After The Battle 143 - The Warsaw Uprising

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NUMBER 143 © Copyright After the Battle 2009 Editor-in-Chief: Winston G. Ramsey Managing Editor: Gordon Ramsey Editor: Karel Margry Published by Battle of Britain International Ltd., The Mews, Hobbs Cross House, Hobbs Cross, Old Harlow, Essex CM17 0NN, England Telephone: 01279 41 8833 Fax: 01279 41 9386 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.afterthebattle.com Printed in Great Britain by Warners Group Publications PLC., Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH. After the Battle is published on the 15th of February, May, August and November. LONDON STOCKIST for the After the Battle range: Motorbooks, 13/15 Cecil Court, London WC2N 4AN Telephone: 020 7836 5376. Fax: 020 7497 2539 United Kingdom Newsagent Distribution: Warners Group Publications PLC., Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH Australian Subscriptions and Back Issues: Renniks Publications Pty Limited Unit 3, 37-39 Green Street, Banksmeadow NSW 2019 Telephone: 61 2 9695 7055. Fax: 61 2 9695 7355 E-mail: [email protected]. Web site: www.renniks.com Canadian Distribution and Subscriptions: Vanwell Publishing Ltd., PO Box 2131, 1 Northrup Crescent, St. Catharines, Ontario L2R 7S2. Telephone: (905) 937 3100 Fax: (905) 937 1760 Toll Free: 1-800-661-6136 E-mail: [email protected] New Zealand Distribution: Dal McGuirk’s “MILITARY ARCHIVE”, P.O. Box 24486, Royal Oak, Auckland 1030 New Zealand. Telephone: 021 627 870 Fax: 9-6252817 E-mail: [email protected] United States Distribution and Subscriptions: RZM Imports Inc, 880 Canal St., Stamford, CT 06902 Telephone: 1-203-324-5100 Fax: 1-203-324-5106 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.rzm.com Italian Distribution: Tuttostoria, PO Box 395, 1-43100 Parma. Telephone: ++390521 29 27 33, Fax: ++390521 29 03 87 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.tuttostoria.it Dutch Language Edition: SI Publicaties/Quo Vadis, Postbus 188, 6860 AD Oosterbeek. Telephone: 026-4462834 E-mail: [email protected]

BREST-LITOVSK

CURZON LINE

The Warsaw Uprising cannot be understood without having a look at the many border changes experienced by Poland in the 20th century. When Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939, they carved up the country along a demarcation line through Brest-Litovsk. Two years later, with Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, the Russian-occupied eastern half of Poland fell into German hands. By 1944, with the Red Army pushing the Wehrmacht back to the west, Stalin staked his secret claim to all Polish territories east of the so-called Curzon Line, which basically was the demarcation line of the Polish-Soviet Armistice of December 1919. In return Poland would receive territories annexed from Germany. In effect the country would be shifted westwards. Even though Stalin’s claim was yet unknown, the uprising was the Poles’ last effort to rescue their pre-war frontiers.

CONTENTS THE WARSAW UPRISING FRANCE Tragedy on the eve of D-Day IT HAPPENED HERE Revenge at Saint-Julien

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Acknowledgements: For their assistance with the Warsaw Uprising story, the Editor extends his appreciation to Wojciech Markert, Bortlomiej Bydon, Grzegorz Jasinski and Witold Rawski of the Wojskowe Biuro Badan Historycznych Wydzial Studiów I Analiz (Polish Military Office for Historical Research and Analysis), to Piotr Michalek of the Polish Ministry of Defence and to Wojciech Szelag, David Gray, Okko Luursema and Maarten Swarts. For their help with the Ugine story, the Editor would like to thank Robert Amprimo, Louise Barat, Christian Chevalier, Georges Gautard, Pierrine Mayen, Régis Roche, Gerhard Rother and Valérie Troufléau. For making possible the Saint-Julien story, he thanks Alain Baumes, Mayor of the village, and Josette Combalier, author of several detailed reports on the affair. Photo Credits: BA - Bundesarchiv; IGN - Institut Géographique National; MPW - Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego, Warsaw; NIOD - Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, Amsterdam.

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Front Cover: The Warsaw Uprising Memorial on Krasinski Square in Warsaw's Old Town. (Karel Margry) Centre Pages, left: Map of Warsaw's underground sewer canal system, showing the various subterranean routes, with their points of entry and exit, used by the Polish Home Army fighters during the 1944 uprising. (MPW) Right: Separate element of the Warsaw Uprising Memorial on Krasinski Square representing a group of Polish freedom fighters emerging from a sewer manhole. (Karel Margry) Back Cover: The memorial at Les Fontaines near Ugine in Haute-Savoie, France, marks the precise spot where nine hostages were shot by the Germans about midday on June 5, 1944, in retaliation for a Resistance bomb attack that killed 11 German policemen earlier that day. In all, the Germans executed 28 persons, the text on the memorial reminding passers-by that they were shot 'here and at Place de la Gare'. (Jean Paul Pallud)

Young and old participated in the uprising, as evidenced by this picture by Joachim Joachimczyk of a Polish teenage fighter who has just exited from a sewer manhole on Warecka Street after making good his escape from Old Town through the underground canals (see page 27).

JERZY TOMASZEWSKI

On August 1, 1944, the Polish underground army in Warsaw rose in rebellion against the Germans. The leaders of the Home Army had decided to undertake the operation, not only so that Poland could be seen to liberate its own capital but also as a statement of Polish independence vis-à-vis the Soviet Union. With the Red Army having reached positions just miles from the city, the Poles expected that fighting would only last a couple of days before the Russians would arrive and seal the fate of the Germans. However, Soviet dictator Stalin had other plans for Poland and, on his orders, the Red Army stopped its offensive,

giving the Germans ample opportunity to concentrate on brutally suppressing the uprising. The Polish insurgents — outgunned, outnumbered and only sparingly re-supplied by Allied airdrops — fought on for an incredible 63 days, tenaciously and with unbelievable courage holding on to daily shrinking sectors of the city, until they were finally forced to capitulate on October 2. As so often in Polish history, international power politics led to them being sacrificed. Jerzy Tomaszewski photographed a party of AK fighters holding a barricade on Mazowiecka Street in City Centre in the early stages of the uprising.

THE WARSAW UPRISING

On September 28, 1939 — 27 days after the German invasion of Poland from the west (see After the Battle No. 65), 11 days after the Soviet invasion from the east, and after enduring a two-week siege — the city of Warsaw capitulated to the Germans. The siege, which had brought almost continuous shelling by heavy artillery and bombing from the air, had cost the lives of 6,000 Polish soldiers, with 16,000 wounded, while civilian losses were about 10,000 dead and 50,000 wounded. Ten per cent of the city’s buildings had been destroyed. From the first day of the occupation of Poland, the German authorities established a rule based on absolute terror, meant to deter the Poles from any activities counter to German interests. Warsaw naturally became a focal point of this iron law. Right from the start, public executions were held in the streets, as retaliations for even the smallest act of sabotage. Lists of names of the executed were posted on buildings to serve as an extra deterrent. Thousands of citizens, arrested at random in street round-ups, were deported to forced labour in Germany or imprisoned in concentration camps. Pawiak Prison, located in the city centre, became notorious as the largest political prison in the country, a place of bestial interrogations, resulting for most inmates in an agonising death. Despite the continual sense of danger, the people of Warsaw turned en masse to antiGerman activities. The conspirational organ-

isation ‘Wawer’ conducted acts of sabotage and propaganda — anti-German graffiti appeared on walls, as well as the letters ‘PW’ formed into an anchor, symbolising the words Polska Walczy (Poland is Fighting), and the letter ‘V’ symbolising victory. Employees in legally operating print shops began printing counterfeit currency aimed at funding the resistance, and false documents to allow resistance fighters to travel freely around the country. Despite the risk of retaliations, actions were taken against Germans and Poles collaborating with Germans. To counteract Nazi-sanctioned entertainment, an underground cultural life sprang up, including theatrical presentations, concerts of banned Polish music and readings of poetry in private homes. The Germans had closed all universities and other institutions of higher education, as well as secondary schools, but the people responded by creating a highly effective network of clandestine education. National and religious holidays were festively observed in secret. There was a thriving underground press. Humour was a mighty weapon of opposition. Word-of-mouth jokes and sarcastic songs ridiculing the occupier circulated the streets of Warsaw. When signs Nur für Deutsche (For Germans Only) appeared throughout the city, inhabitants hung the same signs from street lamps. Caricatures of Hitler and the hated swastika were hung on walls.

By Piotr Sliwowski

THE POLISH UNDERGROUND STATE This anti-German activity was not accidental, nor uncoordinated, but directed by the fully developed legal structure of the Polish State. The Polish Underground State, established on September 27, 1939, was a unique phenomenon. Nowhere in Nazi-occupied Europe except in Poland did such a complex and well-functioning organisational structure arise — a structure encompassing administration, courts, education and a huge, excellently organised army. The Underground State was headed by government leaders who had escaped abroad: a president, a government headed by a Prime Minister, a Commander-in-Chief; first in France, later in London. Based on the Polish Constitution of 1935, it thus maintained the legal continuity of the national government. Within Poland, the highest authority of this government was wielded by the Delegate of the Polish Government to the Home Country, who held the rank of Deputy Prime Minister in the government. He headed the clandestine apparatus of civilian administration, with authority over entities that corresponded to normal ministries: Internal Affairs, Justice, Labour, Health, Treasury, Industry, Commerce and Trades, Science and Education, Food and Agriculture and Transportation. The Underground State not only organised opposition to the enemy, but 3

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Left: In the last week of August, with the front of Heeresgruppe Mitte in Eastern Poland collapsing, the German occupation authorities started evacuating Warsaw in a state of haste and panic. Here lorries are being loaded with goods from the Zacheta art gallery on Malachowski Square, which during the also cared for its citizens, supported clandestine education, conducted informational and cultural activities, maintained documentation, etc. Of particular note was the dense network of secret schools, thanks to which young people could receive an education — including higher education. The secret administration of justice was equally effective. Civilian and Military Special Courts passed judgement, including death sentences for traitors and collaborators. The Underground State also conducted broad-ranging activities of a strategic political nature concerning the future social order in Poland, the economic system and Poland’s place in post-war Europe. Basic laws were formulated, new legislation proposed, social and economic reforms were discussed, so that the reborn country might begin to function immediately after the end of the war. The foundation of the Underground State was formed by political parties — about 50 political societies were active in the underground, many publishing their own press. The scale of this phenomenon was huge. In Warsaw alone, during the occupation there appeared over 700 periodical titles, plus many books, brochures, school texts, etc. Representatives of the major political forces in the country formed an advisory and consultative body, creating a kind of underground parliament. Warsaw became the capital of this Underground State. It was the seat of the central military command — Supreme Command of the Home Army — and of the central civilian authority — the Delegation of the Government to the Home Country. The Polish Underground State included a growing army, which remained an integral part of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland that had continued its fight uninter4

German occupation was known as the Haus der deutschen Kultur (House of German Culture). Right: With the original Latin inscription– ‘Artibus’ (To the Arts) — restored on its sculpted pediment, the Zacheta is today a State Art Gallery and once again one of Warsaw’s prime exhibition centres.

ruptedly since September 1, 1939. The underground army was initially named Sluzba Zwyciestwu Polski (Service for Poland’s Victory), then Zwiazek Walki Zbrojnej (Union for Armed Combat), then in February 1942 it was renamed Armia Krajowa (AK, Home Army), which became the largest of the underground armies in occupied Europe. Numbering about 400,000 soldiers, it was an integral part of the regular Polish Armed Forces fighting alongside the Allies abroad. The existence of this vast underground army would have been impossible without the mass support and co-operation of the populace. The fundamental purpose of the AK was to fight to regain Poland’s independence. The army armed itself, building an extensive system for producing weapons and explosives; trained, and conducted ongoing military operations: sabotage, intelligence gathering — all in preparation for a nation-wide armed uprising. But before this erupted, Warsaw witnessed another heroic insurrection: the Ghetto Uprising. In October 1940 the Germans had created the Warsaw Ghetto, in which they crammed over 380,000 Polish Jews. On April 19, 1943, after some 75,000 inhabitants had perished from misery and starvation and another 265,000 had been deported to Treblinka camp and murdered in the gas chambers there, the 60,000 inhabitants of what remained of the ghetto rose in desperate rebellion against the Germans. The fighting raged for nearly a month, ending in the complete annihilation and defeat of the ghetto fighters on May 16. The Germans subsequently razed the entire ghetto to the ground, leaving a four-square-kilometre sea of ruins in the heart of the Polish capital.

THE INTERNATIONAL SITUATION ON THE EVE OF THE UPRISING In late 1943, the outcome of the war and the post-war world order were in balance. A key element at this stage was the spectacular success of the Soviet Red Army, which after victories at Stalingrad and Kursk had begun a rapid advance westward. Those were the circumstances under which the leaders of the three great powers — British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin — met in Teheran in November-December 1943. The Western Allies, unable to keep their promise to open up a new front in the West, wanted at all costs to preserve the alliance with the Soviet Union. Stalin, well aware of the difficult situation of the Western Allies, took advantage of this, forcing the acceptance of the boundary between Poland and the Soviet Union along a modified ‘Curzon Line’, which in effect legitimised the Soviet territorial conquest of Polish territories made possible by the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of 1939. The Polish Government-inExile was not only unrepresented at the conference but also not even informed of its secret decisions concerning Poland. Relations between the Soviet government and the Polish Government-in-Exile had become severely strained by the Katyn affair, the discovery by the Germans in April 1943 of the mass graves of over 4,000 Polish officers in the Katyn woods near Smolensk — a war crime for which the Soviets looked clearly culpable but for which they vehemently denied any responsibility (see After the Battle No. 92). Within two weeks of the discovery of the mass graves, Stalin broke off diplomatic relations with the Polish Government-in-Exile. The Soviet behaviour in the

A good set of comparisons but without a present-day match. The building of the German Nordwache (Northern Guard) police station at 75a Chlodna Street, pictured before the uprising. Note the concrete pillbox on the left. Katyn case led the Poles, both in London and at home, to increasingly distrust their Soviet ally. The developing international situation caused the government of the Polish Underground State to abandon its original plan, initiated in 1939, of a nation-wide uprising, to occur in the final stage of the war. In its place, AK Command planned Operation ‘Burza’ (Tempest), the intention of which was to attack the German forces just behind the front lines as they withdrew westward and to immediately install Polish organs of administration in the territories thus liberated. These were then to function as both legal and de facto authorities vis-à-vis the Soviet troops advancing into Polish territory. When the Soviet Army crossed the prewar boundaries of Poland in January 1944, Operation ‘Burza’ manifested itself as a series of local insurrections, moving from east to west along with the front. Acting alone or in conjunction with the Red Army, units of the Home Army entered battle in Volhynia, the Wilno region, in Lvov and around Lublin. They liberated dozens of towns, prime among them Wilno and Lvov in July. But military successes and good cooperation with the Red Army did not attain the desired political goals. The front-line Soviet troops were followed by units of the NKVD secret police and the counter-intelligence agency SMERSH which began to arrest members of the Polish civilian administration and military commanders who were coming out from under cover. AK soldiers were forcibly disarmed and sent to labour camps in the depths of the Soviet Union, or involuntarily assigned to the First Polish Army of General Zygmunt Berling — a Polish unit within the Red Army.

THE DECISION TO BEGIN THE UPRISING Given these circumstances, the Polish authorities began to realise the Soviets’ true aim. On the basis of their experiences in Operation ‘Tempest’, it became clear to the Poles that Warsaw must be in Polish hands before the Soviets entered the city. The moment seemed propitious: in late July 1944, in the face of unfavourable reports from the Eastern Front, the Germans began evacuating their garrison and administrative personnel from Warsaw. At the same time,

The same building after it had been seized by Polish fighters from the ‘Chobri I’ Battalion on August 3. The building no longer exists and new development at the junction of Chlodna and Zelazna Streets has made a meaningful comparison impossible.

waves of German troops withdrawing from the front began passing through the city. The populace had been electrified by news of the Allied landings in Normandy launched on June 6, and of the attempt on Hitler’s life on July 20. During the last week of July the leaders of the Polish Underground State faced very difficult decisions. On July 21 a ‘Polish Committee of National Liberation’ (PKWN) — an illegal, Communist quasi-government totally subservient to Moscow — assumed government authority in the eastern territories occupied by the Red Army. At the same time, the 1st Byelorussian Front under Marshal Konstanty Rokossowski reached the River Vistula and the outskirts of Warsaw, and the city was rife with rumours that they had entered the suburbs on the right (eastern) bank. Meanwhile, the Germans had managed to halt the panic on their side, and police and SS troops were returning to the city. On July 27, the German governor of the Warsaw District, Dr Ludwig Fischer, in an attempt to forestall an armed insurrection, issued a decree ordering 100,000 Poles to enlist for work on fortifications. This order was spontaneously and widely ignored. At the same time, the Soviets and their Polish Communist henchmen by means of radio broadcasts called on the city’s inhabitants to fight the Germans, accusing the AK of passivity. Finally, in the afternoon of July 31, the Commander-in-Chief of the AK, General Tadeusz Komorowski (nom de guerre ‘Bór’), in consultation with the Government’s Delegate to the Home Country, Deputy Prime Minister Jan Stanislaw Jankowski (‘Sobol’), gave the order to begin combat action. It was a decision reached by the highest, fully legal authorities of the Polish State, who were well aware of the associated risks. After their experience in two horrible occupations, they knew that the Red Army was not fighting to set Poland free, but to exchange Nazi totalitarianism for their own, Communist one. The Warsaw Rising, the goal of which was to liberate the capital with Polish forces and thus be able to greet the Soviet troops in the role of host, was the last desperate attempt at saving Poland from yet another enslavement. ‘W-Hour’ was set for Tuesday, August 1, at 1700 hours. 5

SYLWESTER BRAUN

Warsaw Bureau of City Planning before the war. During the 63 days of the uprising he toured the city with his standard Leica camera covering numerous important events. Before leaving Warsaw on October 6, he buried the negatives in glass jars inside a cellar. After escaping from a trainload transport of Polish POWs near the Dutch border, he returned to Warsaw in January 1945 to recover the hidden negatives. He soon left Poland for Sweden and in 1964 emigrated to the United States where he settled in Los Angeles. He died on February 2, 1996. Below: The same junction pictured by Karel Margry in June 2008.

