Agony of the Third Reich. 75 years ago, on January 17, 1945, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front under the command of Marshal Zhukov, including the 1st Army of the Polish Army, liberated the capital of Poland - Warsaw. The city was under the rule of the Nazis from September 28, 1939. Nowadays, the feat of Soviet soldiers in Poland has been slandered or forgotten.
General situation before the battle
In September 1939, Poland was occupied by German troops. Some regions of Poland (Poznan, Polish Pomorie, etc.) were annexed and incorporated into the Reich, in the rest of the Polish territories a General Government was created. Some Poles resigned themselves to the occupation and even joined the ranks of the Wehrmacht and the police, others tried to resist. For the liberation of Poland, formations of various political orientations fought: Gvardiya Ludowa (military organization of the Polish Workers' Party); the pro-Soviet Army of Ludov (formed on January 1, 1944 on the basis of the Human Guard); Army of Home (subordinate to the Polish government in exile in London); Peasant battalions (cotton battalions); various partisan detachments, including those under the command of Soviet officers.
The Polish resistance was oriented either towards the West - the Home Army (AK), or towards the USSR - the Guard and then the Army of Ludow. The attitude of the representatives of the AK to the Russian troops entering the territory of Poland was hostile. Marshal Rokossovsky recalled that the AKov officers, who wore Polish uniforms, behaved arrogantly, rejected the proposal to cooperate in battles against the Nazis, claiming that the AK was subject only to the Polish government in London. The Poles said: "We will not use weapons against the Red Army, but we do not want to have any contacts either." In reality, Polish nationalists were repeatedly noted in countering the Red Army units, committing terrorist acts and sabotage in the Soviet rear. Akovtsy carried out the instructions of the government in London. They tried to liberate part of Poland from Warsaw and restore the Polish state.
On August 1, 1944, the Home Army, in accordance with its plan, codenamed "The Tempest", revolted in Warsaw to free it without the help of the Russians and to ensure that the Polish émigré government could return to the country. If the uprising succeeded, the Polish government in London could receive a strong political argument against the pro-Soviet Craiova Rada Narodov, an organization of Polish national-patriotic forces, created in January 1944, and the Polish Committee for National Liberation, created on July 21, 1944 in Moscow as a friendly Soviet provisional government Poland after the entry of Soviet troops into its territory. The Polish committee planned to build a People's Democratic Poland. That is, there was a struggle for the future of Poland. Part of Polish society advocated the past: "The West will help us", Russophobia, the restoration of the old order with the domination of the former "elite", the class of owners. Another part of the Poles looked to the future, saw the USSR as a model for a new People's Democratic Poland.
As a result, the adventure of the Polish government in exile and the AK command failed. The German garrison put up strong resistance. It was reinforced by units of the SS and police, and brought up to 50 thousand of the group. The 1st Belorussian Front, drained of blood by heavy fighting in Belarus and the eastern regions of Poland, with stretched communications, lagging behind, could not cross the Vistula on the move and provide significant assistance to the uprising in Warsaw. On October 2, the command of the AK capitulated. The uprising, which lasted 63 days, failed. The left-bank Warsaw was almost completely destroyed.
Warsaw-Poznan offensive operation
The Soviet Headquarters, within the framework of the strategic Vistula-Oder operation, prepared the Warsaw-Poznan operation. In early January 1945, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front under the command of Marshal Zhukov occupied the line along the Vistula River (from Serotsk to Yusefuv), holding bridgeheads on its western bank in the Magnushev and Pulawy areas. The 1st BF consisted of: 47th, 61st, 5th shock, 8th guards, 69th, 33rd and 3rd shock armies, 2nd and 1st guards tank armies, 1st Army of the Polish Army, 16th Air Army, 2nd and 7th Guards Cavalry Corps, 11th and 9th Tank Corps. In the Warsaw direction, the troops of the German 9th Field Army from the Army Group "A" were defending.
The Soviet command planned to dismember the enemy grouping and defeat it in parts. The main blow was delivered from the Magnushevsky bridgehead in the direction of Kutno - Poznan, by the forces of the 61st, 5th Shock, 8th Guards Armies, 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies and the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps. To develop success in the main direction, the second echelon of the front, the 3rd Shock Army, was advanced. The second blow was to be delivered from the Pulawski bridgehead in the direction of Radom and Lodz by the 69th and 33rd armies, the 7th Guards Cavalry Corps. The 47th Army was advancing north of Warsaw, it was supposed to bypass the Polish capital in the direction of Blon. The 1st Army of the Polish Army received the task, in cooperation with the troops of the 47th, 61st armies and the 2nd Guards Tank Army, to defeat the Warsaw grouping of the Wehrmacht and liberate the Polish capital. The first to enter the city were the Polish units.
