Six weeks after D-Day, Allied armies had advanced only twenty miles beyond the beachheads. The generals feared stalemate. Then, in an armoured assault supported by overwhelming airpower, they broke through the German lines and a series of offensives began which opened the way to Paris and the frontiers of the Reich. In the East, the Red Army had just annihilated the German Central Army group, killing or capturing over 350,000 soldiers, and was moving rapidly on Berlin. Forward units approached Warsaw. There, an underground army lay in hiding, waiting for the Germans to begin to withdraw, when it would rise up and re-establish Polish sovereignty after almost five years of Nazi rule. On 1 August, the command of this army - the Home Army (AK) - sent its soldiers into action with the order to seize control of the capital, and to welcome Soviet forces from a position of strength.

LRB 24 June 2004 | PDF Download