Kedyw ( Polish pronunciation: [ˈkɛdɨf] , partial acronym of K i e rownictwo Dyw ersji ("Directorate of Sabotage") was a Polish World War II Home Army unit that conducted active and passive sabotage , propaganda and armed operations against Nazi German forces and collaborators .
89-425: Kedyw was created on January 22, 1943, from two pre-existing Armia Krajowa organisations: Związek Odwetu ( Association of Retaliation ), and Wachlarz . Initially, the units were small and town-based. Eventually, as more were formed, some moved into forested areas to begin partisan warfare. Kedyw organized weapon and munition factories, military schools, intelligence , counter-intelligence , field hospitals and
178-621: A Peenemünde launch, a Special Report 1/R, no. 242 , photographs, eight key V-2 parts, and drawings of the wreckage. Polish agents also provided reports on the German war production, morale, and troop movements. The Polish intelligence network extended beyond Poland and even beyond Europe: for example, the intelligence network organized by Mieczysław Zygfryd Słowikowski in North Africa has been described as "the only [A]llied ... network in North Africa". The Polish network even had two agents in
267-529: A voivodeship (see Administrative division of Second Polish Republic ). There were three to five areas: Warsaw ( Obszar Warszawski , with some sources differentiating between left- and right-bank areas – Obszar Warszawski prawo- i lewobrzeżny ), Western ( Obszar Zachodni , in the Pomerania and Poznań regions), and Southeastern ( Obszar Południowo-Wschodni , in the Lwów area); sources vary on whether there
356-709: A Polish socialist state , albeit subordinate to the Soviet Union. This led to the creation of the Polish People's Republic . The Polish Workers' Party merged with the Polish Socialist Party ( Polska Partia Socjalistyczna , PPS), to form the Polish United Workers' Party ( Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza , PZPR), which ruled Poland until 1989. In post-World War II Poland, the communists initially enjoyed popular support due to
445-479: A communication network. Most members of Kedyw were Boy Scouts from Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego and its wartime organisation, Szare Szeregi . Many of the officers were cichociemni , who were special agents trained in the United Kingdom and parachuted into occupied Poland. Selected Kedyw groups ( patrole ) carried out operations all over occupied Poland. Notable types of operations included: Prior to
534-515: A compromise was hammered out, re-legalizing Solidarity, creating a new free senate, and opening 35% of the seats in the Sejm to outside parties. On the day of the elections on June 4, Solidarity won almost every single senate seat available. Realizing how much power this new opposition had, another compromise was formed where the PPR would provide a president, General Jaruzelski , and Solidarity would provide
623-639: A controversial topic. As Polish–Soviet relations deteriorated, conflict grew between the Home Army and Soviet forces. The Home Army's allegiance to the Polish government-in-exile caused the Soviet government to consider the Home Army to be an impediment to the introduction of a communist -friendly government in Poland, which hindered cooperation and in some cases led to outright conflict. On 19 January 1945, after
712-549: A form of "Polish Marxism", as part of the revisionist Marxist movement. These efforts to create a bridge between Poland's history and Marxist ideology were mildly successful, especially in comparison to similar attempts elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc . But they were stifled by the regime's unwillingness to risk stepping too far in the reformist direction. On 2 June 1979, then Pope John Paul II began his pilgrimage to his native country of Poland seeking to reinvigorate faith in
801-546: A homogenizing Poland against threats to the country, i.e. minorities such as Germans. This all came with the support of the Catholic Church. The then-Primate of Poland August Hlond actively worked to push Germans out of positions within the church and the newly acquired land in tandem with the Party, but asserted its autonomy when it held a Mass in 1945 attracting up to four million people. This independence also allowed
890-666: A major resource; between the French capitulation and other Allied networks that were undeveloped at the time, it was even described as "the only [A]llied intelligence assets on the Continent". According to Marek Ney-Krwawicz [ pl ] , for the Western Allies, the intelligence provided by the Home Army was considered to be the best source of information on the Eastern Front. Home Army intelligence provided
979-564: A new Polish communist party, the Polish Workers' Party ( Polska Partia Robotnicza , PPR). Władysław Gomułka soon became its leader. In the Soviet Union, Stalin and Wanda Wasilewska created the Union of Polish Patriots as a communist organization under Soviet control. As Germany was being defeated , the Polish communist minority collaborated with the Soviet Union, in opposition to the legitimate Polish government-in-exile , to establish
