Distributed by the Polonia Media Network

PART 7 - "BATTLE FOR OLD TOWN"

After the battles in the suburbs each side went forward into the battle for the Old Town. Both had suffered crippling losses, the Poles had fared worst and could replace their losses only with difficulty. They had failed to achieve the tactical aim of the uprising and were split up into several different pockets. By now, at the very latest, they must have realized that whatever heroism they showed and whatever local successes they achieved could no longer lead to victory but would only prolong the agony. On the other hand, the atrocities and mass executions perpetrated by the Germans had ensured that there would be no early Polish surrender. Alerted by the fate of many of their comrades, the Poles would rather have fought to their last bullet or with no more than their bare hands than give themselves up into German captivity. Bach-Zelewski’s troops began to notice this desperate courage when they engaged in battle around the Old Town. The scene of the action was, for the most part, the heart of the medieval city, near the Vistula and directly north of the Kerbedzia Bridge. Like all the other bridges of course, it was still in German hands.

Apart from the heart of the Old Town, the rebels still controlled closed battle areas in the town center and to the south of the Old Town in the Mokotow district around the Vistula and also to the north of the Old Town in the area of Zoliborz. However, while the other centers of the uprising had the advantage of being near the wooded outskirts of the city or the rabbit-warren of the suburbs, where it was still possible to move troops around for some time, the Old Town pocket lay in an exposed position and was completely sealed off by the Germans. It was only possible to slip couriers and reinforcements in and out through the sewers. The Home Army’s Staff with General Bor, as well as the Staff of the Warsaw AK area command, were crammed together in the confines of the Old Town. Altogether they had about 7,000 men and women at their disposal. On August 12 about the same number of Germans began the main attack on the Old Town. Reinefarth was again in command, but he in turn came under the eagle eye of Bach-Zelewski. Dirlewanger’s combat group advanced from the Vistula and the south-east. They had received reinforcements--some engineers and SPs as well as some Cossack Battalions. From the west and southwest a mixed combat group of Panzer grenadiers, police companies and a heavy mortar company attacked under the leadership of Major Reck from the Posen Infantry Academy. From the north the combat group under Schmidt with the 608th German Security Regiment advanced and completed the iron stranglehold around the Old Town.

These three combat groups were supported by numerous units with heavy weapons. Guderian had played a major part in bringing the weapons up, some of which were completely new types and brought directly from the experimental testing stations in Juterbog and elsewhere.

They included the heavy mortar 40/41, from the iron framework of which could be fired four mortar bombs or rockets. They were filled with explosive or a kind of napalm and had a range of about 14 miles. The projectiles fired by 26 small rockets grouped around a central axle.

The remote-control "Goliath" tank mentioned earlier, was another recently developed device. This mini-tank was produced because blowing up field works, obstructions, bunkers etc. always incurred high loss of life. The two-foot high, unmanned remotely controlled miniature tanks could now carry out such tasks with small risk to the operator. The Goliaths were 4.5 feet long and could transport 200 pounds of explosive to their targets. As a rule they were controlled by a cable that was unrolled or, in some variations, by radio. They had a range of up to 1,000 yards. These dangerous gadgets rattled towards their goal at a speed of 15 m.p.h., remaining impervious to small arms fire and hand-grenades. Where they were employed in large enough numbers, they swept any obstruction aside.

The 702nd Panzer Detachment brought initially 36 and later 50 Goliaths under Reinefarth’s command. These devices received their first major baptism of fire in Warsaw and passed with flying colors. Almost every day the word "Goliath" appears in Bor’s reports to the Exile Government in London; he referred to it as "an especially dangerous and menacing German weapon."

One of the heaviest of all the weapons used in Warsaw, included one of the heaviest used in the Second World War, was the mortar "Karl" (nicknamed "Thor" by the troops.) It had a caliber of about two feet (61.5 cm) and weighed 124 tons. Out of its foreshortened barrel 1500 lb. heavy concrete shells could be fired up to 8,000 yards. This monster needed a crew of three officers and 110 men. It fired its first shot into the Old Town of Warsaw on August 18. It had been brought into action only once before--at the bombardment of the top-heavy fort of the Russian citadel at Sebastopol.

In addition to these spectacular major weapons, Warsaw received a number of tanks equipped with mortars, the well-known Achtacht (8.8) and others.

However, the effect of such heavy weapons was, in the end, bound to be limited in the narrow, twisting alleyways of the Old Town with its winding walls and many-storied cellars. Rather than all these special weapons, German command would have done better to have had one single experienced major unit, trained in street and house-to-house warfare and with experience at the front; one which had not been thrown together from a variegated catch-as-catch-can selection of units … For example Major Reck’s unit from the Posen Infantry School had been enlisted for a mere two weeks. They had been called up on August 1.

To counter criticism Guderian stressed expressly in a telephone conversation with Bach-Zelewski, "The Fuehrer lays special emphasis on the use of heavy weapons in street fighting, which in other words will destroy the city completely."

Soldiers and weapons were for General Bor on the other side, too, the most pressing problem. He kept radioing to London for air support and antitank weapons, munitions and further supplies. Again and again he had to start his daily report with the resigned sentence: "Today again no supplies have been dropped." Finally on August 12-13, after two days fighting around the Old Town, isolated drops brought in PIATs and ammunition. Next day Bor ordered all available units throughout Poland to march on Warsaw as quickly as possible. The BBC broadcast the order which said:

"The struggle for Warsaw is prolonged. It is being waged against great enemy superiority. The situation demands an immediate march to the help of the Capital. I order all available, well-armed units to proceed at once by the swiftest possible forced marches with the task of striking at the enemy strength on the peripheries and in the suburbs of Warsaw, and of breaking in to help the fight inside the city."