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Above: The first days of freedom. A Home Army detachment emerging from Chmielna Street marches across Szpitalna Street in City Centre. After the long years of occupation the sight of young uniformed Poles marching openly on the streets filled the people of Warsaw with joyous excitement. This is one of over 3,000 pictures taken during the uprising by Sylwester Braun (‘Kris’), one of the best-known field photographers employed by the Home Army’s Bureau of Information and Propaganda (BIP) to cover the uprising. Born on January 1, 1901, Braun was a geodesist by profession who worked at the

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Although Warsaw was 85 per cent destroyed in the war, much has been repaired or painstakingly restored. Here and there, individual buildings have survived the massive redevelopment of the post-war decades so it is still possible to find meaningful comparisons in the present-day city. Chmielna Street remains relatively intact and is today a pedestrian area.

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Home Army forces in the Warsaw District, commanded by Colonel Antoni Chrusciel (‘Monter’), numbered about 50,000, but they lacked essential equipment and armament — only ten per cent of the members had any kind of weapon. The situation of the enemy was totally different: on the eve of the uprising, the German garrison in Warsaw numbered some 13,000 well-armed and highly trained soldiers, posted at the key locations in the city, and supported by heavy weapons, artillery and aircraft. Despite such a disproportion of forces, the Poles initiated the battle which would last 63 days. On August 1, about 25,000 soldiers of the Home Army entered combat, because not all of them could make it in time to their designated staging areas. The first clashes already occurred a few hours before ‘W-Hour’, premature fighting breaking out in the Zoliborz, Srodmiescie (City Centre) and Wola districts. On the first day, German units in the city suffered severe losses, estimated at about 500 casualties. But losses among the Poles were significantly higher, almost 2,000 being killed. The positions captured in these first battles did not provide the Poles with a tactical advantage. Nevertheless, they controlled almost three-quarters of the capital: virtually the entire Stare Miasto (Old Town), a significant part of the downtown districts of Wola, City Centre (with the then-tallest edifice in the city, the 16-storey Prudential building, on top of which they raised the red-and-white Polish flag) and Powisle (where they captured the allimportant power station), a small section of Ochota (in the south-west), the central section of Zoliborz (north of Old Town) and the lower part of Mokotów (in the south). They also captured storehouses of military uniforms and food on Stawki Street; German barracks in the building of St Kinga Church on Okopowa Street; the Military Geographic Institute on Jerozolimskie Avenue (the city’s main eastwest thoroughfare); the Municipal Transport building on the corner of Swietokrzyska and Marszalkowska Streets, and the Directorate of Railways building in the Praga district (on the east bank of the Vistula). A sizable Home Army group under Captain Jozef Krzyczkowski (‘Szymon’) established itself in the

JOACHIM JOACHIMCZYK

In the first days of the uprising, barricades went up in innumerable places all across the city, ordinary citizens joining with AK fighters to erect obstacles blocking streets and avenues. This is the barricade sealing off the western end of Chmielna Street in the capital’s City Centre borough. Picture by Joachim Joachimczyk.

An overturned tramway car and a lorry trailer have been used to block off Zlota Street at its junction with Zelazna Street at the western end of City Centre.

The Palace of Culture and Science — ‘Stalin’s gift to Warsaw’ — towers over a completely reconstructed Zlota Street. Only the building on the right (minus its balconies) remains. 7

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Map showing the areas of the city seized and held by the Polish Home Army by August 5. We have indicated the main locations featured in our story and also the initial positions of the counterattacking German assault groups under Kampfgruppe Reinefarth. (The separate Kampfgruppe Rohr was not organised until August 17.) [1] Krasinski Square; [2] Bank Polski; [3] Teatralny Square; [4] 8

Nordwache police station; [5] PAST building; [6] Victoria Hotel; [7] Prudential building; [8] Warsaw University; [9] City power station; [10] Polytechnic University; [11] Small PAST building; [12] BKG Bank; [13] Poniatowski Bridge; [14] Sowinski Park. Stare Miasto — Old Town; Srodmiescie Polnocne — northern City Centre; Srodmiescie Poludniowe — southern City Centre.

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The quiet courtyard remains remarkably unchanged after 65 years. August, which they would use in several combat actions. They also had a Hetzer tank destroyer, seized from Panzerjäger-

Abteilung 743 on August 2, which they later repaired and took into service under the name Chwat (Daredevil).

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Kampinos Forest, the large woodland just north-west of Warsaw. But the Germans were entrenched in several dozen strong positions, and still maintained control of the city, retaining possession of the most-strategic locations: the five Vistula bridges, the railway stations, the two airports and many administrative buildings and military barracks. The arms available to the Home Army came from a variety of sources. Some were captured from the enemy, some came from Allied supply drops, but most weapons had been manufactured in the underground army’s own arms shops, which had been in operation through most of the resistance movement. These clandestine factories produced home-made grenades of various types, flame-throwers, grenade-launchers, bottlethrowers and mines. Gun shops assembled sub-machine guns — a Polish version of the British Sten gun, and a home-grown gun called ‘Blyskawica’ (Lightning), also based on the Sten. The rebels’ arsenal also included a few combat vehicles — both home-made and captured during the course of the uprising. A symbol of Polish ingenuity and inventiveness was the armoured car called Kubus (Jake). Built on the chassis of a Chevrolet truck and with a body of double layers of sheet metal painted in a grey-and-brown camouflage pattern, it could protect its riders from rifle fire and grenade shrapnel. The Poles would use this vehicle twice in their attacks on the University of Warsaw, on August 23 and September 2. In both operations, they also used Szary Wilk (Grey Wolf), originally called Jas (Johnny), an SdKfz 251 half-track of the 5. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division ‘Wiking’, captured by men of AK unit ‘Krybar’ in the Powisle district on August 14. In addition, the Poles had two 45-ton Panther tanks, captured from the Fallschirm-Panzer-Division ‘Hermann Göring’ by men of the ‘Zoska’ Battalion in the Wola district in early

IRENA SKOTNICKA

Platoon I/1447 mustering in a courtyard between Mazowiecka Street and Dabrowski Square in the north-west corner of City Centre. Commanded by 2nd Lieutenant Leopold Kummant (‘Ryski’), his injured arm in a sling, the platoon was part of the company of Captain Boleslaw Kontrym (‘Zmudzin’), a unit of the ‘Bartkiewicz’ Group under Major Wlodzimier Zawadzki (‘Bartkiewicz’), one of the formations making up the AK forces in the Northern City Centre sector. The picture was taken by Irena Kummant-Skotnicka (‘Luga’), the platoon commander’s spouse.

Left: The Victoria Hotel located at No. 26 Jasna Street in northern City Centre was captured by the Poles on the first day of the uprising, August 1, and for the first three days was the command post of Colonel Antoni Chrusciel (‘Monter’), the commander of the Warsaw District of the Home Army.

Here, Polish soldiers dash out from the hotel lobby for the benefit of a BIP cameraman, this being a still lifted from cine material. Right: The hotel was heavily damaged in the later fighting and has since been replaced by a nondescript office and housing block. 9

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SYLWESTER BRAUN

with a Soviet 7.62mm machine gun and a flamethrower in a revolving turret, Kubus was designed to carry 12 men including the driver, Sergeant Fijalkowski (‘Anastazja’). Completed on August 23, Kubus went straight into action in the second attack on the Warsaw University. This failed, as did the third attempt on September 2. Forced to evacuate from Powisle, the crew abandoned the vehicle in the Okólnik Garden on September 6. Right: Recovered from the garden after the arrival of the Red Army in January 1945, Kubus has since been one of the prime exhibits at the Polish Army Museum on Jerozolimskie Avenue. However, there are today two specimens of Kubus in Warsaw, a replica having been built for the new Warsaw Uprising Museum that opened in July 2004. This is the replica, built by Janusz Siudzínski.

The ‘Krybar’ Group was also responsible for capturing a SdKfz 251 half-track. Originally on the strength of the 5. SS-PanzerDivision ‘Wiking’, it was seized by members of the ‘Krybar’ Group on Na Skarpie Boulevard in the southern part of Powisle on August 14. Like Kubus, the vehicle was used in the attacks on the Warsaw University on August 23 and September 2.

It was originally christened Jas (Johnny) but, after the death of commander Adam Dewicz (the man holding the MP40 submachine gun) on August 23, it was named after his pseudonym Szary Wilk (Grey Wolf). It remained in service until the end of resistance in Powisle on September 6. The picture was taken by Sylwester Braun (‘Kris’) on Tamka Street.

SYLWESTER BRAUN

Left: This home-made armoured car was built during the uprising by members of the ‘Krybar’ Group with the express purpose of using it to attack the troublesome German strong point in the Warsaw University complex. It took 13 days to build, construction starting on August 10 when engineer Edmund Frydrych (Junior-Lieutenant ‘Kaczka’) acquired a 3-ton Chevrolet model 157 truck via the staff of the city power station in Powisle. Construction took place in the workshop on the corner of Tamka and Topiel Streets under the direction of engineers Walerian Bielecki (Junior-Lieutenant ‘Jan’) and Józef Fernik (‘Globus’). The vehicle was named after Fernik’s wife, a female doctor who had been killed on August 15 and whose AK pseudonym was ‘Kubus’. Covered with a double layer of armoured plating, procured from all over Warsaw, and armed

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JULIUS DECZKOWSKI

JULIUS DECZKOWSKI SYLWESTER BRAUN

Above and top right: One of the two Panther tanks captured from the Fallschirm-Panzer-Division ‘Hermann Göring’ by members of the ‘Zoska’ Battalion (part of the ‘Radoslaw’ Group) in Wola on August 2. The pictures were taken by BIP photographer Juliusz Bogdan Deczkowski (‘Laudaski’) near Okopowa Street, the avenue that skirted the ruins of the destroyed Jewish Ghetto between Wola and Zoliborz. The battalion created a special tank platoon named ‘Wacek’ and used the tanks in several combat actions. On August 5, they committed one of the Panthers in an attack on the small concentration camp on Gesia Street, in the heart of the former Jewish ghetto area, which the Germans had turned into a strong point. The attack freed 348 Jews, who subsequently joined the ranks of several insurgent battalions (right). One of the Panthers was lost on August 8, the other on August 11.

The Polish armoury also included a Jagdpanzer 38 (t) Hetzer. One of the best tank destroyers designed by the Germans during the war, it was captured from Panzerjäger-Abteilung 743 by men of the ‘Kilinski’ Battalion during the battle around the Main Post Office on Napoleona Square on August 2. Heavily damaged by Molotov cocktails, it was initially built into the barricade that sealed off the approach from Szpitalna Street at the southern end of the square (above). Three days later, on August 5, it was towed away (centre right) and brought back to running order by Senior Sergeant Franciszek Jablonski (‘Wilk’). Adorned with the nickname Chwat (Daredevil), it was then kept operational — although mostly in reserve and never really deployed in actual combat — until lost under the ruins of the postal building. The picture (right) was taken in the Post Office courtyard around August 14. The men sitting on top of the vehicle are (L-R) 2nd Lieutenant ‘Asko’ and a welder sent from the insurgent-held city power plant. The eagle emblem and name painted on the vehicle are attributed to Marian Sigmund. 11

THE GERMAN REACTION The first news of the outbreak of the Warsaw Rising caused rage and uncompromising reactions on the German side. Hitler was furious and ordered the total destruction of the city. Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, in relaying Hitler’s order, added: ‘Every inhabitant must be killed (including women and children), no prisoners will be taken. Warsaw must be levelled to the ground, to create a terrifying example for all of Europe.’ Right from the start, the German garrison was strengthened by troops of the German 9. Armee of General der Panzertruppen Nikolaus von Vormann that happened to be present in Warsaw or were moving through the city on their way to and from the retreating front, in particular some units of the 5. SSPanzer-Division ‘Wiking’ and the FallschirmPanzer-Division ‘Hermann Göring’. To combat the uprising, the Germans created a special Korpsgruppe, commanded by SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem BachZelewski. The various elements of the corps reached Warsaw by rail in the course of the first week, assembling on the western and south-western suburbs. The Korpsgruppe’s main force was Kampfgruppe Reinefarth, commanded by the SS- und Polizei-Führer (SS and Police Leader) of Poznan, SS-Gruppenführer Heinz Reinefarth, and eventually consisting of four brigade-sized assault groups. From south to north they were: Angriffsgruppe Süd (Assault Group South), mainly comprising SS-Sturm-Brigade RONA, a unit made up of Russians, Ukrainians, Latvians and Lithuanians from the collaborationist Russkaya Osvoboditelnaya Narodnaya Armiya (Russian National LiberOne of the weapons employed by the Germans was the Goliath, or Fernlenkpanzer, the remote-controlled explosive-filled tracked vehicle that could be used to blow up buildings, barricades or troop concentrations. Powered by either an electric or small petrol engine, it had a maximum speed of 10kph carrying an explosive charge of 60, 75 or 100 kilograms. It was steered by a trailing command wire with a range of 600 metres. The Goliaths in Warsaw were operated by Panzer-Abteilung 302 which arrived in the city on August 14, originally equipped with 35 but six days later increased to 50. Kriegsberichter Gutermann photographed men of the special unit preparing two of the Goliaths for action. 12

ation Army) and commanded by SSBrigadeführer Bronislaw Kaminski (but in Warsaw led by Kaminski’s deputy, SSSturmbannführer Yuri Frolov); Angriffsgruppe Mitte (Assault Group Centre), led by SS-Standartenführer Oskar Dirlewanger, comprising SS-Sturm-Brigade Dirlewanger, a notorious unit made up of SS

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The German reaction to the uprising was not long in coming. On August 5, Kampfgruppe Reinefarth launched a strong counter-attack from the west, beginning with a powerful drive down Wolska Street. A Wehrmacht Kriegsberichter (war reporter), Gutermann, pictured SS-Gruppenführer Heinz Reinefarth (third from right) conferring with his commanders and staff.

convicts and common criminals released from prisons and concentration camps, and two battalions of collaborationist Azerbaijan troops, the Aserbeidschanische Feld-Bataillon I./111 and the Aserbeidschanische Infanterie-Bataillon II; Angriffsgruppe Nord (Assault Group North), under Major Max Reck, comprising a variety of motorised Gendarmerie companies from Poznan and other Polish towns plus two police battalions, Polizei-Bataillon Burkhardt and Polizei-Bataillon Peterburs; Angriffsgruppe Schmidt, led by Oberst Willi Schmidt, mainly consisting of Sicherungs-Regiment 608 from Poznan. In the course of August, Korpsgruppe von dem Bach would be further reinforced by numerous other units: several formations made up of Cossack troops (Kosaken-Regiment 3, IV. Kosaken-Abteilung from Sicherungs-Regiment 57, Kosaken-Bataillon 572, Kosaken-Abteilung 69 and Ost-ReiterAbteilung 580); elements from several armoured units (Panzerjäger-Abteilung 743, Sturmgeschütz-Ersatz-Abteilung 200, Panzer-Abteilung 302 and Sturm-PanzerKompanie 218); an armoured train; various artillery, anti-tank, machine-gun, flamethrower, assault pioneer and Flak units; and many other smaller battle groups. As the battle progressed the Germans further committed elements of various frontline divisions, notably the 19. Panzer-Division (used to put down the Poles at Mokotów in the south and Zoliborz in the north) and the 25. Infanterie-Division (deployed against Zoliborz). Overall, the rising fought against approximately 190 different German and collaborationist units. The total strength of von dem Bach’s command eventually

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the right. Powaskowska Street was the main line of advance of Angriffsgruppe Reck during its attack towards City Centre on August 11. Progress was slow and fighting in this area continued for several days — the presence of the Goliaths is proof that the pictures were taken on or after August 14.

Left: Major Max Reck, the Angriffsgruppe commander, watches as the Goliaths are made ready for deployment. He is standing on the corner of Powaskowska Street, at its crossing with Okopowa Street, taking advantage of the cover provided by the heavy perimeter wall which surrounds Powaski Cemetery.

The area around the burial ground — and the former Jewish Ghetto beyond — was firmly defended by units of the ‘Radoslaw’ Group, some 1,650 strong. Major Reck came from the Infanterie-Schule Posen (Infantry School Poznan). Right: The same corner, now a busy crossroads.