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#17327913705051068-577: A number of places from German control—for example, the Lublin area, where regional structures were able to set up a functioning government—they ultimately failed to secure sufficient territory to enable the government-in-exile to return to Poland due to Soviet hostility. The Home Army also sabotaged German rail- and road-transports to the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union. Richard J. Crampton estimated that an eighth of all German transports to
1157-492: A sewer system unit. Many women participated in the Warsaw Uprising, particularly as medics or scouts; they were estimated to form about 75% of the insurgent medical personnel. By the end of the uprising, there were about 5,000 female casualties among the insurgents, with over 2,000 female soldiers taken captive; the latter number reported in contemporary press caused a "European sensation". Home Army Headquarters
1246-453: The Kubuś armored car ). Even these light-infantry units were as a rule armed with a mixture of weapons of various types, usually in quantities sufficient to arm only a fraction of a unit's soldiers. Home Army arms and equipment came mostly from four sources: arms that had been buried by the Polish armies on battlefields after the 1939 invasion of Poland , arms purchased or captured from
1335-662: The Eastern Front in the Soviet Union, destroying German supplies and tying down substantial German forces. It also fought pitched battles against the Germans, particularly in 1943 and in Operation Tempest from January 1944. The Home Army's most widely known operation was the Warsaw Uprising of August–October 1944. The Home Army also defended Polish civilians against atrocities by Germany's Ukrainian and Lithuanian collaborators . Its attitude toward Jews remains
1424-708: The Katyn massacre of 1940. Until the major rising in 1944, the Home Army concentrated on self-defense (the freeing of prisoners and hostages, defense against German pacification operations) and on attacks against German forces. Home Army units carried out thousands of armed raids and intelligence operations, sabotaged hundreds of railway shipments, and participated in many partisan clashes and battles with German police and Wehrmacht units. The Home Army also assassinated prominent Nazi collaborators and Gestapo officials in retaliation against Nazi terror inflicted on Poland's civilian population; prominent individuals assassinated by
1513-527: The Powązki Cemetery in which all German attacks were repulsed with heavy casualties, the units withdrew overnight to the city centre and Starówka ( the old town ), where they regrouped and defended their sectors until the capitulation of the uprising in October 1944. Armia Krajowa The Home Army ( Polish : Armia Krajowa , pronounced [ˈarmja kraˈjɔva] ; abbreviated AK )
1602-466: The Red Army had cleared most Polish territory of German forces, the Home Army was disbanded. After the war, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, communist government propaganda portrayed the Home Army as an oppressive and reactionary force. Thousands of ex-Home Army personnel were deported to gulags and Soviet prisons, while other ex-members, including a number of senior commanders, were executed. After
1691-675: The Soviet Union during Joseph Stalin 's Great Purge in the 1930s, and the party was abolished by the Communist International (Comintern) in 1938. In 1939, World War II began and Poland was conquered by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union . The government of the Polish Republic went into exile . In 1942, Polish communists backed by the Soviet Union in German-occupied Poland established
1780-555: The Warsaw Uprising began, only a sixth of Home Army fighters in Warsaw were armed. Home Army members' attitudes toward Jews varied widely from unit to unit, and the topic remains controversial. The Home Army answered to the National Council of the Polish government-in-exile, where some Jews served in leadership positions (e.g. Ignacy Schwarzbart and Szmul Zygielbojm ), though there were no Jewish representatives in
1869-789: The Warsaw Uprising , most of the Kedyw units in the Warsaw area were moved into the city and grouped into infantry battalions. Notable among them were " Zośka ", " Parasol " and "Miotła". After fighting broke out, most of the Kedyw forces joined the Radosław Group . Kedyw units were among the most successful in the Uprising. The boy scouts not only had more experience than many regular soldiers but also had managed to collect more supplies and arms. Kedyw units first took part in seizing control of Warsaw's Wola district. After two days of heavy fighting in
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#17327913705051958-650: The dissolution of the USSR and Gorbachev's resignation in 1991. In post-1989 democratic Poland , declared communists have had a minimal impact on the political and economical life of the country and are ostracized. However, former communists , including members of the Politburo of the PZPR, remained active on the political scene after the transition to liberal democracy . Some were democratically elected to top national leadership positions (e.g. Aleksander Kwaśniewski , who
