The Warsaw Rising

On 27 July the German authorities ordered 100,000 Warsaw residents to report for fortification work. Colonel Antoni Chruściel, acting on his own assessment of the danger to the underground, ordered Home Army units in Warsaw to a higher state of readiness while the population largely boycotted the German call-up.

At the afternoon command meeting on 31 July, Chruściel arrived at about 17:30 with reports that Soviet forces had entered Praga. After reviewing the situation with senior underground leaders and the Government Delegate, Bór-Komorowski ordered the Warsaw District to begin the Rising at 17:00 the following day.

At about 13:50 a Home Army patrol in Żoliborz encountered German personnel and opened fire, several hours before the scheduled start of the Rising. German units in the district reacted before the citywide attack began.

At 17:00 the Warsaw District opened the general attack. About 30,000 Home Army personnel entered the first day's fighting from a mobilisation pool of roughly 40,000 to 45,000. Available rifles, pistols, submachine guns and machine guns armed only a minority, so many assault groups depended on grenades, petrol bottles and weapons expected to be captured.

Home Army soldiers captured two damaged or immobilised Panther Ausf. G tanks in the Wola sector and organised crews to restore them.

German police, SS and attached formations under the western suppression group attacked eastward through Wola on 5 August to reopen the route from the western approaches toward central Warsaw and the Vistula. The advance was accompanied by organised mass executions of civilians in houses, hospitals, factories, courtyards and improvised killing sites.

Zośka Battalion attacked the KL Warschau camp at Gęsiówka with infantry and one of the captured Panthers. The tank broke through barriers and engaged German positions.

By 6 August German forces had forced a route eastward through Wola toward the city centre and the Vistula crossings. The corridor restored movement between the western approaches, German-held central strongpoints and the river axis.

German forces eliminated the principal insurgent positions in Ochota, including Reduta Wawelska. Some defenders escaped through sewers toward Śródmieście and Mokotów.

On the evening of 13 August insurgents brought a captured German Borgward IV demolition carrier into the Old Town after it had been abandoned near a barricade. The vehicle carried a detachable heavy explosive charge that had not been recognised by the crowd gathering around it.

Reinefarth’s forces opened a concentrated attack with infantry, assault engineers, armour, artillery, aircraft, an armoured train and fire from the Vistula.

After fighting through the night of 19–20 August, Home Army troops captured the PAST telephone building on Zielna Street. Assault groups used fire, explosives and close-range weapons to force the German garrison from successive floors.

After 03:00 on 23 August about 150 soldiers of the Krybar Group moved into position for a renewed attack on the German-held University complex. The improvised armoured car Kubuś and the captured Sd.Kfz. 251 Szary Wilk carried assault troops toward the defended entrance under supporting machine-gun fire.

On 28 August the 60 cm Karl-Gerät 040 Ziu fired into Śródmieście. One of its two-tonne-class shells struck the Prudential building on Napoleon Square, producing the explosion photographed in sequence by Home Army photographer Sylwester Braun from a nearby rooftop.

The Old Town garrison attempted to break through German positions and reopen a route to Śródmieście. Coordination failed and the attacking groups were driven back with heavy loss.

On the night of 1–2 September the Home Army began evacuating the surviving Old Town force through the sewer network toward Śródmieście and Żoliborz after attempts to break out across the surface had failed. Entry points around Krasiński Square fed men into narrow underground routes already crowded with wounded soldiers and civilians.

German troops occupied the Old Town after the organised insurgent force completed its withdrawal through the sewers. Wounded insurgents and civilians left in hospitals and shelters were murdered at several locations during the takeover.

By 6 September German attacks had taken most of Powiśle, including the power-station area and streets descending toward the Vistula. Surviving Home Army units withdrew uphill toward northern Śródmieście.

On 10 September the 1st Belorussian Front and the Polish 1st Army renewed the attack on the German-held Praga bridgehead east of the Vistula. The Soviet formations had spent weeks recovering and reorganising after the long summer advance and the armoured fighting east and north-east of Warsaw.

By 14 September Soviet and Polish forces had cleared Praga and reached the east bank of the Vistula opposite the insurgent districts. German troops withdrawing from the suburb destroyed the major bridges behind them.

During the night of 15–16 September the first substantial Polish 1st Army contingent crossed from Praga into the Czerniaków sector. About 300 men of the 9th Infantry Regiment reached the west bank and joined Home Army defenders around Solec and the river-side streets.

At noon on 18 September a large USAAF formation reached Warsaw during Operation Frantic 7 and dropped weapons, ammunition, food and medical supplies before continuing to Soviet airfields. The Warsaw Rising Museum records 107 B-17s over the city and 1,284 supply containers released.

German attacks split the Czerniaków defence into smaller positions along the river and around Wilanowska Street. Evacuation by boat and sewer became increasingly difficult.

The final organised positions in Czerniaków were overrun. Some defenders crossed the river or escaped through the city; many were killed or captured.

On the morning of 24 September German infantry, armour, artillery and aircraft opened the general assault on Mokotów. The attackers took Królikarnia and pushed the eastern and southern defence back toward the central streets of the district.

A renewed German assault began at 08:00 on 27 September against the remaining Mokotów positions. After the defence had been compressed to a small area, Polish representatives opened negotiations and the district capitulated around midday under assurances that the Geneva Convention would apply to the insurgents.

German forces opened the general assault on Żoliborz on the morning of 29 September. Infantry of the 19th Panzer Division attacked with tanks, assault guns and artillery from the south and west, forcing several Home Army groups away from factories, market buildings and monastery positions.

German attacks continued through 30 September and compressed Żoliborz into a shrinking pocket. An intended evacuation across the Vistula was delayed by weather, and negotiations with German commanders produced surrender terms during the afternoon.

A ceasefire had been in effect since 05:00 while Polish and German representatives negotiated throughout 2 October at von dem Bach's headquarters in Ożarów. At 20:00 German time, 21:00 Polish time, organised hostilities in Warsaw ceased under the formal agreement signed by Colonel Kazimierz Iranek-Osmecki, Lieutenant-Colonel Zygmunt Dobrowolski and the German command.