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Left: His next shot showed the soldiers transporting the Goliaths forward on their specially-designed handcarts. Right: With help of experts from the Polish Military History Institute, Karel traced the spot to Powaskowska Street in the north-western borough of Powaski. St Karol Boromeusz Church stands on

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Centre: A little further on, another Kriegsberichter, Leher, pictured the same column of evacuees passing a Marder II (SdKfz 132), a tank destroyer mounting a captured Russian 7.62cm anti-tank gun on a Panzer II chassis (or, to use the full German terminology, a Panzer-Selbstfahrlafette 1 für 7,62 PaK 36(r) auf Fahrgestell PzKpfw II, Ausf D). This most probably belonged to Panzerjäger-Abteilung 743, companies of which were assigned to support both the Kaminski Brigade in Angriffsgruppe Süd and the Dirlewanger Brigade in Angriffsgruppe Mitte. The courtyard of the gutted building had been the scene of one of the massacres of over 1,000 persons. The German troops piled the corpses in large heaps, poured petrol over them and set them on fire, then did the same to the building. Many other houses in Wola had been set on fire by shelling and Stuka bombing. Right: Still standing on the corner of Syreny Street, the building has been neatly restored. 14

On August 5, Kampfgruppe Reinefarth launched a main counter-attack from the west and south-west, through the districts of Wola — defended, among others, by the

‘Radoslaw’ Group under Colonel Jan Mazurkiewicz — and Ochota. The objective of these attacks was to regain the two major thoroughfares crossing the city — needed to

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reached 50,000 troops. (By August 17, the forces under Reinefarth had grown so large that Korpsgruppe von dem Bach inserted a second headquarters to take command of the forces fighting in the south-western sector of Warsaw. This was Kampfgruppe Rohr, commanded by Generalmajor Günther Rohr. From that day onward, Korpsgruppe von dem Bach comprised two main forces, Kampfgruppe Reinefarth and Kampfgruppe Rohr.) The Germans were very well armed with artillery, tanks, armoured cars and aircraft. They utilized heavy 38cm mortars and Wurfrahmen 40 multiple-frame rocket launchers with high-explosive and incendiary missiles (which the Poles called ‘cows’ because of their sound, or ‘wardrobes’ because of their shape) and deployed SdKfz 303 Goliaths, small remote-controlled tracked vehicles carrying a 60kg explosive charge that could blow up barricades or buildings. Their most-powerful weapon was a self-propelled 60cm Karl Mörser siege mortar, shells of which could easily demolish a multi-storey building. Throughout the fighting, the Korpsgruppe was kept supplied by the 9. Armee and received replacement troops from the Reich. On August 3, faced with large concentrations of German troops, the Polish force in the Praga district went back underground. Thus, two days after its start, the uprising was limited to main-part Warsaw on the west bank of the Vistula.

populace be evacuated from the city. Kriegsberichter Gutermann photographed a large group of civilians being marched out under guard. Right: The picture was taken on Wolska Street in the Wola district. The main thoroughfare leading into Warsaw from the west, this was Kampfgruppe Reinefarth’s main axis of advance during August 5-6. We are on Wolska Street near the junction with Plocka Street, the house on the left being No. 54. Mass shootings of groups of over 1,000 civilians had taken place all around this spot.

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Left: During the first days of the uprising, the German troops advancing through western Warsaw acted with the utmost savagery, rounding up and shooting every Polish person they came across. Thousands of men, women and children were slaughtered in the boroughs of Wola and Ochota, the main perpetrators being the men of SS-Brigade RONA and SS-Brigade Dirlewanger. Although higher German commanders issued orders that the massacres be stopped, they continued for several more days. New orders stipulated that the whole

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Left: A few paces further on, still on in Wolska Street, a group of evacuees is herded into the St Stanislaw Church. Right: The trees have grown but the church remains unaltered after 65 years. men, women and children were killed. Executions were carried out in hospitals, factories and courtyards of apartment buildings. Surviving Poles were rounded up into special units and forced to dig pits, in which the bodies of the murdered were burned in an attempt to erase evidence of the massacre. Soon, the Germans were running short of ammunition. In an evening conversation with General von Vormann, commander of the 9. Armee, Reinefarth asked: ‘What

should I do with the prisoners? I have more prisoners than bullets.’ From the moment the rising broke out, in many parts of the city, captured members of the Home Army were summarily executed, the Germans considering them to be bandits to whom the Geneva Convention did not apply. Through the first month of fighting, the Allies delayed recognising the AK as a regular Allied army — only on August 29 did an official diplomatic note on this matter change this situation.

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keep open the Wehrmacht’s supply routes to the Eastern Front — and to link up with the forces under Generalleutnant Reiner Stahel, the garrison commander of Warsaw, which were cut off in the centre of the city. That same day, remembered by the Varsovians as ‘Black Saturday’, the Germans began the systematic mass murder of inhabitants of Wola and Ochota, an unprecedented massacre preceded by rape and the looting of houses. Prime culprits for this horrific bloodbath were the thugs of SSBrigade Dirlewanger and the Russian mercenaries of SS-Brigade RONA. Over the next few days, an estimated 15,000 to 40,000

Left: Inside, the people anxiously await their fate. Stories of the German atrocities in Wola and Ochota had spread rapidly across the fighting city, putting fear and anger in the hearts of the people. With the expectation that the same fate would await them on capture, it only strengthened the AK soldiers in their determination to fight on and encouraged many ordinary civilians to join their ranks. Inevitably, whenever the Germans

captured a city block and ordered all the inhabitants to evacuate, many thought that their last hour had come. Under such circumstances, it was almost a relief to discover that they were actually being evacuated. The majority of the populace of Warsaw was moved out via Dulag 121, a transit camp set up in Pruszków, ten kilometres west of Warsaw. Right: Then a place of anxiety, now again a place of worship. 15

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The aerial resupply of the Warsaw insurgents by the air forces of the Western Allies was a courageous but very costly effort and, for the most part, futile. Out of a total of 178 aircraft despatched by No. 205 Group from Italy between August 4 and September 21, no less than 31 were shot down — a loss rate of over 17 per cent. One of them was Liberator KG809 of No. 1586 (Polish) Special Duty Flight. On the night of August 14/15, it took off for its seventh mission to Warsaw. After successfully dropping its supplies on to Krasinski Square, on the return flight but still over Poland, the aircraft was attacked and shot down by Luftwaffe fighters over Bochnia (some 30 kilometres east of Krakow) and crashed in a ball of flame near the village of Nieskowiece. The entire crew perished: Flight Lieutenant Zbigniew Szostak (pilot), Flight Lieutenant Stanislaw Daniel, Warrant Officers Stanislaw Malczyk, Tadeusz Dubowski and Józef Bielicki and Flight Sergeants Wincenty Rutkowski and Józef Witek.

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July 30. On August 3 he met with Stalin, informed him of the outbreak of the uprising and asked for assistance. Stalin declined to take an unequivocal stance. He accused the Home Army of lack of activity up to now in the fight against the Germans. In a second meeting, on August 9, Mikolajczyk asked for the immediate supply of weapons to the Home Army. Stalin declared that assistance would be forthcoming, but it soon turned out that this was an empty promise. Stalin’s position was applauded by the Polish Communists in his service, who were

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THE RISING IN THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA The AK leadership had assumed that the rising would last at most a few days, after which units of the Red Army would enter Warsaw. A similar tactical evaluation was reached by the German command. However, Stalin made a decision that was incomprehensible militarily, but in accord with the logic of totalitarian politics — he ordered the Red Army’s offensive halted until the rising was crushed. For the last time in the Second World War, there was a de facto, but this time not formal, co-operation of Stalin with Hitler, their joint aim being the destruction of Warsaw. Day after day, the Home Army awaited Stalin’s order to resume the offensive towards Warsaw. But the Soviets were very well aware that the political goal of the rising was not only to demonstrate the power of the Home Army, but to establish in Warsaw an authority sanctioned by the legal Polish Government-in-Exile. To prevent this, they stopped their westward advance, and directed their attack at the Balkans. Around August 10, Stalin rejected the plan for the taking of Warsaw presented to him by his military leadership, and for over five weeks he waited for the city to fall. He justified this by the supposed exhaustion of the Red Army units holding the east bank of the Vistula. He allowed neither establishing contact with the Poles, nor any air operations over the city, nor even making supply drops to the city. He also ordered that the front line be more strongly sealed by NKVD units, lest any AK units infiltrate into Warsaw from territories controlled by the Red Army. The Soviets also initiated a large-scale diplomatic campaign to discredit the Polish Government-inExile and the uprising itself, disqualifying it as a ‘street brawl’ and the combatants as a ‘band of criminals’. Stalin’s activities took place in the presence of the Polish Prime Minister, Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, who had come to Moscow on

preparing to take over rule, at the point of Soviet bayonets, of the Polish territories occupied by the Red Army. Their deputy leader, Wanda Wasilewska, in a meeting with Mikolajczyk claimed that there was no fighting in Warsaw. Shortly after the outbreak of the rising, Polish authorities in exile initiated efforts to gain assistance for the fighting city from the Western Allies. On August 3, Churchill issued a directive to begin air drops over Warsaw, making them contingent on the opinion of Air Marshal Sir John Slessor, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Allied Air Forces in the Mediterranean. On the night of August 4/5, the first Allied bombers with supplies for Warsaw took off from Brindisi in southern Italy. Many were manned by Polish crews serving in the RAF. Between August 4 and September 21, bombers of No. 205 Group — Halifaxes and Liberators of No. 1586 (Polish) Special Duty Flight and Nos. 31 (SAAF), 34 (SAAF), 148 and 178 Squadrons — flew 22 night-time relief missions to Warsaw, despatching a total of 178 aircraft. Losses were exceedingly heavy: 31 aircraft did not return and 193 crewmen were lost (of the latter, 141 were killed, 40 joined up with Home Army troops or were captured by the Germans and 12 reached Red Army lines). Night drops over Warsaw were extremely perilous; in order to target a particular district of Warsaw, the heavy bombers descended to an altitude of just a few hundred feet, flying just above the rooftops, under fire from German, and often also Soviet, anti-aircraft guns. The air operation was greatly hampered by Stalin, who did not allow Allied aircraft to land at Soviet airfields after making the drops. The round trip from Italy to Warsaw was about 1,750 miles, so the return flights had to be carried out in daylight, across Hungary and Yugoslavia, where airspace was patrolled by German fighters. Only on September 10, when the fate of the uprising was already sealed, did Stalin agree to make airfields available to the Allies. On September 18, 107 B-17s (out of 110 despatched) of the 13th Combat Wing, 3rd Bomb Division of the US Eighth Air Force appeared in the skies above Warsaw, having flown there from their bases in England. Their appearance caused great euphoria, which however quickly turned into

A full-scale replica of KG809 (US serial number 44-10395) is today one of the prime exhibits at the Warsaw Rising Museum. Reconstructed from original technical drawings and photographs and incorporating parts salvaged from the original machine, it honours the aircrews of all nations that flew to Warsaw to help the uprising.

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DAVID GRAY

Some 40 miles further east, at the village of Zdzary (between Tarnow and Debica), is a memorial to another resupply bomber that was lost during the same night, August 14/15. It commemorates a Liberator of No. 178 Squadron and its crew: Lieutenants R. L. Lawson (pilot) and A. D. E. Stott (navigator), Warrant Officer Ernest Page (air gunner) and Sergeants William Garner (flight engineer), Roland Pain (wireless operator), Rupert Stonier (bomb-aimer) and William Huddert (air gunner), who all died in the crash. They lie buried in collective graves in the CWGC section in Krakow’s Rakowicki Cemetery. The memorial on the crash site was the initiative of the local villagers and was unveiled in the presence of relatives of the crew on July 5, 1998.

THE COMMUNIST ‘LUBLIN COMMITTEE’ As the uprising erupted in Warsaw, the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) — the Moscow-controlled quasigovernment — set up headquarters in Lublin and began spreading its authority in the eastern territories occupied by the Red Army. They had a clear stance regarding the fighting in the capital, declaring on August 20: ‘The Warsaw Rising, in the real intent of its perpetrators, was to be directed not against the Germans, but against the PKWN, against Polish democracy; its goal was to establish in Warsaw a reactionary government and declare it the government of the country.’ From the first days of its existence, the PKWN, headed by Edward OsóbkaMorawski, under Soviet direction, actively worked against the interests of a democratic

Poland. On July 26, five days after its formation, the committee signed an agreement in Moscow, by which Polish citizens found ‘in the combat zone’ were put under jurisdiction of the Soviet military authorities. Consequences were quick to follow. Using lists of names previously prepared by their intelligence service, the Soviets began to arrest thousands of Polish soldiers and officials of the Polish Underground State, deporting them to prison camps in Ostaszków, Borowicz and Riazan. On July 27, the PKWN leadership also concluded in Moscow a secret agreement with the Soviet government concerning a new Polish-Soviet border based on the so-called Curzon Line. Thus, this self-appointed government, without any legitimacy, sanctioned the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of 1939 and ceded half of pre-war Poland to the Soviets.

SYLWESTER BRAUN

JERZY TOMASZEWSKI

despair when most of the 1,284 containers dropped fell outside the areas controlled by the Home Army, who recovered only 228 of them. One B-17 was lost and seven were damaged. Another B-17 had to land at Brest-Litovsk but the others continued into Russia to bases at Poltava and Mirgorod. This operation had a great psychological effect, but could in no way alter the course of the uprising. In all, between August 4 and September 21, the Western Allies dropped some 239 tons of weapons and supplies into Warsaw. In the final phase of the rising, from September 13 to October 1, Soviet aircraft also brought 50 tons of supplies to the fighting city, but these drops were executed without parachutes, resulting in most of the badly needed equipment arriving damaged or totally destroyed.

Memorial in the Skaryszewski Park in east-bank Warsaw marking the spot where another Liberator of No. 178 Squadron, EV961, crashed after having been set on fire by German Flak on the night of August 14/15. Six of the crew — Flying Officer George MacRae (pilot), Lieutenant Percy Coutts (navigator), Flight Sergeant Hugh McLanachan (air gunner) and Sergeants John Porter (wireless operator), Richard Scott (flight engineer) and Arthur Sharpe (air gunner) — died in the crash. The sole survivor was Sergeant Henry Lloyd Lyne (bomb-aimer), who was thrown out of the aircraft when it exploded. The area where the bomber came down was then a small muddy island in the middle of a lake. The memorial was unveiled in 1988.

Left: Of the 110 aircraft sent out to Warsaw by the US Eighth Air Force from Britain on September 18, only two were lost, but the Poles were able to recover only 17 per cent of the 1,284 containers released. BIP photographer Jerzy Tomaszewski pictured Home Army soldiers displaying a supply parachute on

Szpitalna Street near its junction with Chmielna Street. This is the same spot where Sylwester Braun (‘Kris’) photographed the marching AK soldiers in the early days of the uprising (see page 6). Right: Braun himself snapped smiling soldiers marching off with a supply container. 17

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Angriffsgruppe Dirlewanger began to launch daily assaults, but the insurgents managed to repulse every one of them. An SS combat photographer, SS-Kriegsberichter Hans Schremmer, documented the fighting around the square from the German side in a series of pictures, which unfortunately are undated. Here two Sturmgeschütze III advance into the square from Foch Street. The building on the left-hand corner is the Grand Theatre. In centre background is the Blank Palace with the ruins of the Ratusz on the left.

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The battle for Old Town began on August 8, increasing in ferocity on August 19, and lasted until September 2. Some of the heaviest fighting took place around Plac Teatralny (Theatre Square) on the southern edge of Old Town. From the first day of the uprising, the square itself was a kind of no man’s land, the Poles having seized the Canonesses Convent, Ratusz (Town Hall) and Blank Palace on the northern side while the Germans held on to the area around the Grand Theatre (National Opera House) on the southern side. From August 12,

From 1944 . . . to 2008. Foch Street is today named Moliera Street and modern cars replace the fighting vehicles of yesteryear. 18

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AUGUST BATTLES After the successes of the first few days, and faced with the brutal German counteroffensive, the AK fighters turned to defensive action, concentrating on holding previouslywon positions and on attempting to link up the various areas held by them — particularly the northern and southern parts of City Centre; City Centre with Powisle via Nowy Swiat street; and City Centre with Old Town. On August 7, they threw a barricade across Jerozolimskie Avenue, the city’s main artery, between Krucza and Marszalkowska Streets. It formed, and would remain, the only connecting passage between the northern and southern parts of the city throughout the uprising. To protect those crossing the road, a trench was dug between the two sides of the road. (Later, in September, a tunnel was also constructed.) On August 9, troops of SS-Brigade Dirlewanger achieved a link-up with the German troops holed up in the German governmental and administrative district around Pilsudski Square, allowing the evacuation of German Governor Fischer and other Nazi officials. Insurgents opened fire on the motorcade, wounding Fischer and killing one of his deputies. On August 12, having brutally reduced Wola and Ochota, German troops struck in force at Old Town, attacking with Angriffsgruppe Schmidt from the north, Angriffsgruppe Reck from the west and Angriffsgruppe Dirlewanger from the south and east. The historic district was defended by the ‘Radoslaw’ group under Colonel Jan Mazurkiewicz;, the ‘Kuba’-’Sosna’ group under Major Olgierd Ostakiewicz-Rudnicki (‘Sienkiewicz’) and the ‘Róg’ group under Major Stanislaw Blaszczak (‘Róg’), under the overall command of Colonel Karol Ziemski (‘Wachnowski’). On August 18, German Stuka fighterbombers fiercely bombarded the district, concentrating on the areas around Market Square and the Polish Bank on Bielanska Street. The Government Printing Office, the most northerly bastion of defence, was under constant barrage by artillery and mortars. The next day, Kampfgruppe Reinefarth launched a general assault on the besieged district. Infantry units attacked on Bonifraterska Street, in the Krasinski Garden, on Tlomacka and Bielanska Streets. Fierce fighting continued in the ruins of St John’s Cathedral and nearby Brzozowa Street. Day after day, the Germans continued their artillery barrages and air attacks, setting fire to many buildings and reducing the historic district to rubble. On the night of August 20/21, in an attempt to come to the rescue of the troops fighting in Old Town, AK units from the Zoliborz district in the north made the first attempt to take the Gdansk Railway Station.