But, only a few units managed to reach the heart of the city and to slip into the Old Town through the sewers. The Germans reacted very quickly and threw a second security ring around Warsaw using auxiliary troops, air force, and construction troops.

Meanwhile they also tightened their stranglehold around the Old Town.

The battle had begun on the night of August 11-12, 1944. After heavy bombardment by Panzers from heavy guns and mortars, Reinefarth's troops attacked. The attack advanced concentrically over blown-up barricades, past burning houses, over the debris from bombed-out homes. But, the German attack was hesitant and losses were dreadful. The Polish fighters let the enemy approach as close range as possible. They could allow no ammunition to be wasted. "A German for every bullet," they said, and came close to achieving their slogan.

General Reinefarth remembers, "The Poles showed themselves to be especially skilful tacticians. They first let German troops advance as closely to them as possible, creeping along the line of houses on both sides of the streets, without resisting. Then one of our most dreaded enemies, the Polish sniper, would appear."

Reports from soldiers who had retreated all agreed that most of their comrades who fell were struck by well aimed shots from snipers.

They also reported that the snipers were very often Polish women and girls. They lurked behind numerous balconies on the old houses, behind the slit-holes in the hurriedly walled-up windows, and unerringly found their victims from the darkened depths of the houses while remaining invisible. Above all, they picked out the officers from the midst of their advancing troops. In the punishment regiments and the many foreign units sent into action in Warsaw, the loss of their officers meant that the soldiers retreated. London eventually managed to drop ammunition and weapons by parachute between August 13-15 and the Poles were at least relieved of their worst fears about supplies. The successes achieved by the Polish defense at this time showed what prompt air supplies to the uprising could have meant. Thirty machines which the RAF had borrowed from the Eighth and Ninth USAAF (U.S. Army Air Force) set out from Italy on the night of August 13-14 for the first drop, and 26 the following night for the second. Only fifteen machines seem to have found Warsaw at all on the first flight and three were shot down by flak. Only a small proportion of the supply containers from the rest landed around dropping zone on Krasinski Square. Nevertheless these supplies brought the Poles marked relief and strengthened their morale.

One of the main eye witnesses was an RAF (Royal Air Force) pilot who had been shot down over Poland and had gone to ground in the circles of the Polish Resistance. His name was Jack Warren. He had his own direct radio link with London. On August 14 he sent two radio messages, the texts of which have been preserved, to the Minister for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair:

"The British aircraft which flew over Warsaw on the night of 13-14 were enthusiastically greeted by the population, despite the shrapnel that was falling on the streets. They cried, ‘They are ours; they are British.’

"The morale of the cut-off population of Warsaw is today 10% better than it was yesterday. One aircraft dropped a wreath with the inscription: ‘From the British soldiers to our fighting comrades of the Polish Army.’"

He finished his message with this sentence: "The Polish population have an unshakable faith in Great Britain as their liberator."

Ignorant of this exchange, Bor had the following message sent out: "Fighting Warsaw sends the heroic airmen words of gratitude and appreciation. Your Air Force’s effort has made it possible for us to continue the struggle."

Obviously, however, these supplies could not last long.

Reinefarth and his combat groups kept up an almost unbroken attack and each day the pocket of resistance in the Old Town became smaller. Then German tactics changed. Between 16th and 19th they concentrated the combined strength of two combat groups on regaining control of one road from east to west. This succeeded, but with fearful losses. Now tanks armed with mortars could be shifted through the Old Town so that it was possible to bombard the Polish positions from two sides. Only then did the operation to mop up the Old Town begin on a large scale; at the same time, the rebels achieved their greatest successes in another battle zone in the town center. They captured two of the most vital German positions in the center from where they could keep the bordering areas under bombardment. These were the buildings of the main Warsaw Telephone Exchange (PAST) and the complex housing the Police Command and the former Ministry of Home Affairs.

After they had cut off electricity and water supplies and severed the lines to the telephone exchange from the outside, about 250 rebels drew up ready for the attack during the night of 19-20th. Armed with makeshift scaling ladders, satchel charges and small arms, they attempted to storm the building in the grey light of dawn. The German occupants, seven officers and 157 soldiers including a number of Ukrainians, put up a desperate defense, but after an hour long firefight the Poles reached the main entrance. The heavily protected entrance was burst open with satchel charges and a pump was used to spray petrol into the upper stories. In a second the building was in flames. Being deprived of the use of the telephones, the Germans put up a yellow flag to signal their great peril, but no one could come to their aid. Silence fell suddenly at about 10:00 a.m. Some of the soldiers tried to escape, and one was captured. From him the Poles learned that the defenders had retreated into the top story, but were now climbing down a concrete shaft into the cellar to continue the struggle from there. At once an entrance was forced into the cellar and the Poles battled their way down in a hail of fire from homemade hand grenades and flamethrowers.

The battle raged from room to room until 5:00 p.m., by which time the Germans had run out of ammunition. Thirty six men had fallen and 120 men, including six wounded, were ready to surrender; only a few had escaped. The Ukrainians and all the members of the Police and SS were shot, only Wehrmacht soldiers being allowed to survive.

In the city center a few days later the Poles captured the Police Headquarters and the nearby Holy Cross Church. Dozens of prisoners were taken and a great deal of arms and ammunition captured.

Similar incidents had taken place throughout the rebellion in Zoliborz and Mokotow, but after August 20 all action centered on the Old Town, turning what was left of it to debris and ashes. The fires started by phosphorus bombs could not be put out and many old half-timbered houses burned to the ground after each bombardment.