At the end of July 1944, Poland is in its fifth year of Nazi German occupation. On the Eastern Front, German forces are in full retreat following the Red Army's massive summer offensive, which has brought Soviet troops to the eastern outskirts of Warsaw. The liberation of Poland's capital appears to be within reach. [ map ]

General Tadeusz "Bór" Komorowski, Commander of the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK), orders the uprising against the German occupation forces to begin at "W-Hour"—5:00 p.m. on August 1, 1944. The operation is expected to last only a few days and to consist primarily of seizing key objectives, disarming German troops, and assuming control of the city before the arrival of the Red Army. The insurgents, however, are unaware that the Germans have decided to defend "Fortress Warsaw" and are preparing a major counteroffensive against the advancing Soviet forces east of the city.
[ declarations ].

The Warsaw insurgents number approximately 40,000 soldiers, including about 4,000 women. Yet they possess enough weapons for only about 2,500 fighters. They face a German garrison of approximately 15,000 troops, a force that will soon grow to more than 30,000, supported by tanks, aircraft, and heavy artillery.

Day-to-day events [ day-to-day ]. Eyewitness' reports [ radio dispatches ].

The insurgents attack approximately 180 German military installations and other strategic objectives throughout the city. After fierce fighting, however, their assaults on the bridges, airfields, railway stations, and major military and police headquarters are repulsed.

Despite these setbacks, the insurgents capture significant portions of Warsaw's left-bank districts, including the Prudential high-rise building, the Main Post Office, and the State Mint. The city's gasworks, power stations, and waterworks also fall into Polish hands. The Warsaw Power Plant in the Powiśle district is restored to operation, supplying electricity to hospitals, printing presses, weapons workshops, and other essential services until September 1944. The insurgents also sever key east-west transportation routes used by German forces.

In Wola, insurgents capture a large Waffen-SS warehouse containing food supplies and military uniforms. Many Polish fighters choose to wear the German uniforms, distinguished by white-and-red armbands bearing Poland's national colors. By the end of the first day, approximately 2,000 insurgents and 500 German soldiers have been killed. As night falls, an extensive network of street barricades is erected, blocking most of the city's major thoroughfares.

The first issue of Biuletyn Informacyjny (Information Bulletin) is published. During the Uprising, more than 130 newspapers and periodicals will be produced despite constant fighting and bombardment.
[ newspapers ]

Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, dispatches powerful reinforcements to Warsaw under the command of SS Lieutenant General Heinrich Reinefarth. They include SS and police units from Poznań, the Dirlewanger Penal Brigade, the Kaminski RONA Brigade, an Azerbaijani infantry battalion, and other formations. Elements of the Hermann Göering Division also arrive to reinforce the German garrison. [ rona  ]

SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski assumes overall command of all German forces assigned to suppress the Uprising

Himmler issues the order to kill all of Warsaw's inhabitants, take no prisoners, and raze the city to the ground as a warning to the rest of Europe.

The first major German aerial bombardment of Warsaw is carried out by Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers. Daily air raids follow. The insurgents have virtually no anti-aircraft weapons with which to defend the city.

The uprising in Praga collapses because of overwhelming German forces and the halt of the Soviet offensive. The surviving insurgent units either return to underground activity or cross the Vistula into insurgent-controlled districts on the left bank.

n the liberated districts, civilian administrative institutions of the Polish Underground State begin to operate openly, providing public administration, security, justice, and essential municipal services.
[ administration ]

As German forces advance, they carry out systematic massacres of civilians in the captured districts. Approximately 65,000 men, women, and children are murdered in what becomes known as the Wola Massacre. Civilians are rounded up house by house and shot without regard for age or gender. More than 1,360 patients and staff members of the Wola and St. Lazarus hospitals are also murdered. The Special Group Verbrennungskommando is assigned to collect and burn the bodies in an effort to conceal the crimes.
[ map ]

In Mokotów, German troops force women civilians to march in front of advancing tanks as human shields during attacks on insurgent positions. This practice will continue throughout the Uprising. [ atrocities  ]

The Home Army battalion Zośka, supported by two captured Panther tanks, liberates approximately 350 Jewish prisoners from the Gęsiówka concentration camp. Many of the freed prisoners immediately join the ranks of the insurgents. [ saving jews ]

Flying round-trip missions from Brindisi, Italy, Allied Halifax and Consolidated B-24 Liberator aircraft carry out the first nighttime airdrop of supplies to Warsaw. [ airlift ]

German forces break through the Wola district and relieve the besieged Brühl Palace government complex near the Saxon Garden. Ludwig Fischer, Governor of the Warsaw District, and General Reiner Stahel, commander of the Warsaw garrison, escape under tank escort. With the fall of Wola, the Old Town is cut off from the City Centre and becomes completely encircled.

In Pruszków, on the outskirts of Warsaw, the Germans establish Durchgangslager 121 (Dulag 121), a transit camp for civilians expelled from the city. Before the end of 1944, approximately 600,000 inhabitants of Warsaw will pass through the camp.

