On July 29, 1944, soviet forces pushed the line to about 20 kilometers east of the Vistula River, the closest Soviet army had been to Warsaw, crossing the Vistula River to occupy Warsaw, but then encountered a fierce German counterattack, and the Soviet and German sides repeatedly fought for the east bank of the Vistula River for the next few months, and the Vistula River was in German hands most of the time.
Before the Warsaw Uprising, the situation in Europe in World War II, the green star is the location of Warsaw
At this time, in the polish capital warsaw, an underground resistance organization was brewing an uprising, trying to occupy Warsaw before the arrival of the Soviet Union and establish a pro-British Polish government, so when the Warsaw Uprising broke out on August 1, the rebel army did not inform the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union later learned of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising through Britain.
When the Soviet Union learned of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, the Soviets and Germans were still repeatedly fighting for the bridgehead of the Vistula River, and the battle was extremely fierce, because it was not ready to assist Warsaw, so the Soviet Union had to hastily send the First Belorussian Front, which was closest to Warsaw, to attack Warsaw in an attempt to meet the rebel army in Warsaw.
The rebels are armed with homemade "lightning submachine guns" and a Polish flag on their arms (white and red)
The First Belorussian Front began its offensive against the Germans in Belarus and Poland as the main force on 26 June, and after reaching the east bank of the Vistula River on 29 July, the First White Russian Front continued to engage the Germans as the main force along the east bank of the Vistula River to the north and south, and suffered a counterattack from the Light Armored Division of the German "Grimm Division", the "19th Division" Armored Infantry Division, and the reinforced SS Heavy Armored Division of the "Viking Division".
In mid-August, when the order to "receive" the Warsaw rebel army was received, the White Russian First Front had been fighting continuously for nearly two months and was in urgent need of rest, at this time the order to attack was already at the end of the crossbow, and in the case of heavy German troops outside Warsaw, the White Russian First Front naturally could not break through the German defense line, and suffered heavy losses. To make matters worse, after the failed attack, it was counterattacked by the Germans. The White Russian First Front could only support the Warsaw rebels by shelling.
Tank group of the First Belorussian Front, which had just arrived on the east bank of the Vistula River
After the Soviet Union and the leaders of the rebel army got in touch, they expressed their willingness to send two paratrooper officers to coordinate the next Soviet airborne troops to Warsaw, which was the fastest and most effective way for the Soviet Union to support the Warsaw Uprising, but the rebels refused.
Most of the Soviet forces were fighting the Germans for the Vistula, and as long as the Soviets could cross the Vistula, Warsaw was within reach. On September 13, the Germans blew up the bridge over the Vistula River to prevent the Soviets from crossing the river, it was impossible for the Soviets to cross the river in a short period of time, and the insurgents in Warsaw were increasingly inferior, so after the bridge was blown up, the Soviet Air Force was mobilized to start supporting the rebels.
From 13 September until the surrender of the rebels on 1 October, the Soviet Air Force dispatched a total of 4,821 aircraft to attack the Germans, drop weapons and ammunition, military supplies, medicines and food, during which time almost all Soviet aircraft near Warsaw were sent.
Supplies are falling in the night sky, followed by burning churches
When the Warsaw Uprising first broke out, although the German troops stationed in Warsaw were second-line troops, Germany immediately transported tanks, heavy artillery, rockets and flamethrowers to the Warsaw garrison, and also transferred the german front-line elite troops to suppress the uprising, and most of the rebel troops were new militias that had not experienced combat, not even the third-line troops, and the soviet airdrop weapons could not be compared with German tanks and heavy artillery.
Militia of the rebel army
Two German tanks and one remote control tank on the streets of Warsaw
The moment a building in Warsaw was hit by heavy artillery
On September 23, the rebel general who had been in charge of communicating with the Soviet Union suddenly disappeared, and it is not known whether he fled Warsaw or was killed. However, this did add a lot of difficulties to the next operations of the Soviet Air Force, and the Soviet aircraft could only lower their altitude to observe which areas were German-occupied areas and which areas were rebel occupation areas, which gave the German anti-aircraft fire more opportunities.
With the rebels without the support of ground troops, the Warsaw Uprising was doomed to failure, and Soviet airdrops could only delay the failure.
Two Warsaw civilians who lost everything
Civilians killed
At the end of September, the rebels ran out of ammunition and said on the final radio:
"Your heroes are soldiers who use revolvers and petrol bottles as weapons to fight tanks, planes, cannons. Your heroes are the women who nursed the wounded under the rain of bullets, delivered letters, cooked food and fed small children in the bombed basements. They are comforting the dead and alleviating their suffering. Your heroes are these children, playing quietly among the smoking ruins. These are the people of Warsaw. ”
On 2 October, the rebel command, after consulting with the people of Warsaw, decided that it was impossible to occupy Warsaw by continuing to fight, but would only prolong the suffering of the people, and then surrendered to the Germans.
A surrendered rebel soldier in a sewer, photographed in the Mokoto district of Warsaw
Rebel forces that have surrendered, photographed on October 5, 1944
At a glance, you can see who is Polish and who is German
The surrendered rebels were treated inhumanely, the Germans implemented a "scorched earth policy" on Warsaw, most of the surviving 500,000 civilians were expelled from Warsaw, and some went to Auschwitz, 85% of warsaw's buildings were destroyed, the remaining buildings were converted into fortifications, and Warsaw became a German war fortress to defend against the Soviets, and it took the Soviets three months to conquer the fortress.
Civilians expelled from Warsaw
"Fortress of War" after the end of the Warsaw Uprising