2047-599: The fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, the portrayal of the Home Army was no longer subject to government censorship and propaganda. The Home Army originated in the Service for Poland's Victory ( Służba Zwycięstwu Polski ), which General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski set up on 27 September 1939, just as the coordinated German and Soviet invasions of Poland neared completion. Seven weeks later, on 17 November 1939, on orders from General Władysław Sikorski ,
2136-401: The land reform , a mass scale rebuilding program, and progressive social policies. The popular support eventually eroded because of repressions, economic difficulties, and lack of freedoms, however the PZPR was kept in power for four decades under Soviet influence. Near the end of World War 2 in 1944, the PPR under the command of the USSR started its program of Polonization with approval from
2225-693: The "London government" fully aware of the other's situation. After Germany started its invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, the Soviet Union joined the Allies and signed the Anglo-Soviet Agreement on 12 July 1941. This put the Polish government in a difficult position since it had previously pursued a policy of "two enemies". Although a Polish–Soviet agreement was signed in August 1941, cooperation continued to be difficult and deteriorated further after 1943 when Nazi Germany publicised
2314-521: The Allied armed effort much more effectively than subversive and guerilla activities". The Home Army also conducted psychological warfare . Its Operation N created the illusion of a German movement opposing Adolf Hitler within Germany itself. The Home Army published a weekly Biuletyn Informacyjny (Information Bulletin), with a top circulation (on 25 November 1943) of 50,000 copies. Sabotage
2403-785: The Allies with information on German concentration camps and the Holocaust in Poland (including the first reports on this subject received by the Allies ), German submarine operations, and, most famously, the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket . In one Project Big Ben mission ( Operation Wildhorn III ; Polish cryptonym , Most III , "Bridge III"), a stripped-for-lightness RAF twin-engine Dakota flew from Brindisi , Italy , to an abandoned German airfield in Poland to pick up intelligence prepared by Polish aircraft-designer Antoni Kocjan , including 100 lb (45 kg) of V-2 rocket wreckage from
2492-583: The Allies; 48 per cent of all reports received by the British secret services from continental Europe between 1939 and 1945 came from Polish sources. The total number of those reports is estimated at 80,000, and 85 per cent of them were deemed to be high quality or better. The Polish intelligence network grew rapidly; near the end of the war, it had over 1,600 registered agents. The Western Allies had limited intelligence assets in Central and Eastern Europe. The extensive in-place Polish intelligence network proved
2581-492: The Church to establish its own institutions such as schools, but also enabled it to undermine the state by supporting anti-PPR organizations. After the 1947 Polish parliamentary election , the PPR felt secure enough to begin targeting its only major rival for control within the country, imprisoning eighty-one priests in 1948 and seizing church properties two years later. Poland was one of the first Warsaw Pact countries to abandon
2670-448: The Eastern Front were destroyed or substantially delayed due to Home Army operations. The Polish Resistance carried out dozens of attacks on German commanders in Poland, the largest series being that codenamed " Operation Heads ". Dozens of additional assassinations were carried out, the best-known being: As a clandestine army operating in an enemy-occupied country and separated by over a thousand kilometers from any friendly territory,
2759-624: The German high command itself. The researchers who produced the first Polish–British in-depth monograph on Home Army intelligence ( Intelligence Co-operation Between Poland and Great Britain During World War II: Report of the Anglo-Polish Historical Committee , 2005) described contributions of Polish intelligence to the Allied victory as "disproportionally large" and argued that "the work performed by Home Army intelligence undoubtedly supported
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2848-449: The Germans (the forest people are estimated at some 40 groups, numbering 1,200–4,000 persons in early 1943, but their numbers grew substantially during Operation Tempest ). The third, largest group were "part-time members": sympathisers who led "double lives" under their real names in their real homes, received no payment for their services, and stayed in touch with their undercover unit commanders but were seldom mustered for operations, as
