List of military units in the Warsaw Uprising

Warsaw Uprising
Polish Home Army, 11 August 1944
Prelude Military history Military units involved Lack of outside support Capitulation Aftermath Destruction of Warsaw People Atrocities Cultural representations
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This is a list of military units taking part in the Warsaw Uprising, a Polish insurrection during the Second World War that began on August 1, 1944.

Polish units[]

Many of the units were formed before the beginning of the Uprising (August 1); several were organised in the following days as new volunteers joined. Units were assigned to given Areas:

• Area I (Śródmieście, Stare Miasto)
• Area II (Żoliborz, Marymont, Bielany)
• Area III (Wola)
• Area IV (Ochota)
• Area V (Mokotów)
• Area VI (Praga)
• Area VII (Powiat Warszawski)
• Zgrupowanie KeDywu Komendy Głównej

Units were organised into battalions, companies and platoons. Many of those became famous either before the Uprising or during it, including 'Battalion Zośka', '', 'Parasol', ''.

Armaments given to the units[]

On August 1 their state of arms was as follows:

• 1,000 rifles
• 1,700 pistols
• 300 machine pistols
• 60 submachine guns
• 7 machine guns
• 35 anti-tank guns and carbines (including several PIATs)
• 25,000 hand grenades

Basically types of weapons used can be divided in:^[1]

• weapons hidden by Polish Army after Polish defense war of 1939 ( pistols: Vis wz. 35, carabine wz. 98 i 98a, subcarabine wz. 29, light machine guns Browning wz. 1928);
• homemade weapons (machine pistols Błyskawica, flame throwers wzór K, hand grenades – „sidolówki” i „filipinki”, Molotov cocktails);
• weapons taken from foe during fights ( pistols P08 Parabellum, carabine Mauser, machine pistols MP40);
• weapons bought directly from foe and their paramilitary organisations/regular army or/and on "black market";
• weapons from allied forces, mainly by direct supplies from air (pistols Colt M1911, machine pistols Sten, light machine guns Bren, grenade launchers PIAT).

Complete List of Home Army groups in the Warsaw Uprising[]

The following list does not correspond with the above area list.

On September 20 this structure was reorganised to fit the structure of Polish forces fighting among the Western Allies. The entire force was renamed to Warsaw Home Army Corps (Warszawski Korpus Armii Krajowej), commanded by general Antoni Chruściel (Monter) and consisted of three infantry divisions:

• 8th Romuald Traugutt Infantry Division (8 Dywizja Piechoty im. Romualda Traugutta) commanded by col. Żywiciel-Niedzielski
• 10th Maciej Rataj Infantry Division (10 Dywizja Piechoty im. Macieja Rataja) commanded by col. Radwan-Pleiffer
• 28th Stefan Okrzeja Infantry Division (28 Dywizja Piechoty im. Stefana Okrzei) commanded by col. Karol-Rokicki

The names of smaller units (battalions, companies and platoons) were left intact (as in the above table).

Composition of smaller fighting forces[]

Although the vast majority of the resistance in Warsaw were members of Home Army, there was a small number of fighters who weren't members of that organisation. In the course of the Uprising some 1,700 members of other resistance organisations joined the Uprising. Those included the Armia Ludowa, Gwardia Ludowa and Narodowe Siły Zbrojne. Along with the Polish soldiers who took part in the Uprising, there were also members of other nationalities. Among them was a number of Hungarian deserters and Italian escapees from POW camps in Poland. Another ex-POW soldier was RAF Sgt. John Ward, whose numerous coded radio dispatches gave an eyewitness account of the fighting to the British government and Polish government-in-exile, as well as the London press. There was also a Slovak 535th Home Army platoon under Lt. Stanko. It was composed mostly of Slovaks, Georgians, Armenians and Azeri, and suffered heavy casualties in the course of the uprising (up to 70%). It is believed that some 25,000 Jews were hiding in Warsaw before the Uprising. The vast majority of them died together with other Polish civilians. However, many Jews (possibly as many as 1,000), including those released by Home Army from the Warsaw concentration camp (Gęsiówka), joined the Home Army. During the final stage of the battle a number of Soviet soldiers (possibly as many as 3,000, most of them members of Polish units in Soviet army) also crossed the river and fought the Germans in Powiśle area. Airdrops were carried out by allied airmen from Italy, mostly by Poles, Canadians and the British.

German units[]

As of 23 August 1944 the German units directly involved with fights in Warsaw were divided into:

• (commanded by general major Rohr)
• (commanded by SS-Gruppenführer Heinz Reinefarth)
  • Sturmgruppe Dirlewanger (commanded by SS-Oberführer der Reserve Oskar Dirlewanger)
  • (commanded by major Reck)
  • (commanded by colonel Schmidt)
  • various support and backup units
• Warsaw Garrison (Group of Warsaw Commandant) commanded by lieutenant general Stahel

A large section of the forces on the "German" side were, according to Norman Davies (p284), drawn from "'collaborationist forces'" including Russians who had left in the Tzar's era and Azeris. All of these forces, however, were clearly subject to the control of the German war machine

References[]

• Jerzy Kirchmayer. Powstanie Warszawskie. Książka i Wiedza, Warsaw, 1959. ISBN 83-05-11080-X. Hardcover, 576 pages.