In the liberated districts, the Scout Postal Service begins delivering letters, newspapers, and official messages, maintaining communication even with areas remaining under German control. [ mail  ]

The Home Army's clandestine radio station Błyskawica ("Lightning") begins broadcasting on wavelengths of 32.8 and 52.1 meters. On August 9, it is joined by a civilian Polish Radio station broadcasting on 43.4 meters. Both stations will remain on the air until the end of the Uprising.
[ radio ]

The first communications routes through Warsaw's sewer system are opened between the isolated districts of Mokotŗw and the City Centre. Throughout the Uprising, the sewers will serve as vital corridors for communication, troop movements, and the evacuation of the wounded.

German aircraft drop leaflets entitled "Ultimatum," signed by the "Supreme Commander." They urge the inhabitants of Warsaw to leave the city, promising shelter, employment, and medical care while threatening severe consequences for anyone who refuses. [ leaflets ]

The main German assault on the Old Town begins with approximately 8,000 soldiers. It will continue without interruption until the district falls on September 2. The objective is to isolate the insurgent defenders, drive them away from the strategically important approaches to the Vistula bridges, and destroy the resistance.

The first of four Home Army newsreels produced during the Uprising is screened for insurgents and civilians at the Palladium Theatre.

In the City Centre, insurgents repel a major German armored assault, destroying nine tanks and other armored vehicles. Heavy fighting also erupts near the Gdańsk Railway Station as insurgent forces attempt to establish a link between Żoliborz and the Old Town. The attack is repelled with the support of a German armored train.

After capturing Warsaw's main water filtration plant, the Germans cut off the city's water supply. Water rationing begins, and residents start digging wells throughout the liberated districts. By the end of September, more than 90 functioning wells are operating in the City Centre alone.

German forces introduce new weapons into the battle for Warsaw, including the Karl-Gerät heavy siege mortar, Wurfrahmen incendiary rocket launchers, the Goliath remote-controlled demolition vehicle, and other specialized assault weapons. These become central to German tactics: isolated insurgent positions are subjected to continuous bombardment by aircraft, heavy artillery, and rockets, followed by attacks by Goliath demolition vehicles and tanks, with infantry advancing behind them.

[ weapons ]

Von dem Bach-Zelewski issues another call for the insurgents to surrender, but it is ignored. Additional German forces launch renewed attacks on the Old Town. Heavy artillery and an armored train shell the district relentlessly. During intensive aerial bombardment, entire buildings collapse; the historic Polish Bank is hit by ten bombs.

The insurgents capture several isolated German strongholds in the City Centre. Among their greatest successes is the seizure of the strategic PASTA telephone exchange building, together with a substantial cache of weapons and 115 German prisoners.

A force of approximately 750 Home Army soldiers breaks through into the northern district of Żoliborz, while another insurgent group enters the city from the south. The Cargo Railway Station, the Church of the Holy Cross, the Police Headquarters, and another telephone exchange are captured. However, an assault on the Warsaw University campus, supported by two armored vehicles—including the insurgent-built Kubuś—fails. [ kubus ]

Two Home Army attempts to break the German siege of the Old Town by capturing the Gdańsk Railway Station, defended by an armored train, also fail.

An insurgent attempt to break through the German encirclement and reach the City Centre fails. Only one group, disguised in Wehrmacht uniforms, succeeds in passing through German lines by marching in formation through the Saxon Garden into the City Centre.

With the military situation in the Old Town becoming hopeless, thousands of insurgents begin evacuating through Warsaw's sewer system during the nights of September 1 and 2, reaching the City Centre and Żoliborz. [ sewers ]

Left behind are approximately 7,000 seriously wounded soldiers and more than 30,000 civilians. As German forces advance, they execute many of the wounded, the elderly, and the disabled. Some wounded insurgents are burned alive in makeshift hospitals.

Polish losses in the defense of the Old Town total approximately 30,000 civilians killed and 7,500 insurgents killed or wounded—more than three-quarters of the defending force. German casualties amount to approximately 3,900 killed and wounded.

After weeks of delay, the governments of Great Britain and the United States recognize the Home Army as a lawful combatant force. It is hoped that this decision will end the summary execution of captured Home Army soldiers by German forces. [ combatant ]. The Soviet Union refuses to issue a similar declaration.

After the capitulation of the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans begin a systematic campaign to loot and destroy the city. Delegations from German municipalities are permitted to enter the deserted ruins and remove anything of value that had not already been taken by the Wehrmacht, the SS, and auxiliary formations serving with the German forces.

Postwar Polish estimates indicate that approximately 33,000 railway freight cars loaded with furniture, personal belongings, machinery, works of art, and factory equipment were transported out of Warsaw.

After everything of value has been removed, entire city blocks are deliberately set ablaze. Historic monuments, churches, palaces, libraries, museums, and government buildings are methodically demolished by specially organized German destruction units known as the Verbrennungs- und Vernichtungskommando ("Burning and Destruction Detachments").