2937-419: The Germans and their allies, arms clandestinely manufactured by the Home Army itself, and arms received from Allied air drops. From arms caches hidden in 1939, the Home Army obtained 614 heavy machine guns, 1,193 light machine guns, 33,052 rifles, 6,732 pistols, 28 antitank light field guns, 25 antitank rifles, and 43,154 hand grenades. However, due to their inadequate preservation, which had to be improvised in
3026-399: The Germans in 1943, was Stefan Rowecki ( nom de guerre " Grot ", "Spearhead"). Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski (Tadeusz Komorowski, nom de guerre " Bór ", "Forest") commanded from July 1943 until his surrender to the Germans when the Warsaw Uprising was suppressed in October 1944. Leopold Okulicki , nom de guerre Niedzwiadek ("Bear"), led the Home Army in its final days. The Home Army
3115-700: The Government Delegation for Poland. Traditionally, Polish historiography has presented the Home Army interactions with Jews in a positive light, while Jewish historiography has been mostly negative; most Jewish authors attribute the Home Army's hostility to endemic antisemitism in Poland . More recent scholarship has presented a mixed, ambivalent view of Home Army–Jewish relations. Both "profoundly disturbing acts of violence as well as extraordinary acts of aid and compassion" have been reported. In an analysis by Joshua D. Zimmerman , postwar testimonies of Holocaust survivors reveal that their experiences with
3204-518: The Holocaust to the Western powers, after having personally visited the Warsaw Ghetto and a Nazi concentration camp. Another crucial role was played by Witold Pilecki , who was the only person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz (where he would spend three and a half years) to organize a resistance on the inside and to gather information on the atrocities occurring there to inform
3293-419: The Home Army faced unique challenges in acquiring arms and equipment, though it was able to overcome these difficulties to some extent and to field tens of thousands of armed soldiers. Nevertheless, the difficult conditions meant that only infantry forces armed with light weapons could be fielded. Any use of artillery, armor or aircraft was impossible (except for a few instances during the Warsaw Uprising, such as
3382-590: The Home Army had closer ties and ideological similarities. Antoni Chruściel , commander of the Home Army in Warsaw, ordered the entire armory of the Wola district transferred to the ghetto. In January 1943 the Home Army delivered a larger shipment of 50 pistols, 50 hand grenades, and several kilograms of explosives, along with a number of smaller shipments that carried a total of 70 pistols, 10 rifles, 2 hand machine guns, 1 light machine gun, ammunition, and over 150 kilograms of explosives. The number of supplies provided to
3471-576: The Home Army in its own secret workshops, and by Home Army members working in German armaments factories. In this way the Home Army was able to procure submachine guns (copies of British Stens , indigenous Błyskawicas and KIS ), pistols ( Vis ), flamethrowers, explosive devices, road mines, and Filipinka and Sidolówka hand grenades . Hundreds of people were involved in the manufacturing effort. The Home Army did not produce its own ammunition, but relied on supplies stolen by Polish workers from German-run factories. The final source of supply
3560-509: The Home Army in order to survive in hiding, but Jews serving in the Home Army were the exception rather than the rule. Most Jews in hiding could not pass as ethnic Poles and would have faced deadly consequences if discovered. In February 1942, the Home Army Operational Command's Office of Information and Propaganda set up a Section for Jewish Affairs, directed by Henryk Woliński . This section collected data about
3649-478: The Home Army included Elżbieta Zawacka , an underground courier who was sometimes called the only female Cichociemna . Grażyna Lipińska [ pl ] organised an intelligence network in German-occupied Belarus in 1942–1944. Janina Karasiówna [ pl ] and Emilia Malessa were high-ranking officers described as "holding top posts" within the communication branch of
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3738-473: The Home Army included Igo Sym (1941) and Franz Kutschera (1944). In February 1942, when the Home Army was formed from the Armed Resistance, it numbered around 100,000 members. Less than a year later, at the start of 1943, it had reached a strength of around 200,000. In the summer of 1944, when Operation Tempest began, the Home Army reached its highest membership: estimates of membership in
3827-402: The Home Army planned to use them only during a planned nationwide rising. The Home Army was intended to be representative of the Polish nation, and its members were recruited from most parties and social classes. Its growth was largely based on integrating scores of smaller resistance organisations into its ranks; most of the other Polish underground armed organizations were incorporated into
