Warsaw after Warsaw uprising
Warszawa,archiwalne zdjęcia z lotu ptaka po powstaniu Warszawskim.The Warsaw Uprising (Polish: powstanie warszawskie) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army (Polish: Armia Krajowa), to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany, ahead of the Red Army advance. The rebellion coincided with the retreat... of German forces and the Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city[10]. Controversially, the Soviet advance stopped short, while Polish resistance against the German forces continued for 63 days with little outside support. The Uprising began on 1 August 1944, as part of a nationwide rebellion, Operation Tempest, when the Soviet Army approached Warsaw. The main Polish objectives were to drive the German occupiers from the city and help with the larger fight against Germany and the Axis powers. Secondary political objectives were to liberate Warsaw before the Soviets, so as to underscore Polish sovereignty by empowering the Polish Underground State before the Soviet-backed Polish Committee of National Liberation could assume control. Also, short term causes included the threat of a German round-up of able bodied Poles, and Moscow radio calling for the Uprising to begin. Initially, the Poles seized substantial areas of the city, but the Soviets did not advance beyond the city's borders until mid-September. Inside the city, bitter fighting between the Germans and Poles continued. By 16 September, Polish forces under Soviet high command reached a point a few hundred meters from the Polish positions, across the Vistula River, but they made no further headway during the Uprising, leading to allegations that the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had wanted the insurrection to fail so that the Soviet occupation of Poland would be uncontested. Winston Churchill pleaded with Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt to help Britain's Polish allies, to no avail. Then, without Soviet air clearance, Churchill sent over 200 low-level supply-drops by the Royal Air Force, the South African Air Force and the Polish Air Force under British High Command. Later, after gaining Soviet air clearance, the USAAF sent one high-level mass airdrop as part of Operation Frantic. Although the exact number of casualties remains unknown, it is estimated that about 16,000 members of the Polish resistance were killed and about 6,000 badly wounded. In addition, between 150,000 and 200,000 civilians died, mostly from mass murders conducted by troops fighting on the German side. German casualties totaled over 2,000 soldiers killed, 7,000 missing, and 9,000 wounded. During the urban combat approximately 25% of Warsaw's buildings were destroyed. Following the surrender of Polish forces, German troops systematically leveled 35% of the city block by block. Together with earlier damage suffered in the invasion of Poland (1939) and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943), over 85% of the city was destroyed by January 1945, when the Soviets entered the city.