The 1st Polish Army was formed in March 1944 on the basis of the 1st Polish Corps, which in turn was deployed in August 1943 on the basis of the 1st Polish Infantry Division named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko. The ranks of the army included not only Polish citizens, but also citizens of the USSR (mostly of Polish origin). The Soviet side provided the army with weapons, equipment and equipment. Its first commander was Lieutenant General Zygmunt Berling. By the beginning of the Warsaw operation, the army was commanded by General Stanislav Poplavsky and it numbered over 90 thousand people.
In July 944, the 1st Polish Army (4 infantry and 1 anti-aircraft artillery divisions, 1 armored, 1 cavalry, 5 artillery brigades, 2 air regiments and other units) began hostilities, being in the operational subordination of the 1st Belorussian Front. Polish divisions crossed the Western Bug and entered the territory of Poland. Here the 1st Army was united with the partisan Army of Man into a single Polish Army. In September, the Polish army liberated the right-bank suburb of Warsaw - Prague and then made an unsuccessful attempt to force the Vistula to support the uprising in Warsaw.
Liberation of Warsaw
The Warsaw-Poznan offensive operation began on January 14, 1945. The forward battalions of the Soviet armies attacked at the Magnushevsky and Pulawsky bridgeheads on the front over 100 kilometers. On the very first day, units of the 61st, 5th Shock and 8th Guards armies wedged into the enemy's defenses, and units of the 69th and 33rd armies, 9th and 11th Panzer Corps broke through the enemy's defenses to a depth of up to 20 km. On January 15-16, the enemy's defense was finally broken through, the gap was significantly widened.
The 61st Army under the command of Colonel-General Belov bypassed the Polish capital from the south. On 15 January, Major General Perkhorovich's 47th Army launched an offensive north of Warsaw. On January 16, Perkhorovich's army threw the enemy back across the Vistula River and crossed the river north of Warsaw on the move. On the same day, in the band of the 5th Shock Army from the bridgehead on the left bank of the river. Pilitsa was introduced into the breakthrough by Bogdanov's 2nd Guards Tank Army. Kryukov's 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps was also introduced into the breakthrough. Our tankers made a swift raid for 80 km, covering the right flank of the German 46th Panzer Corps. Bogdanov's army went to the Sohachev area and cut off the escape routes of the Warsaw Wehrmacht grouping. The German command began to hastily withdraw troops in the northwest direction.
On January 16, on the Warsaw sector of the front, after artillery preparation, Polish units also went on the offensive. Units of the 1st Polish Army crossed the Vistula, captured bridgeheads in the Warsaw region, and started fighting on its outskirts. On the right wing of the 1st Army of the Polish Army, the 2nd Infantry Division, taking advantage of the success of the 47th Soviet Army, began crossing the Vistula in the area of Camp Kelpinskaya and seized a bridgehead on the western bank. Divisional Commander Jan Rotkevich quickly transferred the main forces of the division to the west bank. On the left wing of the army, active operations began in the afternoon with an attack by a cavalry brigade (cavalrymen fought as infantry). The advanced detachments of the 2nd and 3rd lancers regiments were able to catch on the opposite bank and push the Nazis, to seize the bridgehead. The main forces of Colonel Radzivanovich's cavalry brigade crossed behind them. The Polish uhlans developed their first success and by the end of the day liberated the suburban settlements of Oborki, Opach, Piaski. This facilitated the movement of the 4th Infantry Division. The 6th Infantry Division of Colonel G. Sheipak was advancing in the center of the Polish army. Here the Poles ran into especially stubborn enemy resistance. they resisted especially stubbornly. The first attempt to force the Vistula on the ice in the afternoon of January 16 was repulsed by the Nazis with strong machine-gun and artillery fire. The offensive was resumed only in the dark.