3916-644: The Home Army were mixed even if predominantly negative. Jews trying to seek refuge from Nazi genocidal policies were often exposed to greater danger by open resistance to German occupation. Members of the Home Army were named Righteous Among the Nations for risking their lives to save Jews, examples include Jan Karski , Aleksander Kamiński , Stefan Korboński , Henryk Woliński , Jan Żabiński , Władysław Bartoszewski , Mieczysław Fogg , Henryk Iwański , and Jan Dobraczyński . However, Polish historian Ewa Kołomańska noted that many individuals associated with
4005-708: The Home Army, involved in rescuing the Jews, did not receive the Righteous title. A Jewish partisan detachment served in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising , and another in Hanaczów [ pl ] . The Home Army provided training and supplies to the Warsaw Ghetto 's Jewish Combat Organization . It is likely that more Jews fought in the Warsaw Uprising than in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, some fought in both. Thousands of Jews joined, or claimed to join,
4094-533: The Home Army, though they retained varying degrees of autonomy. The largest organization that merged into the Home Army was the leftist Peasants' Battalions ( Bataliony Chłopskie ) around 1943–1944, and parts of the National Armed Forces ( Narodowe Siły Zbrojne ) became subordinate to the Home Army. In turn, individual Home Army units varied substantially in their political outlooks, notably in their attitudes toward ethnic minorities and toward
4183-579: The Jewish resistance would be futile. This reasoning was the norm among the Allies , who believed that the Holocaust could only be halted by a significant military action. The Home Army provided the Warsaw Ghetto with firearms, ammunition, and explosives, but only after it was convinced of the eagerness of the Jewish Combat Organization ( Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa , ŻOB) to fight, and after Władysław Sikorski 's intervention on
4272-436: The Jews. The fact remains that its leadership did not want to do so." Rowecki's attitudes shifted in the following months as the brutal reality of the Holocaust became more apparent, and the Polish public support for the Jewish resistance increased. Rowecki was willing to provide Jewish fighters with aid and resources when it contributed to "the greater war effort", but had concluded that providing large quantities of supplies to
4361-645: The Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania ( Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego i Litwy , SDKPiL) party and the publicist Stanisław Brzozowski (1878–1911) were important early Polish Marxists. During the interwar period in the Second Polish Republic , some socialists formed the Communist Party of Poland ( Komunistyczna Partia Polski , KPP). Most of the KPP's leaders and activists perished in
4450-536: The Organization's behalf. Zimmerman describes the supplies as "limited but real". Jewish fighters of the Jewish Military Union ( Żydowski Związek Wojskowy , ŻZW) received from the Home Army, among other things, 2 heavy machine guns, 4 light machine guns, 21 submachine guns, 30 rifles, 50 pistols, and over 400 grenades. Some supplies were also provided to the ŻOB, but less than to ŻZW with whom
4539-630: The Poles receiving no aid from the approaching Red Army, the Germans eventually defeated the insurrectionists and burned the city, quelling the Uprising on 2 October 1944. Other major Home Army city risings included Operation Ostra Brama in Wilno and the Lwów Uprising . The Home Army also prepared for a rising in Kraków but aborted due to various circumstances. While the Home Army managed to liberate
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#17327913705054628-567: The Poles to regain their national sovereignty, particularly after Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 and the Soviets joined the Western Allies in the war against Germany. In the end, despite all efforts, most Home Army forces had inadequate weaponry. In 1944, when the Home Army was at its peak strength (200,000–600,000, according to various estimates), the Home Army had enough weaponry for only about 32,000 soldiers." On 1 August 1944, when
4717-804: The Polish Home Army. A year later, during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, the Zośka Battalion liberated hundreds of Jewish inmates from the Gęsiówka section of the Warsaw concentration camp . Communism in Poland Communism in Poland can trace its origins to the late 19th century: the Marxist First Proletariat party was founded in 1882. Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) of the Social Democracy of
4806-570: The Service for Poland's Victory was superseded by the Armed Resistance ( Związek Walki Zbrojnej ), which in turn, a little over two years later, on 14 February 1942, became the Home Army. During that time, many other resistance organisations remained active in Poland, although most of them, merged with the Armed Resistance or with its successor, the Home Army, and substantially augmented its numbers between 1939 and 1944. The Home Army
4895-457: The Soviets. The largest group that completely refused to join the Home Army was the pro-Soviet, communist People's Army ( Armia Ludowa ), which numbered 30,000 people at its height in 1944. Home Army ranks included a number of female operatives. Most women worked in the communications branch, where many held leadership roles or served as couriers. Approximately a seventh to a tenth of the Home Army insurgents were female. Notable women in
