, Polish flags appeared on all the houses in the streets around. Standing to attention, everyone sang the hymn, ‘Not yet is Poland lost ... .’ I suppose it wasn’t, after all, to be wondered that people were in tears. Everyone wanted to do something, to help somehow. And today in our street everything was shared, everything was free.”