When the germans were on the Run out of Warsaw, why did the red army sit on the other side of the Wisla river
Apart from the obvious fact that uncle joe couldnt care less about warsaws fate ;
After a major offensive across belorussia,ukraine and eastern Poland the RKKA (the "Red Army " is civil war/post war name) was exhausted with huge supply lines and coping with the problems of resupplying over land the germans had destroyed in their retreat. Also,The germans may have been " on the run " from Warsaw but the western banks of the vistula (apart from the magniuszew bridgehead) were firmly held by strong,fresh german forces.
No army attacks blindly into a major city as street fighting causes the highest casualty figures in modern warfare , nor can an army easily mount a crossing of a major river underfire without weeks of preperation, as demonstrated when elements of the Polish 1diw tried to reach Czerniakow and were slaughtered mid river(or indead the Polish airborne a few days later in Holland trying and failing to cross the rhine to come to the aid of british soldiers) and resupply was impposible.
while Varsovians fought for 63 days uprising!
Not all fought by a long shot,yes the heros af the Armia krajowa and other underground movements rose up to fight and were joined by many warsawians either fighting or helping to run the liberated parts of the city. But many people wanted nothing to do with the uprising and the death and destruction it brought for nearly 200thousand civilians with no choice in the matter.
(of which the Russian radio'd warsaw to start!)
this was actually Polish communist radio broadcasting from lublin and a bit disengenuas as plans for Operation Tempest had been made months before hand and the London gov' would have gone ahead with a rising regardless of any such broadcasts from people already not trusted by the AK et al
AND the red army did NOT allow the british to use its airfields to airdrop supplies to the AK!!
again,the RKKA would not have had any say in this ,Stavka might but records show this was a direct order from uncle joe himself. Plus the fact that in a tightly controlled airspace you dont want to risk provoking an international incident with "friendly fire" (as happened but later hushed up).
Anyhow,the RAF (british ,commenwealth and Polish aircrews) did fly heroic missions to Warsaw and the surrounding countryside from a base in Brindisi and managed to drop much needed supplies,unlike the ONE flight of USAAF planes which did more to re supply the germans than anything the OKH had done...
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betrayal by roosevelt, churchill and stalin (in Tehran conf.)
Yes and serious historians (not patriotic tub thumpers) also recognise that many Poles "betrayed" Poland,the lublin "government"...Berling(not all his soldiers) etc
Britain had been fighting 2 days less than Poland,do you seriously expect that churchil would have led us to certain defeat against the USSR in an unwinnable fight? Come on,he was english not a romantic Pole or Scot on a fool hardy fight to the death for honor thing.....
Dont let anyone take away the heroics of the AK from this,just dont simplyfy history,it doesnt do their memory justice
k.