4984-485: The United States and UK due to changes in its borders; ceding territories in its east in exchange for formerly German lands in the west. Beginning with the expulsion of minorities to neighboring countries such as Belarus, by the time of the war's end in 1945 and the ascendancy of Władysław Gomułka to General-Secretary of the PPR, it had begun cementing its tenuous power by exuding an ethno-nationalist ethos to unite
5073-711: The West (the Silent Unseen ). The basic organizational unit was the platoon, numbering 35–50 people, with an unmobilized skeleton version of 16–25; in February 1944, the Home Army had 6,287 regular and 2,613 skeleton platoons operational. Such numbers made the Home Army not only the largest Polish resistance movement, but one of the two largest in World War II Europe. Casualties during the war are estimated at 34,000 to 100,000, plus some 20,000 –50,000 after
5162-491: The Western Allies about the fate of the Jewish population . Home Army reports from March 1943 described crimes committed by the Germans against the Jewish populace. AK commander General Stefan Rowecki estimated that 640,000 people had been murdered in Auschwitz between 1940 and March 1943, including 66,000 ethnic Poles and 540,000 Jews from various countries (this figure was revised later to 500,000). The Home Army started carrying out death sentences for szmalcowniks in Warsaw in
5251-488: The chaos of the September Campaign, most of the guns were in poor condition. Of those that had been buried in the ground and had been dug up in 1944 during preparations for Operation Tempest, only 30% were usable. Arms were sometimes purchased on the black market from German soldiers or their allies, or stolen from German supply depots or transports. Efforts to capture weapons from the Germans also proved highly successful. Raids were conducted on trains carrying equipment to
5340-456: The country after decades of encouraged atheism by the Soviet government. Beginning in Warsaw, John Paul II made frequent connections to Polish identity and the Catholic faith which had been intertwined for essentially all of the country's history, reminding Poles that they were, at their core, a very spiritual people. The Solidarity protests at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk reflected this with religious imagery prevalent throughout, such as pictures of
5429-450: The crucial confrontation that, it was assumed, would determine the fate of Poland. ... [However,] to the Home Army, the Jews were not a part of 'our nation' and ... action to defend them was not to be taken if it endangered [the Home Army's] other objectives." He added that "it is probably unrealistic to have expected the Home Army—which was neither as well armed nor as well organized as its propaganda claimed—to have been able to do much to aid
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#17327913705055518-430: The end of the German occupation, a general armed rising to be prosecuted until victory. Home Army plans envisioned, at war's end, the restoration of the pre-war government following the return of the government-in-exile to Poland. The Home Army, though in theory subordinate to the civil authorities and to the government-in-exile, often acted somewhat independently, with neither the Home Army's commanders in Poland nor
5607-440: The first half and summer of 1944 range from 200,000, through 300,000, 380,000 and 400,000 to 450,000–500,000, though most estimates average at about 400,000; the strength estimates vary due to the constant integration of other resistance organisations into the Home Army, and that while the number of members was high and that of sympathizers was even higher, the number of armed members participating in operations at any given time
5696-419: The first of several protests in Poznań at the Stalin Factory (ZiSPO). Its workers and many residents of the city all marched towards the city center on June 28 in expression of their many grievances such as wage cuts, demanding to meet with party leaders - leaders who did not show up. Further incensing the crowd, they stormed the prison and seized its weapons as well as freeing many inmates before descending upon
5785-471: The front, as well as on guardhouses and gendarmerie posts. Sometimes weapons were taken from individual German soldiers accosted in the street. During the Warsaw Uprising, the Home Army even managed to capture several German armored vehicles, most notably a Jagdpanzer 38 Hetzer light tank destroyer renamed Chwat [ pl ] and an armored troop transport SdKfz 251 renamed Grey Wolf [ pl ] . Arms were clandestinely manufactured by
5874-421: The ghetto resistance has been sometimes described as insufficient, as the Home Army faced a number of dilemmas which forced it to provide no more than limited assistance to the Jewish resistance, such as supply shortages and the inability to arm its own troops, the view (shared by most of the Jewish resistance) that any wide-scale uprising in 1943 would be premature and futile, and the difficulty of coordinating with
