WARSAW 1944. Poland’s Bid for Freedom

“Poland had lain dormant under the Nazi heel for nearly five years, suffering waves of genocidal round-ups, organized looting and brutal suppression of its culture. However, the Poles had formed an underground army, the Armia Krajowa, and waited for the moment when German weakness would offer the chance of a successful revolt. That moment seemed to have arrived in July 1944 as the Soviet armies began to advance into eastern Poland. The AK launched its revolt in Warsaw on 1 August 1944, but though it achieved some initial successes, the Germans were able to retain both the bridges over the Vistula River and the airbase, which ultimately doomed the revolt to isolation, a crushing defeat and brutal retribution”.