The advance of units of the 61st and 47th armies from the south and north also facilitated the movement of the Polish army. Gura Kalwaria and Piaseczno were released. The main forces of the 2nd Guards Tank Army marched forward rapidly, the Germans began to withdraw troops from Warsaw. At 8 o'clock in the morning on January 17, the 4th Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Division was the first to break into the streets of Warsaw. Within 2 hours, he moved to the largest metropolitan street - Marshalkovskaya. Other troops entered the city - 4th, 1st and 4th divisions, cavalry brigade. The Germans put up especially stubborn resistance in the area of the old citadel and the Main Station. Many Hitlerites, seeing the hopelessness of the situation, fled or surrendered, others fought to the end. By 3 o'clock Warsaw was liberated.
Thus, bypassed from the south and north by the Soviet armies, the tank army, which closed the encirclement in Sochaczew, the German Warsaw garrison was finished off by the blows of the Polish units. Following the Polish army, units of the 47th and 61st armies entered Warsaw.
The city was very badly destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising and during the last battles. The military council of the front reported to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief: "Fascist barbarians destroyed the capital of Poland - Warsaw." Marshal Zhukov recalled: “With the ferocity of sophisticated sadists, the Nazis destroyed block after block. The largest industrial enterprises have been wiped off the face of the earth. Residential buildings were blown up or burned down. The urban economy has been destroyed. Tens of thousands of inhabitants were destroyed, the rest were expelled. The city is dead. Listening to the stories of the inhabitants of Warsaw about the atrocities committed by the German fascists during the occupation and especially before the retreat, it was even difficult to understand the psychology and moral character of the enemy troops. " The city was mined. Our soldiers have done a great job of neutralizing German mines and ammunition.
During the 4-day offensive, the troops of the 1st BF defeated the main forces of the 9th German army. The breakthrough of the enemy defense, which began in three directions, by January 17 merged into a single blow along the entire 270-kilometer sector of the front. The first stage of the Vistula-Oder operation, during which the Polish capital, Warsaw, was liberated, was successfully completed. The remnants of our troops defeated under the blows were hastily retreating to the west. The German command tried to rectify the situation by introducing reserves into the battle (the 19th and 25th Panzer Divisions and part of the 10th Motorized Divisions), but they were defeated, could not seriously affect the outcome of the battle and also retreated. However, the Germans again showed a high combat class - Zhukov's armies failed to encircle and destroy the main forces of the German 46th Panzer Corps (in the Warsaw area) and 56th Panzer Corps (between the Magnushevsky and Pulawski bridgeheads). The Germans were able to avoid total annihilation.
Memory of victory
For the liberation of Warsaw on June 9, 1945, an award was instituted - the medal "For the Liberation of Warsaw". The medal "For the Liberation of Warsaw" was awarded to the direct participants in the assault and liberation of Warsaw in the period from 14 to 17 January 1945, as well as the organizers and leaders of military operations during the liberation of the capital of Poland.
It is interesting that after the war Stalin was able to carry out a unique operation and neutralized the "Polish ram", which for many centuries the West set against Russia-Russia. Poland became a friend and ally of the Soviet Union. Two fraternal Slavic peoples flourished in a common socialist camp.
In memory of the victory over the common enemy and as a symbol of the military friendship of two fraternal armies in Prague, a suburb of Warsaw, on November 18, 1945, a granite monument was erected. Monument to the Soviet-Polish Brotherhood in Arms, popularly called the "Four Sleepers". Two Soviet and two Polish soldiers were depicted there. On the granite in two languages, Polish and Russian, the words are carved: "Glory to the heroes of the Soviet army - comrades in arms, who gave their lives for the freedom and independence of the Polish people!" In 2011, the monument was dismantled.
Unfortunately, at present the Polish government has forgotten the lessons of the past, how the First and Second Rzeczpospolita perished. Poland is once again being turned into an enemy of Russia, a strategic outpost of the West in eastern Europe against the Russians. Warsaw is building its future by absorbing the debris of the Russian world (parts of White and Little Russia). The history of the Great War has been rewritten and lied to. Now the liberation of Poland by Soviet soldiers is a "new occupation". Victims of almost 580 thousand Soviet soldiers, who in 1944-1945. gave their lives for the restoration of the Polish state, are consigned to oblivion or are spat upon. Hitler and Stalin, the Reich and the USSR are put on the same level. The crimes of the pre-war Polish elite are consigned to oblivion, or are glorified.