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The assault guns most likely belonged to Sturmgeschütz-Ersatz-Abteilung 200, which arrived in Warsaw on August 8 with six vehicles. Three were each assigned to Angriffsgruppe Nord (Reck) and Angriffsgruppe Mitte (Dirlewanger). The attacks in Teatralny Square were carried out by the latter force so the StuGs featured here must be Dirlewanger’s.

An open-air folk concert was underway when Karel took his comparison in June 2008.

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Two StuGs venture out onto the square (the muzzle of the second is just visible on the left). The far side was doggedly held by men of the ‘Róg’ Group under Major Stanislaw Blaszczak, among them the ‘Nalecz’ Battalion under Captain Stefan Kaniewski and the ‘Dzik’ Battalion under Captain Tadeusz Okolski. For two weeks they held out against the incessant attacks of German armour, aircraft and artillery until the last day of the Old Town battle, September 2, but by then the group’s battalions had practically ceased to exist. 19

Ukrainian troops of Angriffsgruppe Dirlewanger take cover behind the columns of the theatre. Despite relatively good armament and numerical advantage, the attack broke down in a hail of German machine-gun fire, artillery and mortar barrages. The open area in front of the station, between Zajaczka Street and the tracks, cleared by the Germans by burning down the barracks there and illuminated by flares, proved to be impassable. The Poles were forced to retreat, having lost about 100 men. The attack was resumed the following night, August 21/22, with assaults from two sides, from the direction of Zoliborz and from Old Town. But the attempt to surprise the Germans failed. Met by massed machinegun and artillery fire, the attack cost the Poles several hundred killed and wounded.

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The echoes of war have faded away in this timeless comparison.

Left: German troops dash across the ruins towards the northern end of the square. On August 29, the Germans broke into the Blank Palace, Ratusz and Canonesses Convent but the Poles managed to recapture the palace and the front part of 20

the town hall the following day. Right: The new building erected on the right has replaced the former piles of rubble, while on the left can be seen the eastern wing of the restored Blank Palace.

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EUGENIUSZ LOKAJSKI

Left: Getting closer, Lokajski pictured the raging fire and smoke belching out of the third-floor windows. Far left: Still a landmark symbol of the uprising today.

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The only significant successes by the Poles during this time were solely in City Centre. On the night of August 19/20, units under command of Captain Henryk Roycewicz (‘Leliwa’) attacked the eight-storey building of PAST (Polish Telephone Joint-Stock Company) on Zielna Street. It took many hours of heavy fighting for them to finally eliminate this troublesome enemy strong point, which had poured heavy fire on the Poles ever since the beginning of the uprising. Final victory was achieved by setting the building ablaze. Using a motorised firebrigade pump, placed on the second story of a building across the street, they poured thousands of litres of diesel fuel and petrol into the building, creating an unquenchable fire. To escape the flames, the German troops descended to the basement, where they were attacked by a Polish platoon through a breach in the wall. Thirty-eight Germans were killed, with many more wounded and burned, and 121 taken prisoner. Polish losses were 17 killed. The building contained a large supply of weapons, which was captured.

quantity of fuel into the building, they set fire to the upper floors, forcing the Germans down to the basement and into the arms of AK fighters that had blasted an entry there. A BIP cameraman or photographer was present at the besieging of the PAST almost every day, hence its storming is one of the betterdocumented episodes of the uprising. BIP photographer Eugeniusz Lokajski (‘Brok’) pictured men of the ‘Kilinski’ Battalion watch the burning PAST from a barricade on Zielna Street. Right: Our comparison was taken from near the intersection with Swietokrzyska Street.

EUGENIUSZ LOKAJSKI

Left: One of most-celebrated Polish successes during the whole of the uprising was the capture of the PAST (Polish Telephone Stock Company) building on Zielna Street on August 20. Located in the heart of City Centre, the high-rise edifice had been a German redoubt since the start of the rebellion on August 1, the German force holed up inside it keeping the entire area under incessant machine-gun and sniper fire. Insurgent forces lay siege to the building, but it was not until August 20 that members of the ‘Kilinksi’ Battalion and other Home Army units succeeded in capturing it. Pumping a large

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Above, right and below: Surrendering Germans come streaming out of the PAST and are being led away under guard. In all, the Poles took 121 prisoners, many of them wounded and burned.

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The houses across the street from the Polish Telephone Company building have disappeared to be replaced by a row of low-rise shops and cafes.

EUGENIUSZ LOKAJSKI

EUGENIUSZ LOKAJSKI

Another BIP photographer, Joachim Joachimczyk, pictured the fuel being squirted into the PAST building from the second storey of the house opposite. Note the film cameraman in the foreground.

EUGENIUSZ LOKAJSKI ATB

EUGENIUSZ LOKAJSKI

One of the German prisoners, Kurt Heller, had kept a diary during the 19-day siege, excerpts from which testify as to their plight: ‘August 4: We are further closed in. No support from outside. We expect help today or tomorrow. We have no food. Water lacking. August 5: Rudolph is killed. All my friends have now been killed. Lüttwitz fell. Hollweg is seriously wounded. August 7: At noon we were shelled by our own artillery but without losses. Our attempt at break-out failed. One man was killed and four seriously wounded, one of whom died. At 8 a.m. today 14 of our dead were buried in the courtyard. The air is very bad because the corpses of our dead stink. August 14-1516: Terrible hunger. Fear envelops us at night. August 17: The Poles want to drive us out with fire and Molotov cocktails. Again, several men broke down and committed suicide. August 19: I cannot think of deliverance. There are Poles all around us.’ Left and above: Men of the ‘Kilinksi’ Battalion use ladders to climb into the building through the windows. . . soon to emerge with captured weapons and ammunition (below left).

No ladders outside the historic building today, only the sunshades of a modern café terrace. 23

On August 23, men of the ‘Ruczaj’ Battalion and of the 136th Postal Platoon captured the so-called Mala PAST (small PAST building) at No. 19 Pius XI Street in the southern sector of City Centre. A telephone-exchange vital to German communications, it had been reinforced by a platoon of Schutzpolizei under Oberleutnant Jung on the first day of the uprising. The insurgents laid siege to the building and heavy fighting with automatic weapons and hand-grenades went on for days until finally the German garrison was overcome, the Poles setting fire to the building and smoking them out. Jung and 14 other men managed to fight their way out, the rest — 76 men, many of them wounded — were killed or taken prisoner. The AK fighters liberated 20 Poles whom the Germans had held hostage in the building, and captured three vehicles and a large quantity of weapons and supplies. Here, pictured on August 22, smoke emerges from the building after it has been set on fire in the Polish assault. In the roadway stands a German tank, knocked out earlier in the fighting. Three days later, on the morning of August 23, the Polish forces scored another success in City Centre when, after an attack lasting several hours, they seized the socalled ‘small PAST’ building on Pius XI (Piekna) Street, a telephone exchange turned into a German stronghold, taking 76 Germans prisoner, liberating 20 hostages and capturing three vehicles and a considerable amount of weapons and ammunition.

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SS-Brigadeführer Paul Otto Geibel, chief of the German SS and police in Warsaw, launched several attempts to relieve or strengthen the besieged force, sending in infantry groups supported by tanks, but none of these came through. During one of these attempts, on August 5, the Germans loaded Polish women onto two of the panzers to shield the vehicles from being attacked with Molotov cocktails, an act which led to heavy casualties among the women. Here a female combatant poses beside one of the burned-out tanks after the battle. The vehicle is an Italian Carro Armato M13/41 captured by the Germans from the Italian Army in 1943 — its German designation being PzKpfw M14/41 736(i). Vehicles of this type were used to equip two SS-Sturmgeschütz-Abteilungen and employed in anti-partisan operations.

Left: Members of the ‘Ruczaj’ Battalion pose in the doorway of the small PAST after their victory. From September 6 till the end of the uprising on October 5, the telephone-exchange 24

building would serve as the headquarters of the Home Army’s Supreme Command. Right: The same doorway in what is today Piekna Street, less the pillbox on the right.

ANTONI WAWRZYNIAK

That same day, August 23, the Poles attacked a strong German bastion — the Church of the Holy Cross and the adjoining police station on Krakowskie Przedmiescie street. The complex operation was led by Major Bernard Romanowski (‘Wola’). After taking the church, the Poles attacked the Germans’ main defensive position, the two-storey rectory behind it, manned by a

site side. On August 23, after a stiff battle, the Poles captured the police station but all attacks on the university failed. This picture, a film still from footage shot by insurgent cameraman Antoni Wawrzyniak on August 26, shows German armour, some disabled, in front of the university. Below: The picture was taken from the doorway of the police station.

garrison of several dozen soldiers. Then, after an AK sapper unit breached the wall with an explosive charge, the Polish fighters reached the courtyard of the police headquarters, where they eliminated a German force and launched a two-pronged assault on the main building. The whole operation lasted about nine hours and was one of the most spectacular actions of the rising. Ger-

man losses were several dozen killed, with almost 100 taken prisoner. Here again, the Poles captured a large number of weapons, including especially valuable machine guns. However, renewed attacks to capture the Warsaw University — a German bastion since the first day of the uprising — further along the same street, remained unsuccessful.

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Above: The chaos of battle on Krakowskie Przedmiescie. This wide avenue, which forms the dividing line between Powisle and City Centre, was the scene of heavy fighting, the insurgents occupying many of the streets around it but the Germans tenaciously holding on to the police headquarters on the west side of the street and the university complex on the oppo-

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MOZZERATI

The ruined building was never repaired and became a symbol of the uprising. In 1984 it was decided to set up an Uprising Museum in the building but this never materialised and the plan was finally abandoned in 2002 in favour of another location, the former tramway power plant on Przyokopowa Street.

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Meanwhile, fighting in Old Town was not going well for the Poles. Home Army units in other parts of the city tried several times to come to the aid of the surrounded district but all attempts ended in failure. One by one, the Germans captured successive Polish positions. The only way left to break out of the siege was by way of the sewers. On the night of August 25/26, the AK Supreme Command evacuated through the sewers to City Centre. AK units in Old Town still held on to positions in the Polish Bank, the bombed-out passageway by Dluga Street and in the ruins of the Ratusz (City Hall) and the Blank Palace on Teatralny Square. On August 27, Colonel Ziemski reorganised the defence of the district. That day, the Poles nullified a German attempt to blow up St John’s Cathedral, capturing men from SS-Brigade Dirlewanger and about 100 kilograms of explosives; in the Government Printing Office fierce battles raged for each floor. The next day, the Germans took the entire building, murdering the wounded, field hospital staff and civilians found sheltering in the basement. Given the desperate situation, Colonel Ziemski decided to try to evacuate his troops to City Centre. On August 30, a group of lightly wounded passed through the sewers out of the besieged district. That same day, remaining units attempted to open up a ‘corridor’ through the Bankowy Square via which all the soldiers and civilians could be evacuated, but the action, in which the Poles lost 300 men, ended in failure. Under the circumstances, Polish units resumed evacuations through the sewers, continuing this until September 2. It was hard going. The relatively short section from Krasinski Square to the Warecka Street exit took over four hours to traverse. In all, over 5,000 of the Home Army and small groups of civilians escaped via the sewers — a few hundred north to Zoliborz, the majority south to City Centre.

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Another of the Polish strongholds in Old Town was the building of the Bank Polski (Polish Bank) on Bielanska Street. AK units occupied this massive building on the morning of August 4. Fighting for it started on August 20 and lasted until September 1. The last redoubt defending the Old Town, it was abandoned when German encirclement threatened, the defenders withdrawing from the building.

Left: Remains of a German SdKfz 301 Borgward B IV armoured demolition vehicle that exploded within Polish lines on August 13. The SdKfz 301, or schwerer Ladungsträger (heavy charge carrier), was a larger version of the Goliath. An explosives-filled armoured vehicle designed to demolish buildings, barricades or other obstacles, Panzer-Abteilung 302 brought 20 of them to Warsaw. In the evening of August 13, soldiers of the ‘Gustaw’ Battalion saw an enemy vehicle move close to a barricade on Podwale Street and apparently get stuck whereupon the driver 26

jumped out and escaped. The insurgents briefly inspected the abandoned vehicle, then moved it inside their defence lines, thinking they had captured an enemy tank. However, shortly afterwards, it exploded in front of No. 1 Kilinskiego Street, killing over 300 people: about 100 men from the ‘Róg’ Group, many from Battalions ‘Gustaw’, ‘Wigry” and ‘Gozdawa’ and over 100 civilians. Right: The memorial to the catastrophe in Kilinskiego Street: ‘Place sanctified by the blood of 500 fallen insurgents and residents of the Old Town’.

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WIESLAW CHRZANOWSKI

Left: The escape of the AK fighters from Old Town through the sewers was made from Krasinski Square, the escapees entering the underground system through a manhole on the square. On the morning of August 31, Wieslaw Chrzanowski pictured Wojciech Sarnecki (‘Woitek’) from ‘Anna’ Company of ‘Gustaw’ Bat-

by the enemy. The Poles quickly adapted the main routes for frequent passage, fixing wooden boards on the floor and ropes to the walls, but conditions in the tunnels were extremely difficult. The passageways were dark, because light would attract the attention of the Germans. Stuffiness and the smell of toxic sewage made breathing difficult and they were often forced to wear gas masks. Some of the passageways were only 90cm high and 60cm wide, forcing people to move on all fours. To aid in orientation, wooden sticks with a length corresponding to the widest horizontal diameter were used — travellers wedged them against the walls in front of them and guided themselves forward, then moved the stick ahead. The journeys proceeded at an average pace of five

metres per minute. In time, after the organisation of a special unit for this purpose, conditions improved somewhat: sappers built wooden dams to regulate the water level and put up lighted directional signs. Movement through the sewers was supervised by specially-trained women couriers and young boys, including a troop calling themselves the ‘sewer rats’. In mid-August the Germans began to destroy the sewer routes, their engineers installing steel grates, closing up entrances, injecting smoke into the tunnels, flooding them with water, and throwing in grenades. Some tunnels were demolished with Taifun devices — containers filled with inflammable gas which was released into the tunnels and then detonated.

SYLWESTER BRAUN

JOACHIM JOACHIMCZYK

THE SEWERS — A PHENOMENON OF THE RISING The use of the city sewer system on such a large scale in the Warsaw Rising was a phenomenon not seen in earlier armed conflicts. Designed in the 19th century by Englishman William Lindley, the sewers stretched underneath virtually the entire city. In the night of August 5/6, Elzbieta Grossówna (‘Ela’) made the first passage from City Centre south to Mokotów, opening up regular communication via the sewers between districts. The network of underground passageways enabled Polish forces to maintain liaison among various centres of battle, transfer of reinforcements, supply of ammunition and food, and also the evacuation of soldiers, civilians and wounded from sections cut off

talion dashing across the square while under enemy fire, shortly before his successful getaway through the canals. The view is towards the corner of Miodowa and Dluga Streets in the proximity of the sewer entrance used for the retreat. Right: The same corner has undergone a major transformation since the war.

The main escape route from Old Town to City Centre ran from Krasinski Square to the manhole on the corner of Nowy Swiat and Warecka Street (see the red line connecting [1] and [3] on the map overleaf). Joachim Joachimczyk pictured one of the escapees being helped out.

The later escape of the defenders of Mokotow to City Centre, on September 26, began at Szustra Street and ended at the manhole on Ujadowskie Avenue near Wilcza Street, pictured here by Sylwester Braun (see the purple line connecting [8] and [9] on the map overleaf). 27

SEWER ENTRANCES Krasinski Square nr Dluga Street Stolecna St near Krasinskiego Street Nowy Swiat near Warecka Street Zgoda St near Sienkiewicza Street Danilowiczowska St near Senatorska St Mazowiecka St near Swietokrzyska St Bankowy Square near Senatorska St Ujadowskie Avenue at Wilcza Street Szustra Street Wiktorska Street Zagorna Street No. 60 Wawelska Street Wawelska St near Prokuratorska St Dworkowa Street

ROUTES THROUGH SEWERS Northern Sector Stare Miasto - Zoliborz Stare Miasto - Srodmiescie Zoliborz - Srodmiescie Stare Miasto - Srodmiescie Stare Miasto - Pl. Bankowy Southern Sector Srodmiescie - Mokotow Srodmiescie - Mokotow Czerniakow - Mokotow Trasa ewakuacyjna Ochoty

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fitted with special trusses and moved as a single unit.) In all, six mortars of this class were built by Rheinmetall-Borsig between 1937 and 1941 and the one sent to Warsaw was gun No. 6, commissioned on August 28, 1941, and named Ziu. (Guns Nos. 1-5 were named Adam (later Rex, then Baldur), Eva, Odin, Thor and Loki respectively.) Operated by HeeresArtillerie-Batterie 638, which had a complement of three officers and 110 men, Ziu arrived in Warsaw on August 18, setting up a firing position in the Sowinski Park along Wolska Street in Wola (see [14] on the map on page 8). Although there was a delay due to the late arrival of the ammunition, the gun managed to fire its first shot that same day. Right: The crew loading the gun. Note the roman ‘VI’ on the breech, indicating that this was gun No. 6, Ziu.

