Warsaw Uprising

Today is an anniversary of Warsaw Uprising. Exactly 61 years ago (August 1 1944) the people of Warsaw decided to take arms, and fight against the German occupation forces. They were outnumbered and out gunned. Polish forces were composed in large parts from civilians, including women and children. They were cut off from main supply lines, and armed mostly light hand weapons and home made explosives... They were fighting against highly trained German infantry, backed up by tanks and armored vehicles.

The uprising lasted 63 days during which German forces had to fight for each block. In the end German casualties racked up to be over 17,000 killed and 9,000 wounded. Polish side casualties ended up to be over 18,000 soldiers killed, 25,000 wounded and over 250,000 civilians killed (mostly due to mass executions).

Meanwhile the Red Army camped out on the other side of the river from Sept 16 till the end of the uprising, allowing the Germans to quench the resistance and demolish most of the city.

Just for the record - I was born in Warsaw :)

Image used in this post (c) Wiesław Bukowski

Tags: history, warsaw, warsaw uprising