5963-413: The internally divided Jewish resistance, coupled with the pro-Soviet attitude of the ŻOB. During the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Home Army units tried to blow up the Ghetto wall twice, carried out diversionary actions outside the Ghetto walls, and attacked German sentries sporadically near the Ghetto walls. According to Marian Fuks , the Ghetto uprising would not have been possible without supplies from
6052-458: The new General Secretary of the USSR in 1985 and introduced his reforms of glasnost and perestroika , encouraging reform within the Warsaw Pact, especially Poland. A new generation of young people who had not borne witness to the brutal crackdown on Solidarity was also coming of age but still held much anti-communist sentiment, as exemplified by the Freedom and Peace Movement (WiP): a pacifist movement born from student organizers in 1980 who opposed
6141-414: The nuclear arms race and championed human rights, independence and self-determination . It was students like these who helped revive Solidarity, and by 1988 the PPR was willing to compromise with its leadership with Wałęsa by entering discussions rather than utilizing the armed forces in order to stop the strikes. This would eventually result in the Round Table talks in February 1989, where after two months
6230-434: The organisation. Wanda Kraszewska-Ancerewicz [ pl ] headed the distribution branch. Several all-female units existed within the AK structures, including Dysk [ pl ] , an entirely female sabotage unit led by Wanda Gertz , who carried out assassinations of female Gestapo informants in addition to sabotage. During the Warsaw Uprising , two all-female units were created—a demolition unit and
6319-520: The pope on display. John Paul II's pilgrimage led to a revitalization of religious and nationalist fervor within the country, two aspects which formed the backbone of Solidarity . On 7 August 1980 crane operator Anna Walentynowicz was fired for supporting trade unions which, aside from the party-approved ones, were illegal. Lech Wałęsa incited a strike amongst Walentynowicz's coworkers in response one week later, and presented their manifesto "Twenty-one Demands" on 17 August 1980. While mostly focusing on
6408-463: The prime minister, Tadeusz Mazowiecki , as an agreement which the Kremlin would agree to. By the next year when presidential elections were held however, Jaruzelski was soundly defeated by Wałęsa, establishing Poland's first non-communist government in roughly 45 years. This landmark event would lead to the subsequent removal of the regimes in the other Warsaw Pact countries, eventually culminating in
6497-507: The radio station. The Politburo approved action by Marshal Rokossovsky to send 10,000 troops in to quell the revolt, resulting in 73 deaths as order was restored to the city. Unrest still lingered within a population desperate for reform, leading the PPR to elevate Gomułka as the new leader to assuage the population. During this period, some Polish academics and philosophers, including Leszek Kołakowski , Tadeusz Kotarbiński , Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz , and Stanisław Ossowski , tried to develop
6586-552: The rapidly growing anti-communist movement. The following year saw several thousand civilians arrested including Wałęsa himself as crackdowns seemed to push Solidarity further underground, but when John Paul II made another visit to Poland in 1983, whose presence fueled another wave of fervor for the distinctly Catholic union, martial law was lifted in July as Wałęsa earned the Nobel Peace Prize in October. Gorbachev became
6675-582: The rights of trade unions and their members, it also included demands for the recognition of the right to free speech and other reforms for liberalization, forming the roots for what would become the Solidarity movement. Though it signed the Gdansk Agreement with the PPR, legalizing its status as an independent trade union, and reached 10 million members by 1981, the government imposed martial law that same year on December 12 in an attempt to crush
6764-472: The situation of the Jewish population, drafted reports, and sent information to London. It also centralized contacts between Polish and Jewish military organizations. The Home Army also supported the Relief Council for Jews in Poland ( Żegota ) as well as the formation of Jewish resistance organizations . From 1940 onward, the Home Army courier Jan Karski delivered the first eyewitness account of
6853-457: The summer of 1943. Antony Polonsky observed that "the attitude of the military underground to the genocide is both more complex and more controversial [than its approach towards szmalcowniks ]. Throughout the period when it was being carried out, the Home Army was preoccupied with preparing for ... [the moment when] Nazi rule in Poland collapsed. It was determined to avoid premature military action and to conserve its strength (and weapons) for