Above: The crew running back to the gun to reload for another shot. Right: The statue of General Józef Sowinski (17771831), the hero of Poland’s November 1830 uprising, just visible behind the carriage enabled us to pinpoint the gun’s exact position in the park. Mortar No. 6 Ziu stayed in action at Warsaw until September 22, when it was returned to the artillery proving grounds at Jüterbog (south of Berlin) for repairs. It appears that a replacement gun was sent, for the German order of battle for September 26 shows the presence in Warsaw of Heeres-Artillerie-Batterie 428 which operated Karl mortars No. 1 Rex and 4 Thor. This battery stayed in Warsaw until October 11, when it was sent to Budapest. Ziu was captured by the Red Army at Jüterbog on April 20, 1945. Today it is at the Kubinka Tank Museum in Russia, albeit incorrectly named Adam. 30

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Left: The most-powerful weapon employed by the Germans at Warsaw was the Karl-Gerät 040 60cm heavy siege mortar. The largest piece of field equipment to see service during the Second World War, this massive weapon weighed 124 tons and could throw a 1.7-ton high-explosive shell a maximum distance of 6,8 kilometres or a 2.2-ton concrete grenade a distance of 4.3 kilometres. A self-propelled gun in theory, its tracked carriage was powered with a 580hp Daimler-Benz diesel engine that enabled it to move at a crawling speed of 6-10 kilometres per hour, but in practice the tracks were mainly used just for aiming the gun. (For transport over larger distances the gun was taken apart, barrel, recoil mechanism and carriage being moved as separate loads. For very long distance moves the whole apparatus was slung between two railway wagons

SYLWESTER BRAUN

structure, the 16-storey Prudential Insurance Building on Napoleona Square in City Centre, on August 18. Braun took his photo from the roof of his home at No. 28 Kopernika Street, some 600 metres away on the other side of Nowy Swiat street.

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Ziu scores a direct hit on the Prudential building! Sylwester Braun (‘Kris’) took one of the most-spectacular photos to emerge from the Warsaw uprising when he pictured the exact moment a round from the Karl mortar hit the city’s tallest

Karel’s comparison, taken from the upper window of the same house in June 2008. 31

The same view today, taken from the corner of Swietokrzyska Street. Completed in 1934, and 66 metres high, the Prudential was Warsaw’s first real ‘skyscraper’. During and after the uprising it was almost totally destroyed by the Germans, only the steel framework surviving. Rebuilt over the stripped skeleton in post-war years in a more neo-classical style, the building was adorned with a colonnaded porch and became the Hotel Warszawa which operated up to July 2003. Now plans are for the top floors to become luxury apartments and the rest to be renovated for hotel use but when we took our comparison in June 2008 reconstruction was still underway. Napoleona Square is today named Square of the Warsaw Uprising (Plac Powstanców Warszawy).

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SYLWESTER BRAUN

A FREE STATE The outbreak of the rising meant not only the possibility of open warfare with the occupier, but also — after almost five years of covert resistance — the emergence from underground of the legal structures of the Polish State. For over two months, an area of several square kilometres of the capital formed a free state, with all the institutions of a democratic republic. Political parties began their activities, publishing their periodicals; civil administration began to function; red-and-white flags and crests with the crowned white eagle appeared, prompting widespread enthusiasm. The civilian population spontaneously joined in. Hospitals were created, as were fire-fighting units and air raid services; workshops produced guns and other weapons; newspapers were printed and distributed; and work proceeded on the installation of two radio stations. On August 5, the Government Delegate for the Capital Region, Marceli Porowski (‘Sowa’), assumed full civilian authority over the city, with duties approximating those of the pre-war mayor of Warsaw. All matters not connected with military operations were in the purview of the rapidly developing civil administration. Within a few days, officials organised agencies responsible for providing citizens with food and water, housing, and co-ordinating the evacuation of civilians from particularly threatened areas. An Office of Missing Persons was formed as part of the Polish Red Cross. Civilians were also aided by the Scouting movement, which organised what was known as the Military Social Service. The civil administration relayed its instructions to the populace in four ways: by means of block committees, posters hung on walls, publications in the Dziennik Obwieszczen (Daily Announcements) and through the Polish Radio. On August 6, the Scouts’ Field Post Office began its operations, young boys and girls undertaking the task of collecting and delivering mail. The central post office was in Swietokrzyska Street, close to the Grey

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Firemen attempt to put out the fire that has broken out in the Prudential building as a result of the shelling, but they are seriously handicapped by lack of water and equipment. The office block had been seized by a company of the ‘Kilinski’ Battalion on the first day of the uprising and it became one of the Home Army’s strong points in City Centre, serving amongst other things as an excellent observation post.

Left: The cameramen of the Home Army’s Bureau of Information and Propaganda risked their lives recording the course of the uprising, and the effect it had on the lives of the civilian population. They shot over 30,000 metres of film, part of which the BIP used to compile three newsreels that were screened in Warsaw, even as the fighting continued. Sylwester Braun photographed two of the BIP cameramen, Stefan Baginski (left) and Antoni Wawrzyniak, at work on the corner of Marszal32

kowska and Sienkiewicza Streets during German shelling of City Centre on September 4. That morning, Powisle and the northern part of City Centre were subjected to heavy and systematic artillery and aerial bombardment as a prelude to the all-out German attack, started at noon, against Powisle. The onslaught demolished whole streets and caused many casualties. Right: Looking into Sienkiewicza Street from Marszalkowska today.

Ranks scouts’ headquarters. In time, their activities spread virtually across the whole city. Eight more post offices were created, with over 40 letterboxes throughout the city. Correspondence passing through the Scout mail service was limited to 25 words, and all letters were subject to military censorship (to minimise the risk in case the letters were intercepted by the Germans). Letters were delivered at no cost. The daily volume of mail ranged from 3,000 to 6,000 items. The AK leadership was well aware that, in addition to the struggle, it was vitally important to document the course of events. Already in the spring of 1940, the underground forces had established a Bureau of Information and Propaganda (BIP). In 1942, the bureau created a unit code-named ‘Roj’ (Swarm) especially charged with documenting and publicising the upcoming uprising. It trained teams of cameramen, photographers, radio announcers, journalists and writers and accumulated equipment and necessary materials. Thanks to these preparations, the outbreak of the rising on August 1 saw the deployment to the front of many journalists and war correspondents well-prepared for combat conditions. Film-makers documented the uprising on 30,000 metres of film, from which Waclaw Kazmierczak with two other directors — Antoni Bohdziewicz (‘Victor’) and Jerzy Zarzycki (‘Pik’) — edited several newsreels. The first screening of a newsreel occurred in the evening of August 15, in the Palladium cinema on Zlota Street. Two more issues were screened on August 21 and September 2. All three were presented under the title Warsaw is Fighting. There was much more material which was not then used but also survived. It had been intended that BIP would, in the first hours of combat, activate a radio station under the call-sign ‘Blyskawica’ (Lightning). Unfortunately, in transporting the equipment to its destination, it became soaked with water, which delayed the station’s deployment. Communications officers quickly set up a substitute station and on August 3, the 18-watt transmitter ‘Burza’ (Tempest) began broadcasting. The repaired ‘Lightning’ transmitter then became operational on August 8. The next day, using the same transmitter, a second station ‘Polish Radio’ came on the air. Although the transmitter had to change location three times, programmes were transmitted daily until the very end of the uprising, October 4. They included a news bulletin relating information from the world, from the country and from the fighting city; a press review; and a cultural program with music and insurgent poetry. It was indeed quite an accomplishment that in this heavily bombarded city, there functioned two radio stations — ‘Lightning’ and Polish Radio — whose broadcasts were heard as far away as Great Britain. As the number of wounded soldiers and civilians increased, the AK Command issued an appeal to the city’s physicians to take on medical duties. Over 500 doctors, assisted by a multitude of nurses and medical orderlies, spontaneously volunteered for work in hospitals and treatment centres. During the two months of fighting, over 10,000 persons were hospitalised and almost 20,000 given immediate medical aid. The efforts of the medical teams prevented the outbreak of an epidemic in Warsaw. They toiled at one of the most difficult fronts of the battle. Hospitals, although prominently marked with red crosses, often became the targets of German air attacks.

On September 14, units of the Soviet 47th Army entered Praga, the district of Warsaw on the east bank of the Vistula. The happy Poles welcoming their liberators were unaware that the Soviets would for the next six weeks remain frustratingly passive. SEPTEMBER DEFENSIVE After Old Town fell to the Germans on September 2, Polish forces maintained their positions in City Centre, Powisle, Czerniaków, Mokotów, Zoliborz, and in the Kampinos Forest north-west of the city. Above all, they defended the strategic areas on the banks of the Vistula in the hope that holding on to them might facilitate an amphibious assault by Red Army forces from across the river. The Germans also feared a Soviet offensive and therefore directed their main assault thrusts at the town districts along the river: Powisle and Czerniaków. On September 3, Angriffsgruppen Schmidt and Dirlewanger assaulted Powisle from the north. Possessing an overwhelming superiority, and notwithstanding the defenders’ determination, they systematically overcame successive points of Polish resistance. On September 5, having totally exhausted their ammunition, the Poles abandoned the power station in Powisle, out of action since the previous day due to bomb damage. In the city, now without electricity, the situation rapidly grew more desperate. On September 6, the whole of Powisle collapsed and German units began to attack and capture the northern parts of City Centre. Faced with this catastrophic situation, and with no prospect of assistance from the out-

side, the AK leadership authorised the Polish Red Cross to begin negotiations for the partial evacuation of the civilian population from City Centre. As a result, on September 8 and 9, during hours of cease-fire, some 8,000 people left the city. Having thus established contact with representatives of the AK Command, the Germans proposed beginning talks on the capitulation of the rising. A day later, September 10, Rokossowski’s 1st Byelorussian Front renewed their longawaited offensive action, the Soviet 47th Army starting the Praga operation. Taking part in this attack was the 1st Infantry Division ‘Tadeusz Kosciuszko’, a Polish unit in the Red Army. Under these circumstances, the AK Command decided to play for time in their negotiations with the Germans, finally breaking off all talks on the 11th. On the 13th, Red Army units entered Warsaw from the east, advancing into the Praga district. The Germans retreated to the west bank of the Vistula, blowing up all five of the river’s road and rail bridges in the city. The following afternoon, the whole of Praga was free of Germans. However, having occupied the east-bank districts of Warsaw, Soviet forces now ceased all offensive operations. The Polish capital, fighting with its last breath, waited in vain for a general assault by the Red Army. The ‘ally’ once more became a spectator.

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Karel discovered that the picture was taken on Targowa Street, one of Praga’s main thoroughfares, at its corner with Wilenska Street. A new apartment block has been inserted between the old buildings. The view is northwards. 33

The only point where Jerozolimskie could be crossed with any safety was at the barricade that had been erected on August 7 between houses Nos. 17 and 22, about midway between the German positions in the BKG building and those around the Central Railway Station at the other end of the street. Constructed from a double wall of sandbags, it was later deepened by a trench dug into the roadway. On September 7, and again on the 8th, the Germans repeatedly attacked in attempts to demolish the barricade, but the vital position held. On September 13, insurgent photographer Wieslaw Chrzanowski pictured two soldiers from the ‘Gustaw’ Battalion, Cadet Corporals Roman Patynowski and Kazimierz Gajewski, carrying sacks of grain from the grain store at the Haberbusch & Schiele Brewery through the trench to the southern sector. 34

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The same view today, looking east down Jerozolimskie, with the BKG on the right and the flanking towers of the Poniatowski Bridge in the far distance. day. In an attempt to ensure that inhabitants got at least one hot meal a day, insurgents’ kitchens prepared the simplest food, for example barley soup, popularly known as ‘spit-soup’ because of the need to spit out the husks and chaff. The lack of water was also a great problem. On September 14, the Germans captured the waterworks on Filtrowa Street, which meant that the water supply to the city

was cut off. Water now had to be obtained from wells dug in many parts of the city, often by German prisoners. By mid-September, 42 wells were operational, with another 48 in progress. They were used according to a strict schedule — separately by soldiers, hospitals, kitchens and civilians. This involved considerable risk, because the Germans often bombed or shot at queues of people waiting for water.

WIESLAW CHRZANOWSKI

Only the units of General Berling’s First Polish Army, weak and poorly trained, moved out to help the rising. Over the next few days, despite a lack of Soviet artillery support, regiments of the Polish 2nd and 3rd Infantry Divisions established three bridgeheads on the west bank of the Vistula: at Czerniaków on the 16th, Zoliborz on the 17th, and between the Poniatowski and Srednica Bridges on the 19th. Fighting lasted longest at the Czerniaków bridgehead, where two battalions of the 9th Regiment of the 3rd Division joined forces with Home Army units under Colonel Jan Mazurkiewicz (‘Radoslaw’). The Germans threw huge forces at them, attacking with Angriffsgruppe Schmidt from the north, Angriffsgruppe Dirlewanger from the north-west and Kampfgruppe Rohr from the south-west and south. On September 23 they took Czerniaków, where they proceeded to commit more murders on soldiers and civilians. The chaplain of the ‘Kryska’ unit, Father Józef Stanek (‘Rudy’), attempted to negotiate to save the lives of the survivors but paid for this with his life at the hands of the Germans. (Along with 107 other Polish martyred clergy he would be beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1999.) In the second half of September, the people of Warsaw were increasingly plagued with hunger. Quartering and feeding of the populace was controlled by block commands and by the effectively organised Rada Glówna Opiekuncza (RGO, Main Welfare Council). The uprising had begun with many bakeries and field kitchens operating throughout the city, and inhabitants had also hoarded significant stores of food and water, but these were depleted over time, so the authorities ordered the registration and requisitioning of all commercial food stores in the areas held by the Home Army. In City Centre, the chief source of food was the grain store at the Haberbusch & Schiele Brewery on Ceglana Street, occupied by the AK fighters on August 6. Nevertheless, food rations were diminishing day by

ANTONI WAWRZYNIAK

During the first days of the uprising, a strong German force positioned itself in the large BKG Bank (Banku Gospodarstwa Krajowego) on the corner of Jerozolimskie Avenue, and Nowy Swiat. From there they kept Jerozolimskie, the main east-west thoroughfare through the city, covered with incessant machine-gun fire, making any crossing of the road a perilous undertaking and preventing an effective link-up between the Polish forces in City Centre’s northern and southern districts. On September 29, a local, one-hour cease-fire took place at the Germans’ request, allowing them to pick up the bodies of a dozen soldiers killed near the Cristal restaurant across the road. The Poles used the truce to collect supplies dropped in the avenue, while cameraman Antoni Wawrzyniak used the lull in the fighting to take this shot of the BKG building.

The end of the uprising. The capitulation agreement having been signed the previous day, General Tadeusz Komorowski (‘Bor’), the commander-in-chief of the Home Army (centre), meets with the German delegation that will take him to General von dem Bach’s headquarters in Ozarów for further discussions. They are standing in Politechniki Square which CAPITULATION After taking Czerniaków and having driven Polish forces away from the Vistula riverbank, the Germans concentrated their attacks on the Mokotów district in the southern part of town, defended by AK units under Lieutenant-Colonel Józef Rokicki (‘Karol’). Battered by units of the 19. Panzer-Division from the north and east and Kampfgruppe Rohr from the south and west, day by day the area defended by the Poles shrank, as one by one the their last strong points were reduced. On September 26 the Mokotów units began to evacuate through the sewers, an operation that turned into a dramatic disaster. Contradictory orders, toxic sewage and German attacks from above caused many of the AK soldiers to panic and die in the underground passage and only some 600 utterly exhausted fighters made it to City Centre. Mokotów finally capitulated the next day around noon. That same day, September 27, after a week of preparations, the Germans began Operation ‘Sternschnuppe’ (Shooting Star), designed to eliminate the Kampinos Group — a strong force of AK units fighting in the Kampinos Forest outside of Warsaw. Two days later, on the 29th, the Kampinos units were crushed by the Germans in a battle near Jaktorów. Next, the Germans concentrated on eliminating Zoliborz, the now-isolated northern district of town, launching Angriffsgruppen Reck and Schmidt and units of the 19.

throughout the uprising had formed the front line, the buildings in the background being held by the Poles. The Polytechnic University complex (to the rear of the photographer) had originally been in their hands as well but had been recaptured by Kampfgruppe Rohr on August 19 after a fierce five-day struggle.

Panzer-Division into it in massive concentric attacks. In the afternoon of September 30, his strongholds being overrun on all sides, Lieutenant-Colonel Mieczyslaw Niedzielski (‘Zywiciel’), commander of the troops in the borough, was instructed by AK Command to stop combating and surrender his troops. Now only City Centre was still fighting. After the fall of Mokotów and Zoliborz, lacking all hope, the AK Command, in con-

sultation with the Government Delegate to the Home Country, Jan Stanislaw Jankowski, decided to enter into capitulation talks. On October 1, General Tadeusz Komorowski, the Home Army Commander-in-Chief, sent a message to the Polish Government in London: ‘Further combat in Warsaw has no chance of success. I have decided to end it. Terms of surrender guarantee full combatant rights to the soldiers and humane treatment of civilians.’

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Looking west across the square into what was in 1944 named 6. Sierpnia Street and today Nowowiejska Street. 35

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On October 2, representatives of the AK Supreme Command — Colonel Kazimierz Iranek-Osmecki (‘Heller’) and LieutenantColonel Zygmunt Dobrowolski (‘Zyndram’) — signed an agreement on a cessation of hostilities in General von dem Bach’s headquarters in Ozarów outside Warsaw. By its terms, the Home Army was to surrender its weapons and leave the city in tight unit columns, headed by their commanders. The entire civilian population had to depart from the city as well. The first AK units marched into captivity on October 4. A day later, in grim silence, the remaining units marched out, along with the AK Supreme Command, the Warsaw District Command and the City of Warsaw Corps Command. General Komorowski, the supreme commander, standing alone by the side of the street, saluted the units. Then, escorted by a German officer, Major Kurt Fischer, he followed them, determined not to abandon his soldiers. The last group — numbering about 300 persons — left the city on October 9. In all, 11,668 Home Army soldiers and officers went into captivity. The Germans moved them to Stalag 334 at Lamsdorf (Lambinowice), from where they were later sent on to other POW camps across Germany, men and women going to different camps. In his final report of the Warsaw action to Himmler, General von dem Bach stated that German casualties totalled 9,044 men — killed, wounded and missing. These numbers were obviously greatly understated. In his account in February 1947, given in a Warsaw prison, von dem Bach estimated that casualties were 10,000 killed, 7,000 missing and 9,000 wounded. (Records of the 9. Armee have the same amount of wounded but indicate a decidedly lower death figure of 2,000.) Polish casualties were incomparably greater — according to various estimates, civilian losses alone were 130,000 to 180,000. Of the entire Home Army force employed, approximately 18,000 were killed or missing and 25,000 wounded, 6,500 of them seriously. In addition, almost 2,000 ‘Berling soldiers’ of the First Polish Army died during the amphibious assaults and fighting in the bridgeheads.

