Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw (5 page)

Poland’s British Allies:
Anthony Eden, Foreign Secretary
(Hulton Getty).
Colin Gubbins, Head of SOE
(Hulton Getty).
Air Marshal Sir John Slessor
(Imperial War Museum Picture Archive).
Sgt. John Ward, RAF
(National Archives, Kew)

Moscow’s Polish Servants:
Marshal Konstanty Rokossovsky
.
Gen. Zygmunt Berling
(Polish Press Archive, Warsaw).
Bolesław Bierut
(AKG London).
Comrade ‘Vyeslav’
(Gomulka) (Hulton Getty)

The Pre-war Capital:
The Cracow Faubourg
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
The Saxon Palace
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London)

October 1939:
Adolf Hitler in Warsaw
(AKG London).
German troops on Uyazdov Avenue
(AKG London)

Nazi Barbarity:
Street execution
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
The Nazi-built Ghetto at Cool Street
(AKG London)

The Warsaw Ghetto Tragedy:
Roundup at gunpoint
(Hulton Getty).
The Ghetto Rising, April 1943
(AKG London)

Polish Forces in Britain:
The Polish Parachute Brigade, trained to fly to Warsaw
(Sikorski Institute, London).
The 1st (Polish) Armoured Division
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London)

Soviet Forces Heading West:
Rokossovsky, Victor of Stalingrad
(AKG London).
Gunners of Berling’s 1st (Polish) Army
(Polish Press Archive, Warsaw)

The Secret Home Army:
On patrol in the countryside
(Karta Institute, Warsaw).
The ‘Bashta’ Battalion on exercises
.
Presenting the standard
(27th Volhynian Infantry Division) (Hulton Getty).
Maj. ‘Gloomy’, one of SOE’s ‘Dark and Silent’
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London)

The Allied Coalition:
London, 5 August 1940: signing of the Anglo-Polish Treaty
(Hulton Getty).
Teheran, 1943: the Big Three: Churchill and Roosevelt give Stalin secret assurances
(Hulton Getty).
London, 1943–44: the Exiled Polish Government
(Sikorski Institute, London).
Washington, June 1944: FDR to Premier ‘Mick’, ‘Your country will emerge undiminished’
(Sikorski Institute, London)

Anti-German Risings, August 1944:
Paris
(AKG London).
Slovakia
(AKG London)

The Enemy in View:
Home Army marksman
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Locating German positions
(AKG London)

Insurgent Leaders:
Gen. ‘Boor’, Commander of the AK
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Gen. ‘Monter’, Commander of the Rising
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Gen. ‘Gregory’, Chief-of-Staff
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Courier ‘Novak’
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London)

German Military Chiefs:
SS-Ostubaf.
Oskar Dirlewanger
(
Suddeutsche Zeitung
).
SS-Brig.Fhr.
Mieczyslaw Kaminski
(
Suddeutsche Zeitung
).
SS-Ogruf.
Erich von dem Bach
(Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin).
SS-Gruf.
Heinz Reinefarth
(
Suddeutsche Zeitung
)

Insurgent Barricades:
Waiting for the next attack
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Action stations
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London)

Home Army Fighters:
No uniform uniform
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
A lull in the fighting
(Karta Institue, Warsaw).
Examining supplies
(Hulton Getty)

On the Attack:
No caption
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
No caption
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Perfect conditions for guerrilla warfare
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Fighting in the Holy Cross Church
(Hulton Getty)

German Counter-measures:
Kaminski confers with Cossack officers
(Museum of Warsaw Rising, Warsaw).
A Wehrmacht officer gives orders
(Hulton Getty).
Armoured personnel carrier fires a rocket-propelled grenade
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
A
StuG
German assault gun
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London)

Insurgent Successes:
Captured armoured personnel carrier
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Captured Panther tank
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Captured German soldier
(Hulton Getty).
Captured German staff car
(Hulton Getty)

Agonies of Battle:
Casualty being tended
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Insurgent hospital
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Emerging from the sewers
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Soldier’s funeral
(Hulton Getty)

Life Goes On:
Sheltering in the cellars
(Karta Institute, Warsaw).
Delivering letters
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Marrying one’s sweetheart
(Karta Institute, Warsaw).
Attending underground Mass
(Karta Institute, Warsaw)

Everyday Chores:
Collecting horsemeat
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Cooking dinner.
Waiting for a message
(Karta Institute, Warsaw).
Repairing the telephone lines

Jewish Insurgents:
Saved from Nazi captivity
(Museum of Warsaw Rising, Warsaw).
Rescued by the Zoshka Battalion at Goose Farm
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London)

Germany’s Central Asian Auxiliaries:
Turkmen reinforcements
(Karta Institute, Warsaw)

Home Army posters:
‘One bullet, one German’
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
‘To Arms in the AK ranks’
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London)

Propaganda:
Coalition: ‘We are not alone’
.
Catholic
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
‘When the cow bellows, don’t stand in the doorway!’
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London)

Greetings:
from the Communist Army: ‘The Giant and the expectorated dwarf of reaction’
(Museum of Warsaw Rising, Warsaw).
from the Parasol Battalion, Stalag VIIA, Murnau (Bavaria), Easter 1945
Western

