Read Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw Online
Authors: Norman Davies
Tags: #Non-Fiction, #War, #History
Westminster and Washington watched the agony of the Rising with sorrow and bewilderment. The people with inside information may have known what part the Western powers had played in the tragedy. But the majority were simply baffled by their First Ally’s bad luck. As Churchill’s deputy, Clement Attlee, had remonstrated, when appealed to by a delegation of desperate Polish socialists: ‘What more could we have done?’
British and American experts in political warfare knew one thing that could be done. With skilful management, the damage could be limited. For the duration of the war solidarity with the Soviet Union had to be maintained at all costs. So, in the organs under official control, the action or inaction of the Soviets was not to be discussed. The Poles should be praised for their courage. Their leaders were to be blamed for their irresponsibility. [
SWIMMER
, p. 413]
His Majesty’s Government, however, did not escape completely unscathed. On 26 September, Churchill faced a couple of questions in the House of Commons about the meagre assistance to the Rising, and he provided the stock answer. He paid tribute ‘to the heroism and tenacity of the Polish Home Army’, before pleading that everything possible had been done. He drew special attention to the operation of the US Flying Fortresses which had taken place in the previous week.
The House was evidently not satisfied. On the following day, the Foreign Secretary faced a much more hostile and damaging barrage of questions: And he was reduced to wriggling like a snake with its tail in a trap:
MAJ-GEN. SIR ALFRED KNOX
(c) asked . . . what reason was given by the Government of the USSR for their refusal of permission for RAF planes to land in Soviet territory after dropping munitions and supplies for the patriot forces in Warsaw.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
(
MR EDEN
) There has never been any question of aircraft of the Royal Air Force undertaking such shuttle flights to bases in Soviet territory . . .
SIR A. KNOX
: Is it not a fact that by repeated broadcasts from Moscow the Soviet Government urged the Underground Army to rise . . . and that by September 14, six weeks later, they had still not given permission for Allied aircraft to land . . . and that, therefore, they rendered the position of the Polish forces tragic?
SIR JOHN WARDLAW-MILNE
(
C
): May I urge my Rt. Hon. Friend . . . to make the [Prime Minister’s] statement yesterday very widely public, because there is a very erroneous impression in this country about what has been done by our Forces?
MR EDEN
: I think that there is very good cause for my hon. Friend’s supplementary . . . I think that I can also say that H.M.G. did everything in their power to bring about unity and understanding in this matter between our Allies.
SIR A. KNOX
: Is it not a fact that the Soviet Government refused to give permission until September 14?
MR EDEN
: My hon. and gallant Friend is asking me why one of our Allies did not give assistance to another of our Allies . . . but I would prefer to give consideration to my reply.
SWIMMER
A soldier of the Zoshka Battalion, trapped on the Cherniakov Bridgehead, swims the Vistula
A hopeless situation. The heavily injured are strewn around in basements. Indeed no one is doing anything for them. There are no bandages, there is no medicine, there is nowhere even to put them . . . Starvation, lack of water . . . From early morning, the Germans are letting fly storm after storm, wanting to liquidate this already microscopic bridgehead . . .
The radiotelegraphic operator, just before the batteries had run out at noon, received news from the headquarters of the First Army. Under cover of fierce artillery fire, rowing boats would arrive and take us away from this hell in the evening. Only that these hours drag on so painfully slowly . . .
At last darkness is falling . . . Crawling, we reach the very bank of the Vistula, via Solec Street. There are only guard outposts. We gather by the half-sunken boat, the
Fairytale
. This is where the rowing boats are to arrive. Up to now barely three have arrived, and one of them was only a kayak . . . There is no hope that more will arrive. On the
Fairytale
an incredible throng mills around. Captain ‘George’ tries to establish some order . . .
The Germans realized that we had left Vilanov Street, but the noise coming from the
Fairytale
told them the right direction to fire . . .
Again someone approaches George. It is ‘Vitold’ with Major L. L. wants to send a messenger to the other side of the Vistula, to report our tragic situation to the headquarters of the First Army, and to ask them to send a rowing boat at any price. The messenger had to be able to swim across the river. The chances of success are minimal. At least three people should attempt the swim, so at least one might make it . . .
George expressed his agreement. But who will swim?
Vitold made up his mind. He also suggested me and ‘Kurp’ . . .
We arm ourselves with carbines and grenades and, bending down low to the ground, we move without a sound along the very banks, right alongside the stream. We do not know where the German outposts are. We are moving extremely cautiously. Along the way we pass a whole pile of corpses. They were daredevils, who had tried to swim the Vistula before us.
Here we jump, or rather slip into the water . . . Vitold first, me second, and Kurp last. The current of the Vistula pulled me away violently . . . I drew back my injured hand sharply, wrenched off the sling, and began to part the water strongly and
rhythmically. I overcame the strongest current . . . I raise my head – I look for my companions. I cannot see them.
I call: ‘Stefan! Vitold!’
Kurp gives a sign of life. We swim towards each other. He has been shot in the leg. We shout, ‘Vitold.’ No sign of him. Maybe he drowned.
Whistling bullets hit the water. I dive . . . Slowly, metre by metre, we distance ourselves from burning Warsaw. We are approaching the middle of the Vistula, there is supposed to be a sandbank . . .
