Polish Guerrillas Too Distant To Aid By Allies Myth Forczyk

Warsaw 1944: Poland’s bid for freedom, by Robert Forczyk. 2009

Debunks the “Poland Too Far Away To Aid” Myth, With a Concise History of the Soviet-Betrayed Warsaw Uprising (1944) in Outline Format

This work is quite compact. There are separate chapters on the origins of the campaign, the opposing forces, the opposing leaders, the opposing plans, the battle itself, etc. The actual 63-day combat is divided into 2-5 day segments. Old pictures are included, as well as novel 3-D block diagrams depicting some of the combat actions.

“POLAND TOO DISTANT”: THE FALSE, CANNED EXCUSE FOR THE MEAGERNESS OF BRITISH AIRDROPS TO AID POLISH GUERRILLAS

Throughout the German occupation of Poland, she, unlike Greece and France, for example, got only a pittance of airdrops of arms and ammunition in support of guerilla warfare. Forczyk unmasks the argument about Poland being “too far” from England for substantive airdrops of arms and ammunition. (The real reason was the chumminess of Great Britain with the Soviet Union).

In terms of specifics, author Robert Forczyk points out that 170 Lancaster bombers had recently traversed the 1,354 km distance from Lincolnshire to Koenigsberg, each dropping 2.5 tons of bombs, then returning home. The distance was only 74 km less than that of Lincolnshire to Warsaw. (p. 62).

CALLING A SPADE A SPADE: THE SOVIET BETRAYAL OF THE WARSAW UPRISING

Now consider the Soviet betrayal of the Uprising. Forczyk rejects any attempts at creating a false ambiguity about Soviet conduct towards it. The fact that the Soviets wanted the Uprising to fail is obvious by such things as their refusal (until the very end, when the Uprising was already doomed) to allow Uprising-aiding Allied planes to land on Soviet-held territories. (p. 37). Also, temporary setbacks for the Red Army, just east of Warsaw in early August 1944, were no excuse for them not taking Warsaw long before the Uprising ended. (p. 50).

NOT ONLY JEWS SUFFERED: A SAMPLING OF THE GERMAN TERROR

As soon as the Uprising began, the Germans began murderous reprisals against Polish civilians. Forczyk puts this in perspective: “During the course of 5-6 August, Reinefarth’s troops murdered between 30,000 and 40,000 civilians at Wola—exceeding the total of 33,741 Jews killed at Babi Yar outside Kiev in two days in September 1941. The Wola Massacre was the worst single battlefield atrocity committed in Europe in World War II, but it did not produce the effect that Hitler had intended. Instead of terrorizing the population, the indiscriminate murder of thousands of civilians drove the rest of the population into full-hearted support of the AK.” (p. 54). The Germans subsequently scaled back their murders of Polish civilians, realizing that the Varsovians would not surrender if they knew that they would all die anyway.

POLISH URBAN GUERILLA WARFARE

Forczyk traces the battles step by step. He also comments: “Polish snipers became adept at firing from concealed positions within buildings, which made them very difficult for the Germans to spot and suppress.” (p. 61). In the end, the overwhelming German superiority in arms and ammunition and the absence of substantive outside assistance made the defeat of the Uprising an inevitability.

EVEN IN DEFEAT, THE WARSAW UPRISING ACHIEVED A WORTHY GOAL

Forczyk believes that the Uprising softened the intensity of the subsequent Communist puppet government forced on Poland. (p. 92).

FOR FURTHER STUDY

The end of the book contains a list of books and websites devoted to the Uprising. [For additional materials, see the Peczkis Amazon Wish List: THE FORGOTTEN WARSAW UPRISING (POLES AGAINST GERMANS) IN 1944].