EDWARD SWIDERSKI

The Germans felt a genuine respect for the Poles’ military achievement and their courage and allowed them to surrender with honour. The Home Army forces retreated from the battle area in closed formation and fully armed and only later laid down their weapons. Here, members of the ‘Wigry’ Battalion assemble on Dabrowski Square for the march into captivity. At centre, with rucksack, is the battalion commander, Major Eugeniusz Konopacki (‘Trzaska’). The picture was taken by Edward Swiderski on October 5.

Dabrowski Square, southern side, at its corner with Jasna Street today. The building closest to the camera has changed but the ones at the far end remain recognisable.

Left: Bor-Komorowski being escorted by Major Kurt Fischer, the Ia (Operations Officer) of Kampfgruppe Reinefarth. Right: The surrender agreement stipulated that 6. Sierpnia Street would be the route used by the Home Army’s 72nd Infantry Regiment (from September 20, the insurgent forces in Warsaw 36

had been reorganised into three divisions, those in City Centre forming the 28th Infantry Division ‘Stefana Okrzej’ comprising the 15th, 36th and 72nd Regiments) to march into captivity and it was here that Bor-Komorowski stood to salute his troops leaving the city on October 5.

Having stood idly by on the eastern bank of the Vistula for six weeks, restrained by Stalin’s orders from coming to the rescue of the Polish insurgents, the Soviet Red Army did not finally enter the west-bank part of Warsaw until January 17, 1945 — over three months after the end of the uprising. Here a column of vehicles crosses the river via a wooden bridge built next to the blown Poniatowski Bridge.

SOVIETISATION On January 12, 1945, the long-awaited Soviet offensive got under way. The Germans, realising they were outnumbered, soon evacuated the west-bank part of Warsaw and Soviet and Polish units entered the devastated, virtually empty capital on the 17th. On the 19th, the First Polish Army staged a dress parade on the ruined Jerozolimskie Avenue. A garrison made up of soldiers of the Polish Army was stationed in the city, under the command of General Michal Rola-Zymierski. In the first half of 1945, the Communists gained practically total control of Poland. On March 27, three key leaders of the Polish Underground State — the last Commander of the Home Army, Brigadier-General Leopold Okulicki (‘Niedzwiadek’); the head of the National Unity Council, Kazimierz Puzak, and the Government Delegate to the Home Country and Vice Premier, Jan Stanislaw Jankowski — arrived at Pruszków for a

meeting with the Soviets. The invitation turned out to be a ruse — the three men were arrested and taken to Moscow. The following day, the NKVD arrested 13 more leaders of the Polish Underground, including representatives of the main political parties: the Populist Party, the National Democrats, Labour Party and Democratic Union. In mid-June 1945, the Soviets staged a show trial in Moscow of the arrested men, known as the ‘Trial of the 16’. Its purpose was to discredit, in the eyes of Western nations, the leadership of the Polish Underground, and, by consequence, all Poles in opposition to Soviet domination. To this end, the defendants were accused of collaboration with the Germans. Ten of the 16 were sentenced to prison terms. For three of them — General Okulicki, Vice Premier Jankowski and Minister Stanislaw Jasiukowicz (‘Opolski’) — it meant a sentence of death. They died in unexplained circumstances during Soviet incarceration.

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EXPULSION, LOOTING, DESTRUCTION The first few days of October 1944 saw the mass exodus of Warsaw’s civilian population. At least a quarter of a million residents left the city. The Germans directed the expellees to transit camps, the largest of which was Dulag 121, set up in the rolling stock repair works at Pruszków, and already established in the first week of August. By October 10, almost 550,000 Varsovians, plus about 100,000 residents from its suburbs, had passed through the camp. The stay there usually lasted no longer than a week. During that time, the Germans conducted a selection which determined the further fate of the detainees: deportation to the General Government (the German-occupied Polish territories not annexed to the Reich), to Germany for forced labour, or, in the worst case, to concentration camps. Yet not everyone left the devastated city. Among the ruins remained those who could or would not leave Warsaw, mostly Jews, for whom revealing themselves to the Germans would mean certain death. Estimates of their number vary between several hundred and 2,000. In extremely difficult conditions, without food, in daily danger of discovery, they remained in hiding until the city was occupied by the Red Army in January 1945. (One such ‘Warsaw Robinson’ was the Polish-Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, whose story has been made famous by Roman Polanski’s film The Pianist, released in 2002.) After putting down the rising, the Germans proceeded with the systematic levelling of the city, implementing Hitler’s personal order. A cable of October 11, from Ludwig Fischer to Governor Hans Frank, expressed the order unambiguously: ‘Warsaw is to be levelled with the earth’. Further, ‘all raw materials, all textiles and all furniture’ were to be removed from the city. To execute the order the Germans created three co-operative bodies — military, civilian and SS/police, each with its own evacuation staff — under the overall command of Generalmajor der Polizei Paul Otto Geibel. During interrogation in Warsaw in 1948, he confirmed that Himmler made him responsible for the destruction of the Polish capital: ‘This city should utterly disappear from the face of the earth, and serve only as a transhipment point for the Wehrmacht. There should not be a stone left upon a stone. All buildings were to be demolished to the foundations.’ The systematic looting not only targeted raw materials or factory equipment, but also cultural treasures, works of religious and secular art, historic documents and private property of the inhabitants, such as furs, rugs, gold and other valuables. In the course of a few months, the Germans shipped out of Warsaw about 45,000 rail cars loaded with material goods. After completion of the looting, special demolition teams, known as the Vernichtungskommando, systematically burned down or blew up anything that was still standing in west-bank Warsaw. The demolition included blowing up historic buildings, factories and public utility structures. The waterworks and sewer systems were destroyed, electric power lines torn down and tramway rails ripped up. Between October 2 and January 16, 1945, 30 per cent of the city was demolished — more than was destroyed in the two months of combat.

The same spot down by the river bank, looking east across the Vistula. Poniatowski Bridge has been rebuilt in its full glory. 37

The scene of utter destruction in Old Town, seen from the air in 1945. with express speed in only three years. The Communists added ‘Josef Stalin’ to the building’s name. For a long time, there was no decision about what to do with the ruined Old Town. Only seven buildings remained from the vast pre-war district. In places, rubble was stacked storeys high. Finally, a decision was made to rebuild the area and the adjacent New Town. Work continued until the mid1950s, restoring the buildings to their 17thcentury appearance. (The district was put on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1980.) Arguments over the rebuilding of the Royal Castle and its intended use in the new reality continued even longer — 35 years — and had decidedly political overtones, the Communist regime being very unwilling to see this symbol of the old Poland resur-

rected. When the castle was finally rebuilt in 1971-84, it was financed entirely from private donations. The Warsaw Rising ended in military defeat. But its significance far exceeds its military meaning. Memories of the uprising, and the ethos of the Home Army, were fiercely suppressed by Communist propaganda and censorship, but at the same time remained most vivid in the minds of the people. The battle fought by the Home Army, the efforts of civilian authorities and the sacrifices of civilian inhabitants during the uprising enabled ordinary Poles to cultivate the idea of freedom in an enslaved land. This was the tradition that was invoked by Solidarnosc in the early 1980s. And it was the fighters in the uprising, not their opponents, who in the end were victorious, when a free Poland was reborn in 1989.

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JULIA SIELICKA

In Poland, the new regime did not greet returning AK soldiers as heroes. To the Communists they were all traitors and bandits, ‘filthy dwarves of reaction’, enemies of ‘the people’s homeland’. There was increasing harassment, persecutions, arrests and murders performed in the name of Communist law. Many were sentenced — often on the basis of falsified evidence — to long prison terms. Scores of them were executed or died in Soviet prisons. The first Commander-inChief of the Home Army, General August Fieldorf (‘Nil’) was hanged in 1953; Captain Witold Pilecki (‘Witold’), who had voluntarily allowed himself to be imprisoned in Auschwitz, had organised a resistance movement there and later fought in the uprising, was sentenced to death and executed in 1948 with a shot to the back of the head; Lieutenant Jan Rodowicz (‘Anoda’), a company commander in the ‘Zoska’ Battalion, was arrested on Christmas Eve 1948 and died under torturous interrogation although his persecutors insisted that it was suicide. Between 1944 and 1956 (the onset of political thaw), military courts issued almost 6,000 death sentences, and carried out over half of them. Two million persons experienced arrest, torture and imprisonment, and six million were investigated by the secret police. The life and fate of Poles was now totally in the hands of the all-powerful Ministry of Public Security. Return to normal life was impossible. This state of affairs lasted for the next 45 years — as late as the spring of 1989, former members of the Home Army were under surveillance by the Security Service. The new Warsaw, rebuilt in Soviet style, became the symbol of these times. The Biuro Odbudowy Stolicy (BOS, Office of Rebuilding the Capital) was created as early as February 14, 1945, under the leadership of Roman Piotrowski. Despite the declaration by the Presidium of the National Council about ‘restoring the splendour of the capital’, the ambitious plan prepared by the BOS, intending to bring back Warsaw to its prewar state, met with sharp criticism from the new regime, who demanded ‘socialist realism in architecture’. In order to create new thoroughfares, there was no hesitation about demolishing historic buildings suitable for restoration. The symbol of Warsaw of that time was the high-rising Palace of Culture and Science, completed in 1955 and built

The fall of the Communist regime in 1982 finally lifted the ban on fully and openly commemorating the heroic events of 1944, leading to a spate of new memorials, new research and new publications on the Warsaw uprising. A prime event was the creation of the Warsaw Uprising Memorial on Krasinski Square in Old Town. Designed by Professor Wincenty Kucma and architect Jacek Budyn, it consists of two groups of sculptures, one depicting an attack by an insurgent unit, the other a smaller group emerging from the sewers. The latter is placed almost on the exact spot of the manhole from where many of the AK fighters escaped from Old Town on September 1-2. Erected with donated funds, the monument was unveiled on August 1, 1989 — the 45th anniversary of the uprising. 38

Another milestone was the establishment of the Warsaw Rising Museum. Initiated in July 2003 by the then President of the City of Warsaw, Lech Kaczynski, and located in a former tramway power plant on Przyokopowa Street, it was created in record time, being ready for opening on July 31, 2004 — the 60th anniversary of the uprising. Using the latest technologies and with hundreds of evocative exhibits, the museum gives a truly remarkable overview of every aspect of the uprising. The establishment includes an archive and study room, educational department, bookshop, and a park with a wall of honour listing the names of every AK soldier who fell in the battle. Immensely popular right from the start, the museum welcomed over one million visitors within two years and has been awarded numerous accolades.

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ARCHIVES DEPARTEMENTALES

On August 18, 1944, about 600 men from the Resistance took control of all entrances to Annecy thus effectively bottling up the German garrison of some 1,000 men (including the wounded in the hospital). Left: Their city just liberated, a party

of young Resistants proudly pose with their Bren gun and LeeEnfield rifle, weapons obtained from Allied air drops. Right: The photo was taken in front the Gabriel Fauré School in Avenue de Loverchy.

TRAGEDY ON THE EVE OF D-DAY

R. POIRSON

By Jean Paul Pallud

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ARCHIVES DEPARTEMENTALES

The Galbert Barracks on the morning of the 19th. It was here that AS fighter Georges Gautard found a pack of photos in the pocket of a surrendering German that later proved to have been taken at Ugine and show the aftermath of a German act of vengeance that had taken place in June 1944.

In August 1944, the two departments of Savoie in south-eastern France were liberated solely by the Resistance, well before the arrival of Allied troops driving northwards after the landing in the Riviera (see After the Battle No. 105). During the liberation of Annecy on the morning of August 19, a party of men from the Armée Secrète (AS) assaulted the local barracks occupied by German troops. A young resistant, Georges Gautard, suddenly came face to face with a German rushing out of a building with his hands up. ‘I saw a bump in a pocket on his chest’, recalled Gautard, ‘which I thought was a pistol. I quickly searched the pocket but there was no weapon, just a pack of photos.’ For 60 years, Gautard kept these photos in a drawer as a treasured memory of his youth, and it was not until 2003 that he showed them off. Like all snapshots taken by garrison soldiers, most show everyday life in barracks with men eating or exercising, and others depict what might be a search operation being carried out in the mountains. However when I saw them a few photos particularly captured my attention, like the one showing

Left: German prisoners being marched off to a POW camp. Other photos of this same group show some of them having the German national police emblem on their caps, an indica-

tion that they belonged to SS-Polizei-Regiment 19. The man from whom Gautard confiscated the photos was probably one of them. Right: The same view in Rue Filaterie today. 39

G. GAUTARD

The writing on the back of this photo specified that the transport from Slovenia to France took five days, March 1 to 5, 1944. The ‘1. Kp.’ chalked on the car indicates that these men were from the 1st Company.

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G GAUTARD

In July 1942, it was decided that the various battalions and reserve battalions of the German police should be brought together and formed into 28 motorised Polizei-Regiments. Polizei-Regiment 19 was then formed in Veldes (Bled) in occupied Yugoslovia, where its constituent battalions — Polizei-Bataillone 72, 171 and 181 — were then serving (the regiment’s depots were at Vienna and Linz) and given a special mountain training. In February 1943, in recognition of their faithful and successful services, all Polizei-Regiments were renamed SS-Polizei-Regiment but they remained however an integral part of the Ordungspolizei and did not form part of the Waffen-SS. SS-Polizei-Regiment 19 first operated in Lower Styria (today eastern Slovenia) and in the Upper Ukraine, then moved to France in the spring of 1944. The I. Bataillon, under Hauptmann Schulz, was posted to Haute-Savoie and its 1. Kompanie, under Oberleutnant Rassi, was stationed at Annecy. Policemen on active duty wore a green field uniform almost identical to that worn by the Army. The emblem of the national police appeared on the front of the head-dress, right side of the helmet and on the left sleeve of the tunic. Badges of rank were the same as in the Army for officers while other ranks wore the police-pattern shoulder straps with aluminium stars.

a roadside crater. On the reverse of this picture was written in German: ‘Where 11 of my comrades died’. Other photos showed buildings destroyed by fire. German soldiers killed by an explosion; buildings burned down? I immediately put two and two together and surmised what these particular photos might show. This particular German had been at Ugine in June 1944 and his photos portray the drama that happened there on the 5th. On that day, the Resistance had exploded a mine hidden by the side of a track just as a group of German soldiers passed by. The explosion killed 11 of them and injured some 20 others. In reprisal, the enraged survivors grabbed men passing in the street and shot 28 of them. A visit to Ugine, about 35 kilometres south-east of Annecy, confirmed my suspicions that these photos had been taken there: the mountains visible in the background provided a perfect comparison, as did the school where the Germans had been garrisoned. Most of the participants in the tragedy of June 5, 1944 are now dead, and unfortunately few have left behind their version of the events. The group of Francs Tireurs Partisans (FTP) who had organised the attack did not produce a report, and personal accounts written by individuals have not yet come to light. 40

Jean Paul discovered that these photos were taken at Giez, a few kilometres west of Faverges, in front of a mansion where some of the 1. Kompanie were quartered for a time.

G. GAUTARD

Equipment of an SS-Polizei-Regiment was of the standard Army pattern but weapons and vehicles tended to be of an obsolete type like this requisitioned Saurer lorry.

A standard BMW R75 motorcycle, its ‘Pol’ registration plate indicating that it belonged to a police unit.

G. GAUTARD ATB

The caption written on the back of this photo says that Oberleutnant Rassi, the commander of the 1. Kompanie, is in this group, obviously the tall figure in the

As these photos all show Giez, midway between Annecy and Ugine, they were most probably taken when the party were on their way to take up quarters in Ugine. mill located there. Sauvanet wrote that the commander of the 6ème Escadron, Capitaine Perrolaz, was in close contact with the

Armée Secrète ‘which allowed the Resistance to carry out sabotage thanks to our complicity’.