Airlift:
A Halifax on the tarmac at Brindisi
(Imperial War Museum Picture Archive).
A Liberator over the Adriatic
(Imperial War Museum Picture Archive).
USAAF Flying Fortress at Poltava, Ukraine, ‘Frantic mission’
(Imperial War Museum Picture Archive).
A successful drop in the Old Town
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London)

International Politics:
15 August 1944, Premier ‘Mick’ returns from Moscow – empty-handed
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Roosevelt and Churchill: sixty days to save Warsaw
(Hulton Getty).
J. M. Keynes at Bretton Woods, August 1944: no Poles present
(Hulton Getty).
Western leaders at Quebec, September 1944:
not
discussing Warsaw
(Hulton Getty)

Devastation:
Vola in the wake of Dirlewanger
(Karta Institute, Warsaw).
Grave of a Gestapo agent
(Karta Institute, Warsaw).
Burying the dead
(Karta Institute, Warsaw).
Walking home
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London)

The Entry of Berling’s Army, September 1944:
Welcome in Praga
(Karta Institute, Warsaw).
‘There’ll be a Poland’
(Karta Institute, Warsaw).
Crossing the Vistula
(Museum of Warsaw Rising, Warsaw).
Berling’s soliders in captivity
(Karta Institute, Warsaw)

Terminal Affairs:
Countess Tarnovska (Polish Red Cross) in truce talks
(AKG London).
Blindfolding the negotiators
(Hulton Getty).
Ozarov, 2 October: signing the capitulation
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
Von dem Bach receives General ‘Boor’ in surrender: 5 October 1944
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London)

Last March of the Home Army:
Stolze Polen!
(Proud Poles!)
(Karta Institute, Warsaw).
Members of the Women’s Auxiliary Service

Dead City:
A wilderness of ruins
(Karta Institute, Warsaw).
Mountains of rubble
(Polish Underground Movement (1939-1945) Study Trust, London)

Civilian Exodus:
Preparations to leave
(AKG London).
The long walk
(Polish Underground Movement (1939-1945) Study Trust, London).
A column of sick and elderly
(Karta Institute, Warsaw).
Transit Camp, Prushkov
(Museum of Warsaw Rising, Warsaw)

Destinations:
A member of the master race reluctantly accepts a subhuman bandit as a POW
(Hulton Getty).
Home Army women at Stalag XIB, Fallingbostel
(Museum of Warsaw Rising, Warsaw).
Auschwitz-Birkenau
(AKG London).
Vorkuta

Endgame:
Stalin and Churchill: no meeting until October 1944
(Hulton Getty).
Soviet Liberation: the official truth
(Hulton Getty).
17 January 1945: the Communist-run Army enters the ruins
(AKG London).
Churchill and Roosevelt arrive at Yalta: too late
(Hulton Getty)

Post-war Trials:
Moscow: trial of Poland’s democratic leaders
(Polish Underground Movement (1939-1945) Study Trust, London).
Nuremberg: Warsaw not on the agenda
(Imperial War Museum Picture Archive).
Goring in the dock, with Hess: ‘Victors’ Justice’
(Imperial War Museum Picture Archive).
Trial of Captain Piletski, pseudonym ‘Roman’, March 1948
(Polish Press Archive, Warsaw)

Varsovian Destinies:
Tadek, died in battle
(aged eleven) (Polish Underground Movement (1939-1945) Study Trust, London).
‘Bear Cub’, died in the Lubyanka, 1946
(Polish Underground Movement (1939-1945) Study Trust, London).
‘Roman’, shot 1948
.
‘Wolf, died in Mokotov Jail, 1949
.
‘Kontrym’, shot 1953
(Polish Underground Movement (1939–1945) Study Trust, London).
‘Nile’, hanged 1953
(Polish Underground Movement (1939-1945) Study Trust, London).
‘Teofil’ of Zhegota: sentenced to death
.
Szpilman, ‘The Pianist’, survivor
.
‘Ludwig’, Comrade Kliszko
(Polish Press Archive, Warsaw).
‘Stefan’, future cardinal and Primate
(Copyright
©
Janusz Rosikon/Archiwum Instytutu Prymasowskiego)

Images True and False:
Home Army ‘Anchor’ badges: P.W. =
Polska Walczy
(‘Poland is Fighting’).
German
Warschau
campaign badge
(Polish Underground Movement (1939-1945) Study Trust, London).
Soviet medal ‘Liberation of Warsaw’
(Roger Moorhouse).
People’s Poland medal ‘Warsaw 1939–45’
(Roger Moorhouse).
Warsaw Rising Medal
(Warsaw, 1981) (Roger Moorhouse).
Victory Parade, London, 1946: no Polish representatives
(Hulton Getty)

Delayed Respects:
Chancellor Brandt’s
Warschauer Kniefall
, December 1970, when no monument to the Warsaw Rising existed
(Corbis).
RAF graves from 1944: British War Cemetery, Cracow
(Commonwealth War Graves Commission).
‘The Little Insurgent’: recovery of ‘Antek’’s body, August 1944 Monument, 1981
.
Monument, 1981
(Janusz Rosikon).
Warsaw Rising Monument, 1989
(Corbis).
1 August 2002: the annual candlelight vigil, Warsaw Military Cemetery