At last I can feel the sand. The water comes up to my chest, but we squat down, so that only our heads are visible. The sky is hellishly bright from searchlights and rockets. The sound of gunfire resounds in all directions, illuminating the depths of the sea. Kurp and I hold hands. In that way, it is easier for us to walk against the current . . . The water gets deeper and deeper. The sandbank breaks off. We start to swim again, straight towards the bank . . .
All of a sudden something explodes . . . The Germans have dropped a fire barrier of grenades on the Praga bank . . . I am losing hope . . . But I can already touch the ground with my feet. Holding each other up, we flounder ahead. At last, the hard, dry bank. We are safe . . .
1
Stanisław Krupa
At that point, the temperature of the debate rose perceptibly:
SIR A. KNOX
: . . . Is [the Secretary of State] aware that members of the Polish Underground Army, who, under orders from the Polish Government, have cooperated with Soviet forces in the liberation of their country, have been arrested and deported by the Soviet authorities . . .?
MR EDEN
: Yes, Sir. My attention has been drawn to the reports to which [you] refer, and I have brought them to the notice of the Soviet Government. The latter have now informed me that they do not consider that these reports give a true picture of events . . . [The Secretary of State did not disclose that his attention had been drawn to the matter on 29 July, eight full weeks earlier.]
SIR A. KNOX
: Is it not true that several individuals have been arrested and deported because they refused to take the oath of allegiance to the so-called Committee of Liberation?
MR EDEN
: As I have said, as soon as these reports were brought to my notice, I brought them to the notice of the Soviet Government, as I thought it my duty to do . . .
EARL WINTERTON
(
C
): Is it not a fact that my Rt. Hon Friend cannot be responsible for differences of opinion between our Allies . . .
MR MCGOVERN
(
I.L.P.
) Does the Rt. Hon. Gentleman think that there is anything to be gained by covering up the fact that an Ally of ours is both shooting and deporting Nationalists and Socialists in Poland?
MR EDEN
: . . . I must tell the House that not only are these affairs of delicacy between Allies, but also that there is some difficulty in establishing the facts . . .
Despite a number of interventions that sought to get Eden off the hook, the questioning grew ‘warmer and warmer’:
COMMANDER SIR ARCHIBALD SOUTHBY
(
C
): While it is true that these are matters of delicacy, are not matters concerning our responsibility to our ally, Poland, also matters of principle?
MR EDEN
: Yes, Sir, and our responsibility has been fully, and I might add gallantly, discharged.
MR ASTOR
(
C
): Are there not liaison officers on the spot, from whom the Government gets information?
MR EDEN
: We have been supplied with information from Warsaw; but perhaps my hon. Friend will put that question down.
As Eden well knew, Britain had not a single liaison or intelligence officer in Warsaw. But he was using the conventional appeal to national security to avoid a direct answer. Churchill was sitting alongside in silence.
COMMANDER BOWER
: . . . Would the Prime Minister make a full statement on the matter?
THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
(
MR ATTLEE
) (
LAB
): I would refer [you] to the statement which was made yesterday . . .
COMMANDER BOWER
: . . . The public have heard a great deal of rumour, very few facts and an absolute spate of extremely tendentious Communist propaganda . . .
MR ATTLEE
: I cannot agree . . .
MR GALLACHER
(
COMM
.): Is it not the case that, instead of a campaign of
Communist propaganda, we heard a tendentious campaign of anti-Communist propaganda?
COMMANDER BOWER
(
C
) asked the Minister of Information to what extent restriction of publication of reports on the Polish Rising in early August was imposed . . . either by prohibition or request.
PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO THE MINISTRY OF INFORMATION, MR THURTLE
: No restriction was imposed nor any request to this effect made by the Ministry of Information.
COMMANDER BOWER
: Are we then to assume that by some peculiar feat of telepathy almost the entire press of this country held up this extremely important information for several days?
MR THURTLE
: . . . We have nothing at all to do with it . . .
MR PETHERICK
(
C
): Has the Ministry of Information made no such representations to any of the Service Departments?
MR THURTLE
: I am unable to speak for the Service Departments.
171
On 2 October, Churchill received the Polish Premier in person, to hear the news that Warsaw was about to surrender. He would later be presented with a translation of the Homeland Council’s final appeal:
This is the stark truth. We were treated worse than Hitler’s satellites, worse than Italy, Romania, Finland. May God, who is just, pass judgement on the terrible injustice visited on the Polish nation, and may He punish accordingly all those who are guilty.
Your heroes are the soldiers whose only weapons against tanks were revolvers and bottles of petrol . . . Your heroes are the women who tended the wounded, cooked in bombed-out cellars . . . and comforted the dying. Your heroes are the children who went on playing in the ruins . . .
Immortal is the nation that can muster such universal heroism. For those who have died have conquered, and those who live will fight, will conquer and will bear witness again that POLAND HAS NOT PERISHED YET, SO LONG AS WE STILL LIVE.
172
‘These words’, wrote Churchill in his memoirs, ‘are indelible’.
In Washington, US officials were informed that the Frantic flight scheduled for 2 October had been ‘disapproved’ by the local Soviet ESCOM. ‘Disapproved’ presumably meant approved and then cancelled. The reason given by the Soviets was said to be that ‘the Warsaw partisans have been evacuated.’
173
Since it derived from the previous day, if not
earlier, it was not true. As researchers in the Polish files in the Roosevelt Library may discover, little on Poland follows until 1945.