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G. GAUTARD

I was however lucky to meet and interview three genuine witnesses: Madame Louise Barat, Monsieur Robert Amprimo and Monsieur Régis Roche. Over six decades later, their memory of June 5, 1944 was still incredibly clear. At the time, Mrs Barat was 25 years old, and with her husband Jean she operated a dairy, processing local milk products especially to make cheese. Her brother, Gaston Maniglier, was one of the hostages shot by the Germans on June 5. Robert Amprimo was 16 years old in 1944 and living at Les Corrües in one of the apartment flats that were blown up by the Germans on June 6. His brother Marcel, a member of the FTP, had been arrested in February 1944 and deported to Germany (he ended up in the Flossenbürg concentration camp (see After the Battle No. 131) and died in the satellite camp at Leitmeritz, now Litomerice in the Czech Republic, in 1945). Régis Roche was then 16 and working as an apprentice at the Donzel bakery in the Place des Fontaines, the main road junction in Ugine. He had been living there with his parents for some months after having left Modane where their house had been destroyed during an air raid. (RAF Bomber Command had twice bombed Modane, a small town in Savoie, where a railway tunnel took the line under the Alps from France to Italy. The two raids, in September and November, were each carried out by more than 300 heavy bombers but were not accurate, particularly the September raid. The railway installations were hardly hit, traffic only being interrupted for four days, but the town itself was badly damaged with 67 civilians killed and over 150 wounded.) I also found an interesting written testimony by Albert Sauvanet who in 1944 had been member of a French security detachment of the Garde — a police force — stationed at Ugine. Sometime during the 1990s (the actual year is not given), he wrote down his recollection of his time at Ugine in 1944. Originally he had been a member of the small French Armistice Army but he had been demobilised in November 1942 when the Germans invaded the free zone of France and disbanded the force. To avoid being sent to work in Germany, he then joined the Garde, the Vichy successor of the Garde Républicaine Mobile. The force remained virtually unchanged as far as its organisation was concerned and, due to its republican origin, the Garde was far from being dedicated to Vichy, in fact it was largely infiltrated by the Resistance. Sauvanet was posted to Savoie to join the 6ème Escadron of the 1er Régiment of the Garde based at Chambéry. In early June 1944, a platoon of the unit was posted to Ugine to ensure the security of the large steel

Left: The caption on this one proves that this was the case: ‘Near Faverges, on the way to Ugine’. The man sitting in

the centre is a Wachtmeister (Senior Sergeant). Right: The entrance of Faverges today, looking eastwards into the town. 41

Specialised in producing high-quality steel, the Ugine steelworks was to be a key target for Allied bombers if the Resistance failed to halt production and from September 1943 the underground fighters eagerly turned to the task. Their repeated attacks on the plant greatly affected its production which fell from 48,000 tonnes in 1941 to 20,000 tonnes in 1944. This old postcard shows the mill in the 1950s. The view is westwards, with the Les Fontaines junction in the right background. regularly to the Barat dairy, not far from the school, to purchase butter and cheese. On two mornings a week a group went down to exercise, either at the sports field on the road to Albertville or the firing range that had been set up near the railway station. How-

ever, the force was far too small to exert any real influence on the local situation so the Resistance still maintained effective control of the sector. Jean Barat told me how from April 1944 he had to obtain a pass to make his tour and collect milk at nearby Marthod,

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G. GAUTARD

GERMAN POLICE DESPATCHED TO UGINE The resistance movements were particularly active in the mountainous departments of Savoie. At Ugine, the main target was the steel mill which would have to be bombed if the Resistance were unable to halt production but they knew that an aerial attack would result in much damage to the town and loss of life — as the bombing at nearby Modane and Chambéry was soon to prove. So far efforts had only extended to disrupting day-to-day operations like switching labels to send railway carriages loaded with steel to the wrong destinations. The first major attack on the mill took place in July 1943 when five electric transformers were destroyed. Another attack followed in September, and in October the hydro-electric plant feeding the mill was sabotaged. Another attempt put a large crane out of action in December and water pumps were sabotaged on Christmas Day, interrupting production until February. The first months of 1944 saw a dozen electric pylons being blown up. Then in March 1944, a joint operation by the AS and FTP again hit the hydro-electric plant. For the Germans, this was the final straw and that same month a party from the 1. Kompanie of SS-Polizei-Regiment 19 was despatched to Ugine from Annecy where the company was based. This was a police unit in charge of maintaining order in the occupied areas and, more particularly, waging war against the Resistance. The party, some 35 strong, took up quarters at the Ecole Maternelle and began to patrol the town round the clock. As they behaved reasonably, they were not particularly feared, and some came

Still a school today, its yard remains unchanged over six decades later.

Left: The Germans took over the canteen and quickly adorned it with a painting of the NSDAP flag, flanked by the coats of arms of their home towns, Munich, Berlin, Vienna and Stuttgart. Right: The school director, Mrs Valérie Troufléau, kindly allowed Jean Paul to inspect each class room, looking

for the place where the German canteen had been, and there it was, in the children’s dormitory! Two openings in the righthand corner remain unchanged but some play apparatus prevented Jean Paul from taking his comparison from the exact spot where the German photographer had stood.

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G. GAUTARD

At Ugine, the 35-strong German party took up quarters in the Ecole Maternelle. Here they are unpacking their stuff.

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G. GAUTARD

The Germans set up a range near the railway station from where they could fire into the woods at the bottom of the hill across the Chaise river. The 50mm leichte Granatwerfer 36 pictured here was withdrawn from front-line service in 1942, as it launched too light a bomb, but remained in use with second-line and garrison units. The man kneeling is the Wachtmeister we already saw on page 41 and the two men in the foreground are Unterwachtmeis-

With Allied landings expected any day, the FTP command was pushing local groups to carry out operations to tie down Germans in their areas. At Ugine, while Compagnie 9213 was eager for action, German targets were thin on the ground and the means at their disposal small. At the beginning of April information was received that a lorry containing German troops from Annecy was to arrive during the morning of April 5 (intelligence probably gained from the German

requisition of the vehicle). Consequently, a party comprising some six men from the FTP company was detailed to ambush the lorry. They opened fire at it as it drove along the N508 at Chamfroid, five kilometres west of Ugine, and then made their escape toward the wooded mountain. Four gendarmes from the town (René Montessuit, Henri Vray, Pierre Savary and Alexis Roche) were ordered to investigate and fortunately their report (No. 138) dated April 5 has survived.

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G. GAUTARD

a pass signed by a ‘Capitaine Raymond’ of the FTP whom he knew as a worker from the electricity company. Another operation hit the mill’s water supply on April 29. On May 3, a concerted attack by the AS was successful in sabotaging the factory at three vital points, resulting in all production being halted for a month. None of the attackers was identified and arrested, neither by the Germans nor the French Gendarmes or Gardes.

ter (Sergeants). Note the national police emblem on the front of their cap and the edelweiss badge peculiar to mountain troops on the side. The place where the Resistance blew the road mine on June 5, killing 11 Germans, and where 19 hostages were subsequently shot is just a dozen metres off to the left. In the background are the three apartment flats at Les Corrües that were blown up in retaliation on June 6.

Left: The party then turned to operate a 47mm anti-tank gun. Manufactured by Böhler in Austria in the 1930s, this type of gun was widely sold for export and the Germans had seized a number of them in the Netherlands in 1940 and Italy in 1943,

taking them over under the designation 4.7cm PaK (Böhler). However it was quite obsolete, badly lacking striking power. Right: Looking westwards from Ugine, the southern end of the Aravis mountain range provides a perfect background. 43

UGINE GIEZ FAVERGES

ALBERTVILLE

Reproduced from Michelin Sheet 244, 5th edition, 1988

Each morning, two FTP operatives were ready to remotely detonate the charge but for several days the Germans either failed to appear or they turned away in the direction of the sports field. The FTP men were at their post as June 5 dawned fine. JUNE 5, 1944 A few days prior to June 5 the Barats had planned a family get-together. Gaston Maniglier, the brother of Mrs Barat, was the butcher at Doussard, about 20 kilometres to the west in Haute-Savoie. He had been hired to kill a cow for a party of loggers working in the Val d’Arly and the arrangement was that on June 5 he would come by lorry with them.

They were to travel via Ugine and he planned to take his mother along with him so that she could spend the day there with her daughter. They would then return that evening to Doussard. Around 8 a.m., a party of Germans started down from the Ecole Maternelle to the station for target practice. Albert Sauvanet takes up the story. ‘A wonderful day was looming. I was ahead of the opening hours of the slaughterhouse and the day was so beautiful that I took a break and sat on the rails. A lorry of the German army coming down from Ugine stopped by the roadside some 200-250 metres from where I was. Some men jumped

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‘The attack took place exactly on the boundary of the departments of Savoie and Haute-Savoie, and spent cartridges were found on both sides of the signpost demarcating the territory of the two departments. The three cases were of 8mm and two of them appear to be of English origin and the third French. They were munitions used by military weapons. The German party that had been there before our arrival had collected many sub-machine gun cartridges at the same location. ‘From what we noted on the spot, it appears that several individuals who were waiting for a possible passage of occupying troops on the road, hidden behind the railway track located ten metres south of the N508, had fired at a lorry loaded with soldiers. They killed one soldier outright and more or less seriously wounded several others as well as the driver, a French civilian. ‘Realising the danger, the driver accelerated and drove the vehicle directly to the German quarters in Ugine where the wounded were immediately treated by Dr Chavent. ‘The surrounding woods, particularly in the southern direction of Marlens, HauteSavoie, and on the territories of Ugine and Outrechaise, were quickly searched but it was not possible to obtain the slightest evidence. The attack has been committed in a remote place, away from any house, and steep areas were near. The terrorists had escaped easily toward the wooded mountain south.’ After confirming that one German had been killed and several others wounded, two seriously, the report explained that the French driver, M. Gibello, a public works contractor requisitioned by the Germans with his lorry, soon returned home at Veyrier near Annecy after his light wound had been bandaged. Back in March, the Ugine FTP had decided to carry out an attack on the German squad as it marched down from their quarters to the firing range. Explosives would be buried by the side of the track down the railway embankment which would be triggered from a hiding place under bushes some distance away. As it took some time to obtain the explosives (two crates of dynamite were stolen from a road works company) and to discreetly dig a hole, nearly one metre deep, and bury the electric cable, it was early June before everything was ready.

Left: Thanks to the Gendarmerie report which noted that it ‘took place exactly at the boundary of the departments of Savoie and Haute-Savoie’, we can precisely pinpoint the spot where the FTP partisans attacked a German lorry on April 5. This is the N508 at Chamfroid, five kilometres west of Ugine. 44

The FTP men were hiding behind the railway track, now dismantled and turned into the bicycle track visible on the right. The German lorry came in from the left. Right: It was here, at the foot of the signpost, that Germans and Gendarmes collected the spent cartridges left by the attackers.

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G. GAUTARD

‘The place where 11 of my comrades died’, reads the German caption on the reverse of this photo. Taken by one of the survivors on June 7 or 8, it shows the crater where the 11 Germans were killed by the explosion of the mine, resulting in the shooting of 19 hostages at this spot. down. Rifle to the shoulder and in a column of twos, they walked across the railway track and the meadow that separated the track from the hill. As they were reaching what was their shooting range, I saw a mine exploding, a burst of fire, earth, rocks and bodies. At the same time, I saw two men bent low down running away along the riverbed in the direction of Les Fontaines. The Germans were too busy picking up their dead and caring for their wounded, so no one followed them.’ Precise time of the explosion was 8.18 a.m. The flats at Les Corrües, only a few hundred metres from the scene, were rocked by the explosion. Robert Amprimo saw a huge cloud of dust and smoke hanging over the railway. Being a member of the FTP he knew

The pasture has long gone, first being used as outdoor storage for a building company but now progressively being reclaimed by trees. To gain some perspective, Jean Paul shifted the angle of his comparison a little to the left. The memorial stands some ten metres away to the right.

something was in the offing, but not exactly what. Now he immediately understood what the explosion meant. He rushed down to a terrace by the side of the road from Faverges and from there he could hear shouts coming from the smoke and see faint shadows running through it. Albert Sauvanet then saw the survivors and the least wounded, ‘there were not many’, pick up the dead bodies and load them into their lorry ‘together with those badly hurt’. At this point, the lorry with the loggers and Gaston Maniglier and his mother arrived from Faverges. The two or three Germans still standing stopped the lorry. Mrs Maniglier was ordered to leave the scene while her son and all the men were marched down to the firing range. There they were

lined up with hands in the air. The Germans then began rounding up anyone else in the vicinity. Among them was Angelo Capelli, a father of seven children, who was seized as he was tending to his front garden not far from the station. The explosion had been clearly heard at the Gendarmerie in Ugine and, as it appeared to come from the German firing range near the station, a call was made to the German quarters at the school. In their rather vague Report No. 264 dated June 5, the gendarmes stated that the Germans ‘informed us that an attack has been directed against them on their training range’. Three gendarmes, Alfred Lacroux, Pierre Savary and Alexis Roche, were immediately sent to the scene where they saw ‘several dead

ECOLE MATERNELLE

STEEL MILL

LES CORRÜES

DONZEL BAKERY MEMORIAL PAUL FERT GARAGE RAILWAY STATION

IGN

MEMORIAL

Taken in 1961, this aerial photo from the archives of the Institut Géographique National shows the part of Ugine where the drama of June 5 unfolded. The junction at Les Fontaines (centre

right) was still lined with the buildings that were there in 1944, including Paul Fert’s garage. The spot where the mine was blown is where the memorial now stands opposite Les Corrües. 45

This old postcard shows the view that witness Régis Roche had from Les Fontaines about midday on June 5. Walking with Emile Calvi and Rino Regazzoni to the bus stop, he saw some Germans coming towards him and then turned back. The railway station is in the left background and Paul Fert’s garage just off to the left.

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L. BARAT

German soldiers’ and a crater four metres in diameter and 1.1 metre deep. ‘The German troops having forbidden us to access the site of the attentat we were unable to carry out the usual inquiry.’ The gendarme report does not mention the hostages. However, Mrs Barat is adamant that her mother, who had remained nearby watching after the Germans ordered her away, said that the gendarmes talked to the hostages and even took a roll-call before returning to the Gendarmerie. At Les Corrües, just opposite the scene of the explosion and in direct view of what was happening, as soon as they saw that the Germans were taking hostages, every man in the vicinity ran to take refuge in the wooded mountains. Robert Amprimo and his brother Georges were among them. At the dairy, some distance higher up in the town, Jean and Louise Barat had heard the explosion shaking the valley about a quarter past eight but they could not leave to find out while the milk was being processed. About 10 a.m. Mrs Savary, the wife of Pierre, one of the gendarmes that they knew well, arrived in a panic: ‘The Germans are taking men hostage. Jean must leave right away!’ Straightaway M. Barat went to hide in the woods above Ugine.

Albert Sauvanet: ‘The Germans pushed the hostages to the side of the hole left by the explosion. I say they, but there were only two or three of them, for the others were carrying the dead bodies to the lorry and taking care of the wounded. Once at the side of the crater, they shouted at their hostages to look what had been done, at least I assume so because I did not understand their words from the distance where I was, the more so because I had taken the precaution of lying between the rails so as not to be seen. Then there were bursts from sub-machine guns and gun-shots and all the hostages fell down into the hole. After this, the Germans returned to their quarters with their dead and transported their wounded to hospital. ‘When their lorry had left, I went to the scene of the massacre to see if there were any still alive. I had to take each of the bodies out of the tangled mass and lie them onto the meadow but there were no survivors.’ According to Mrs Barat’s mother (she was still nearby though out of sight of the shooting for it had taken place on the other side of the railway embankment), this first massacre of 19 men had taken place about 10 a.m., which corresponds with Albert Sauvanet’s account. 46

Paul Fert’s garage just across the junction (part of the last two letters of GARAGE, ‘GE’, are just visible at top left in the bottom photo). Right: The main junction in Ugine, greatly changed since 1944. Many of the houses have been demolished, including the garage, to make room for widening the roads and adding a large roundabout. A memorial now stands at the exact spot where the hostages were shot.

L. BARAT

Left and below: These extraordinary photos were taken late on June 6 by a young engineer then following a training course at the steelworks. It was about 7.15 p.m. when he took these photos from the room of the hotel where he lodged at Les Fontaines. The Mayor, Léon Ecoffet, is the one on the left in the group of three standing in the middle of the photo (below) as Gendarmes and Gardes are beginning to recover the bodies to take them to

R. AMPRIMO

R. AMPRIMO

Left: The three apartment blocks at Les Corrües had been built on a design drawn up by Charles Fourier, a French ‘utopian’ philosopher of the 19th Century. Fourier advocated that care and co-operation were the secrets of social success and he devised apartment complexes where people should ideally live, the so-called ‘Phalanstères’. Fourier’s ideas led to various

were lying side by side on one side of the street. They were all covered with blood and some were groaning as they died. Roche recognised Emile and Rino with whom he had talked only a few minutes earlier and a worker he knew well, Joseph Wesolowiez. All were beyond help. Noting that ‘heavy shooting’ had been heard, the gendarmes’ report gives the precise timing of this second killing — 12.15 p.m. As has been explained above, the report does not mention the earlier shooting and is somewhat confused about the later massacre: ‘We learnt afterwards that the several persons who had been arrested by German authorities after the attack against them have been shot at the same place where the attack had been committed’. The Germans were eager to make sure that their reprisals were widely known so they ordered that the bodies of the hostages should remain where they lay for 48 hours. Meanwhile, stunned townspeople remained indoors throughout the afternoon. ‘Ugine was a dead town’, Albert Sauvanet noted as he returned to his quarters. The mayor of Ugine, Léon Ecoffet, was away from the town that fateful June 5 as he had been up in the mountains in the early morning to try to settle a dispute over boundary stones. His absence at such a critical time was unfortunate for he was an exofficer of the French army and he might have been able to reason with the Germans, at least as far as the later killing. High in the mountain, he heard the explosion and saw the large pall of smoke drifting over the rail-

way station but he did not think that this was something requiring his immediate attention. Word of the drama reached him about midday and fortunately someone looking for him soon arrived on a motorcycle. On the way back, Ecoffet passed several groups of men escaping to hide in the mountains. He first called at the Gendarmerie where he was told roughly what had happened but, as he wrote later in an unofficial report, ‘no precise detail was known about the explosion, the German victims, the arrests or the executions, and panic was complete’. It was about 1.30 p.m. when he finally reached the German quarters. ‘Violence and rage were at paroxysm’, he said, and at first the German commander simply refused to see him. He waited for 20 minutes before the enraged German appeared in the yard of the school. ‘ ‘‘Look what your population has done!’’,. he shouted, as two men frog-marched me to the boiler room where the dismembered bodies of the German soldiers had been lined up. I must say that the scene was horrible.’ Ecoffet vehemently argued that the population was not responsible but the German retorted that ‘if the Commander had been there, it was not just 40 inhabitants who whould have been shot, but 100 more’. (Ecoffet did not note if the German was referring to the I. Bataillon commander, Hauptmann Schulz, or the 1. Kompanie commander, Oberleutnant Rassi, but he himself ended his report accusing both of them.) The German stated that he was now going to destroy the buildings at Les Corrües, which

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G. GAUTARD

The news that the Germans were taking and executing hostages was slow in reaching the centre of town and about midday at the Place des Fontaines, 200 metres from the railway station, Régis Roche had still not heard of it. He was standing in the street in front of the bakery discussing with two young loggers, Emile Calvi and Rino Regazzoni, the wood he needed for heating his parent’s house. He walked with them towards the bus stop as they were waiting to go to Faverges. He saw some Germans coming in their direction and, though he had no particular reason to worry, he turned back to return to the bakery. The two loggers kept walking towards the bus stop. The Germans had obviously not had enough blood and the second round of reprisals, two hours after the first one, probably resulted from orders received from the battalion or company commander to kill a given number of hostages. The Germans grabbed those waiting for the AnnecyAlbertville bus and more as they stepped down from the bus when it arrived. These men were shot on the spot. It was about a quarter past midday. A few metres away — but out of sight beyond the corner of the crossroads — Régis Roche was still on the street when he heard several ‘bursts of sub-machine guns’. He quickly took shelter inside the bakery. A few minutes later, after the only German in sight standing in the middle of the crossroads had left, Mr Donzel, the baker, cautiously ventured out of cover. Roche followed him, together with two other men. Nine bodies

social experiments in France and Brazil and also took root in the US, inspiring the founding of several communities, such as La Reunion near Dallas, Texas, and Utopia in the state of Ohio. Right: With no regard for their social importance, the Germans blew up the three buildings and then threw in incendiary grenades to set the remains on fire.