6942-461: The totalitarianism of Stalin's regime, in part due to the stronger nationalist ideas present within it. Krushchev emphasized the continued role of communism - but in a new, revitalized form - whereas Gomulka's government established their position as being one serving the interests of Poland. With Krushchev now serving as leader of the USSR, having delivered his secret speech in 1956, anti-Stalinist ideas began to spread as resentment boiled over into
7031-490: The war (casualties and imprisonment). The Home Army was intended to be a mass organisation that was founded by a core of prewar officers. Home Army soldiers fell into three groups. The first two consisted of "full-time members": undercover operatives, living mostly in urban settings under false identities (most senior Home Army officers belonged to this group); and uniformed (to a certain extent) partisans, living in forested regions ( leśni , or "forest people"), who openly fought
7120-461: The war. Air drops were infrequent. Deliveries from the west were limited by Stalin 's refusal to let the planes land on Soviet territory, the low priority placed by the British on flights to Poland; and the extremely heavy losses sustained by Polish Special Duties Flight personnel. Britain and the United States attached more importance to not antagonizing Stalin than they did to the aspirations of
7209-532: Was Allied air drops , which was the only way to obtain more exotic, highly useful equipment such as plastic explosives and antitank weapons such as the British PIAT . During the war, 485 air-drop missions from the West (about half of them flown by Polish airmen) delivered some 600 tons of supplies for the Polish resistance. Besides equipment, the planes also parachuted in highly qualified instructors ( Cichociemni ), 316 of whom were inserted into Poland during
7298-476: Was a Northeastern Area (centered in Białystok – Obszar Białystocki ) or whether Białystok was classified as an independent area ( Okręg samodzielny Białystok ). In 1943 the Home Army began recreating the organization of the prewar Polish Army, its various units now being designated as platoons, battalions, regiments, brigades, divisions, and operational groups . The Home Army supplied valuable intelligence to
7387-583: Was coordinated by the Union of Retaliation and later by Wachlarz and Kedyw units. Major Home Army military and sabotage operations included: The largest and best-known of the Operation Tempest battles, the Warsaw Uprising, constituted an attempt to liberate Poland's capital and began on 1 August 1944. Polish forces took control of substantial parts of the city and resisted the German-led forces until 2 October (a total of 63 days). With
7476-440: Was divided geographically into regional branches or areas ( obszar ), which were subdivided into subregions or subareas ( podokręg ) or independent areas ( okręgi samodzielne ). There were 89 inspectorates ( inspektorat ) and 280 (as of early 1944) districts ( obwód ) as smaller organisational units. Overall, the Home Army regional structure largely resembled Poland's interwar administration division, with an okręg being similar to
7565-555: Was divided into five sections, two bureaus and several other specialized units: The Home Army's commander was subordinate in the military chain of command to the Polish Commander-in-Chief ( General Inspector of the Armed Forces ) of the Polish government-in-exile and answered in the civilian chain of command to the Government Delegation for Poland. The Home Army's first commander, until his arrest by
7654-532: Was loyal to the Polish government-in-exile and to its agency in occupied Poland, the Government Delegation for Poland ( Delegatura ). The Polish civilian government envisioned the Home Army as an apolitical, nationwide resistance organisation. The supreme command defined the Home Army's chief tasks as partisan warfare against the German occupiers, the re-creation of armed forces underground and, near
7743-458: Was smaller—as little as one per cent in 1943, and as many as five to ten per cent in 1944 —due to an insufficient number of weapons. Home Army numbers in 1944 included a cadre of over 10,000–11,000 officers, 7,500 officers-in-training (singular: podchorąży ) and 88,000 non-commissioned officers (NCOs). The officer cadre was formed from prewar officers and NCOs, graduates of underground courses, and elite operatives usually parachuted in from
7832-456: Was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II . The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the aftermath of the German and Soviet invasions in September 1939. Over the next two years, the Home Army absorbed most of the other Polish partisans and underground forces. Its allegiance
7921-612: Was to the Polish government-in-exile in London, and it constituted the armed wing of what came to be known as the Polish Underground State . Estimates of the Home Army's 1944 strength range between 200,000 and 600,000. The latter number made the Home Army not only Poland's largest underground resistance movement but, along with Soviet and Yugoslav partisans, one of Europe's largest World War II underground movements. The Home Army sabotaged German transports bound for
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