Left: Having pictured the tragic crater, the unknown German photographer then took this photo of the ruined Phalanstère complex, still smouldering. The three buildings comprised 40 apartments each, i.e. a total of 120 dwellings, and the German

act of retaliation deprived some 500 people of everything they possessed. Right: Only two apartment flats were rebuilt at Les Corrües, and then on a much smaller scale. Towering in the background is Mount Charvin, 2,407 metres high. 47

28 HOSTAGES SHOT ON JUNE 5, 1944 Name

Age

Place of Birth

Profession

Domicile

François Baroni Emile Calvi Angelo Capelli Arezki Chali Albert Convers Auguste Coutaz Rinaldo Cristina Wladimir De Ghekoff Victor Deval Pierre Genève Adolphe Golliet-Mercier Marius Junod Rabah Kaddouri Lodovic Kogut Pierre Kubicki Marcel Losserand-Madoux Gaston Maniglier Rinaldo Martinato Celestino Olivetti Giovanni Pandolfi Pietro Pandolfi Armand Perrier Tomatz Pierczonka Louis Regazzoni Rino Regazzoni André Rousset Giosué Trapletti Joseph Wesolowiez

33 years 18 years 49 years 24 years 17 years 25 years 32 years 49 years 68 years 21 years 31 years 53 years 48 years 35 years 42 years 35 years 28 years 23 years 34 years 46 years 21 years 28 years 41 years 42 years 17 years 18 years 33 years 49 years

Serraval, Haute-Savoie Saint-Rémy, Savoie Berbenno, Italy Beni Oughlis, Algeria Annecy, Haute-Savoie Marthod, Savoie Agrate, Italy Kursk, Russia Nus, Italy Seynod, Haute-Savoie Manigod, Haute-Savoie Aoste, Italy Tizi Ouzou, Algeria Dabrowa, Poland Podworance, Poland Faverges, Haute-Savoie Doussard, Haute-Savoie Argentine, Savoie Cantoira, Italy Urgnano, Italy Urgnano, Italy Ugine, Savoie Liski, Poland Santa-Brigida, Italy Santa-Brigida, Italy Annecy, Haute-Savoie Albino, Italy Siedlic, Poland

logger logger worker worker chimney-sweep farmer worker office clerck worker school teacher logger worker worker worker worker farmer butcher logger foreman worker worker worker worker logger logger chimney-sweep logger worker

Faverges Marlens Ugine Ugine Annecy Marthod Faverges Ugine Ugine Seynod Faverges Ugine Ugine Ugine Ugine Faverges Doussard Faverges Saint-Ferréol Marlens Marlens Queige Ugine Marlens Marlens Annecy Marlens Ugine

The grim toll of the Ugine retaliations. The details as to birth, profession and place of residence are as given in the death register in the Town Hall that was drawn up on June 6, 1944. At first Tomatz Pierczonka could not be identified so the Gendarmes just recorded that he was ‘dressed in striped grey trousers, a grey shirt and red jumper, bareheaded, without

48

coffins’. Supervised by the Gardes, a label with a serial number was affixed to each coffin, the names were listed and several copies made of this list. Albert Sauvanet was there again and he later remembered how the smell in the garage was hardly bearable: ‘We were in June and it was very hot’.

He also described how the parish priest, Father Jay, came to bless the bodies. ‘He asked me if I could take off the wedding ring of M. Maniglier so that he could give it to his wife who had asked for it, which I did.’ Mrs Barat confirms that a few days after the tragedy, the priest brought personal belong-

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were ‘a haunt of terrorists’, and, to protect their own quarters, they would demolish houses close to the school from which attacks might come. The Mayor’s efforts to reason with the commander were in vain; the only concession being a stay of 24 hours so that people living in the buildings to be destroyed could salvage their possessions. Later that afternoon, Ecoffet was summoned by the German commander who directed him to remove the bodies still lying in the street before the curfew hour of 9 p.m. He instructed that no member of the families could view the bodies and that they must be buried in the evening of the next day with no one but himself attending. He was told that any demonstration would be repressed with the strongest vigour as German troops had been given orders to fire without warning. As a result, ‘I was left with only two hours to take care of the bodies and identify them, and take them into a closed place’. From about 7 p.m. that evening, Gendarmes and Gardes retrieved the bodies and took them to Paul Fert’s garage at Les Fontaines, just across the street from where the second shootings had taken place. They used the ambulance from the steel mill to transport the victims of the first shootings, some distance away. Albert Sauvanet was at the garage where he saw the bodies being ‘aligned side by side on the floor’. The Gendarme report stated that only one body had not been identified, ‘not having identity documents and being unrecognisable’. Items of clothing from this man and one of his shoes were retained in order to pursue inquiries later. ‘The next day at 4 p.m.’, the official report states, ‘we [the gendarmes] went to Les Fontaines to have the bodies put into

jacket and identity papers, one key’. The proportionally large number of victims not born in France is explained by the fact that for decades the large steelworks — by 1940 it had a workforce of 3,500 — was recruiting many workers from far-away places. Also, Italians historically came to work in Savoie, just across the Alps.

Of the 28 hostages shot on June 5, 11 now remain buried together, side by side in the middle of the Ugine cemetery. The other 17 have been moved to family graves elsewhere. Incidentally, many of the details of the Ugine drama appeared in Les Montagnards de la nuit, a novel by Roger Frison-Roche and published in 1968. A well-known author of mountain and adventure books, he had been a Resistance fighter in Savoie in 1944.

P. MAYEN

P. MAYEN

ings from her brother: a handkerchief, the wedding ring, a wallet and a knife. The Gendarme report goes on to specify that at 7 p.m. the coffins were taken to the cemetery in lorries from the steel mill. ‘The burials took place at 8 p.m. and we organised guards to prevent any demonstrations. Everything went quietly and no incidents were reported.’ Earlier on the afternoon of June 6, the residents having evacuated their belongings as best they could, the Germans blew up the three blocks of flats at Les Corrües, setting the ruins on fire. They also set fire to House Mollier and House Troccaz close to the school where they had their quarters. Mayor Ecoffet managed to save two nearby houses that the Germans planned to demolish as well, arguing that the blaze might set the school on fire. Emergency accommodation had to be found for the 500 persons made homeless, ‘a difficult task’, noted Ecoffet, ‘for we had few men to help, almost all of them having escaped to the mountains’. The Gendarmerie then began official investigations to identify those responsible. ‘We interrogated several people who were near the scene of the attack but none could give us any information facilitating our research.’ However, reading between the lines, it appears that in fact they did their best to implicate no one, fabricating innocuous answers for those they interrogated. Michel Andès, chief of the railway station: ‘At no time did we see strangers near the platform or the station building. I cannot therefore give you any information about this explosion’. Petrus Devance, station employee: ‘I did not see at this time any individual circulating near the station and I cannot therefore provide any useful information.’ André Métral, station employee: ‘I did

strove to give his son a decent burial and he immediately undertook to recover him in order to bury him respectfully with the family present. Rinaldo’s remains were disinterred on June 29, less than a month after the drama, together with those of Giosué, Antonio’s son-in-law. They now repose side by side in a family grave by the old church of Viuz near Faverges.

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Giosué Trapletti (left), born May 4, 1911, and Rinaldo Martinato (right), born June 3, 1921, were brothers-in-law. They were two of the loggers arriving from Faverges on the morning of June 5 when their lorry was stopped about 9 a.m. by enraged Germans. One hour later, they were shot together with 17 other innocent hostages. Right from the beginning, Rinaldo’s father Antonio

not see any individual behind the station or thereabouts nor in the small wood near the river. I cannot therefore provide any information useful to your search.’ Camille Vénera, grocer: ‘I did not see any individual behind my house or in the woods near the River Chaise after this incident, so I am not able to provide you with any information that could help your search’. Gaston André, miller: ‘During the Sunday evening and yesterday morning in the early hours, I did not notice anything unusual and I did not see any foreign person around my house’.

Among the personal belongings recovered from the hostages by the Gendarmes and subsequently returned to the next-of-kin was this wallet belonging to Giosué Trapletti. A foreigner’s circulation permit dated 1943 (he was Italianborn), a fishing club member card for 1943, and a pious picture of Mary — moving pieces of a life so suddenly and brutally terminated. Giosué’s widow kept the relics until she died in 2006; the wallet is now treasured by Giosué’s daughter, Pierrine. 49

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G. GAUTARD

Left: The 11 Ordnungspolizei men killed at Ugine were buried in the German section of the Aix-les-Bains cemetery. The town was a long-time spa and the Germans used the available facilities there to establish a hospital where wounded and seriously ill soldiers were treated. Consequently, there was also a size-

able cemetery where those who died in the hospital were buried. Right: The former German section is today Plot 6. Trees now hide the houses along Chemin des Jardins and we took our photo a bit more to the right from where the photographer of 1944 stood.

LIBERATION Following calls to action broadcast by the BBC on June 6, several thousand men of the Resistance took to the mountains of Savoie following pre-arranged plans, and on June 10 the Chief of the Renseignements Généraux in Savoie sent an alarming report to Vichy:

According to Mrs Barat, the German police unit left Ugine three days after the drama, apparently for Annecy to where their wounded had already been moved. By then, few men remained fit for action: originally about 35 strong, 12 had been killed and 20 wounded.

‘The situation in the Albertville sector has become unstable and critical since the Anglo-Saxon landing in Normandy . . . Upon news of the landing, several thousand men took refuge in the mountains, members of resistance groups, FTP, AS, etc, but also young men not belonging to any group. Since

Rank

Age

Grave

Georg Dassinger Georg Schill Joachim Molineus Albert Reitmair Erich Petermann Franz Wilk Josef Höfer Alfred Faisst Helmut Blödow

Unterwachtmeister der Schutzpolizei Unterwachtmeister der Schutzpolizei Unterwachtmeister der Schutzpolizei Wachtmeister der Schutzpolizei Wachtmeister der Schutzpolizei Unterwachtmeister der Schutzpolizei Wachtmeister der Schutzpolizei Oberwachtmeister der Schutzpolizei Zugwachtmeister der Schutzpolizei

42 years 41 years 37 years 35 years 35 years 38 years 48 years 30 years 31 years

Block 2, Grave 2 Block 2, Grave 3 Block 2, Grave 4 Block 2, Grave 5 Block 2, Grave 6 Block 2, Grave 7 Block 2, Grave 8 Block 2, Grave 9 Block 2, Grave 10

C. CHEVALIER

Name

C. CHEVALIER

C. CHEVALIER

NINE OF THE 11 GERMANS KILLED ON JUNE 5, 1944

In 1952, the German soldiers buried at Aix-les-Bains were among the first to be transferred to the German War Cemetery then being created at Dagneux, 20 kilometres north-east of Lyon. The cemetery concentrated all German graves from miscellaneous burial grounds in south-eastern France and today comprises about 20,000 graves. Nine of the policemen killed at Ugine on June 5 now rest side by side in Block 2, Graves 2 to 10. In spite of exten50

sive research, we could not find the whereabouts of the other two men. Their graves are not in proximity of the nine, nor with the other batches of graves transferred from Aix-les-Bains (the German Kriegsgräberfürsorge archives have only an uncompleted list of these movements). Was their identity lost during the transfer in the 1950s and are they now buried as unknown, or have their graves simply gone astray in a far corner of the cemetery?

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The memorial at the foot of the railway embankment marking the spot where 19 of the 28 hostages were shot about 10 a.m. on June 5; it is also the place where the 11 German policemen were killed. Another memorial stands by the side of the Les Fontaines junction, at the spot where the nine hostages were shot at 12.15 p.m. (see back cover). range, north-east of Chambéry, and the 400 resistance fighters in that area had to pull back after having lost 17 men. In addition, the Germans shot 16 loggers after having found a sub-machine gun hidden in the chalet where they lived. On June 21, a group of about 60 FTP from the companies based at Ugine and Albertville attacked the German customs post at Beaufort, in the mountains about 15 kilometres east of Ugine. They soon overwhelmed the German party of 16 men. Five Germans were killed and one FTP. The attackers pulled away with eight prisoners (three wounded Germans and one badly wounded FTP were sent down to the hospital in Albertville). The Germans reacted swiftly on the next day and surrounded 35 of the partisans in the mountains. Taking them down to the valley, 31 were shot at Grignon on the 23rd, the other four men being deported to Germany. The Germans launched another operation in the Bauges in July, killing over 30 civilians,

SEQUEL The Resistance action which took place at Ugine on June 5 resulted in killing 11 Germans and wounding another 20 but cost the lives of 28 innocent civilians. While some rejoiced at the blow struck at the Germans, its consequence was too painful to be simply accepted by the townspeople. As in any occupied country in Europe, appreciations differed, and still differ today. France was at war and should fight on, wherever and whenever possible, to help the Allies in defeating the Germans . . . but what was gained by local attacks against Germans when they resulted in heavy civilian casualties against little or no military results? At Ugine today, two memorials, and the graves in the local cemetery, recall the deaths of the hostages and a memorial service is held each year on June 5.

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G. APRIMO

then, attacks have been committed mainly against railways and telegraph and telephone networks. The bridge on the AlbertvilleMoutiers railway line has been blown up (on June 7) where it crossed the main highway, interrupting all communications. The telephone and telegraph network have also been disrupted . . . ‘The town of Albertville is said to be completely surrounded by those groups which have taken to the woods and deployed in the mountains overlooking the town. Among them would be strongly armed bands. To counter this situation, the German authorities have reacted immediately. On Wednesday, June 7, between 8.30 p.m. and 10 p.m., German troops fired artillery shots in several directions in the mountains where armed groups are thought to be. On Thursday, June 8, they made several arrests around Albertville and, according to information, six men have been shot at Tours-sur-Isère.’ Between June 7 and 10, the Germans conducted a large sweep in the Bauges mountain

but by August 1 they had lost control of the situation and they were powerless to react when over 70 B-17s of the US Eighth Air Force dropped 900 containers of desperately needed arms at Les Saisies, ten kilometres east of Ugine. There were sufficient weapons and ammunition to equip 3,000 resistance fighters. (This drop was part of the larger Operation ‘Buick’ carried out by 195 aircraft of the 3rd Air Division, a total of 2,281 containers being dropped over four drop zones at Salornay in Saône-et-Loire, Echallon in Ain, Les Saisies in Savoie, and Glières in HauteSavoie — see After the Battle No. 105.) Sabotage and attacks against the Germans continued throughout Savoie in August as the Resistance progressively took control of the strategic Tarentaise valley. When the Allies landed in the Riviera on August 15, the Germans quickly pulled back from southern France (see After the Battle No. 110). While the main body of the German forces withdrew northwards, other troops fell back on the Alps. In Savoie, harried by the Resistance which was repeatedly attacking convoys and cutting road, rail and telephone lines, the Germans evacuated Aix-les-Bains on the evening of the 21st, and Chambéry during the following night. They abandoned Albertville on the 23rd and pulled back through the Tarentaise and Maurienne valleys with the Resistance at their heels. Finally, German forces reached the passes and fortifications which lined the border between France and Italy. There, they halted and faced westwards (see After the Battle No. 97).

Left: Every year on June 5, a memorial service is held at Ugine to remember the victims of the German reprisals. This picture was taken on the 50th anniversary in 1994 at the Les Fontaines memorial, which lists the names of all the 28 victims. Right: A memorial

near the Town Hall commemorates the sons of Ugine who died as soldiers in the First and Second World Wars. A separate plaque names the 20 FFI Resistance men who died fighting the Germans in 1943-44, and the five who did not return from deportation. 51