|
Home Army
The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the aftermath of the German and Soviet invasions in September 1939. Over the next two years, the Home Army absorbed most of the other Polish partisans and underground forces. Its allegiance was to the Polish government-in-exile in London, and it constituted the armed wing of what came to be known as the Polish Underground State. Estimates of the Home Army's 1944 strength range between 200,000 and 600,000. The latter number made the Home Army not only Poland's largest underground resistance movement but, along with Soviet and Yugoslav partisans, one of Europe's largest World War II underground movements. The Home Army sabotaged German transports bound for the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union, destroying German supplies and tying down subs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kotwica
The (; Polish for 'anchor') was an emblem of the Polish Underground State and (AK; 'Home Army') used during World War II. It was created in 1942 by members of the Wawer minor sabotage unit within the AK, as an easily usable emblem for the struggle to regain the country's independence. The initial meaning of the initialism ''PW'' was (We shall avenge Wawer), in reference to the 1939 Wawer massacre, which was considered to be one of the first large scale massacres of Polish civilians by German troops in occupied Poland. At first, Polish scouts from sabotage units painted the whole phrase upon walls. However, it was soon abbreviated to PW, which came to symbolise the phrase (fighting Poland). In early 1942, the AK organised a contest to design an emblem to represent the resistance movement, and the winning design by Anna Smoleńska, a member of the Gray Ranks who herself participated in minor sabotage operations, combined the letters P and W into the . Smoleńska was ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polish Resistance Movement In World War II
In Poland, the Resistance during World War II, resistance movement during World War II was led by the Home Army. The Polish resistance is notable among others for disrupting German supply lines to the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front (damaging or destroying 1/8 of all rail transports), and providing military intelligence, intelligence reports to the United Kingdom, British British intelligence agencies, intelligence agencies (providing 43% of all reports from German-occupied Europe, occupied Europe). It was a part of the Polish Underground State. Organizations The largest of all Polish resistance organizations was the Armia Krajowa (Home Army, AK), loyal to the Polish government in exile in London. The AK was formed in 1942 from the Union of Armed Struggle (''Związek Walki Zbrojnej'' or ZWZ, itself created in 1939) and would eventually incorporate most other Polish armed resistance groups (except for the communists and some far-right groups). [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Tempest
file:Akcja_burza_1944.png, 210px, right Operation Tempest or Operation Burza (, sometimes referred to in English as "Operation Storm") was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II against occupying German forces by the Polish Home Army (''Armia Krajowa'', abbreviated ''AK''), the dominant force in the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish resistance. Operation Tempest's objective was to seize control of German-occupied cities and areas while the Germans were preparing their defenses against the advancing Soviet Red Army. The Polish Underground State hoped to take power before the Soviets arrived. A goal of the Polish government-in-exile in London was to restore Poland's 1939 borders with the USSR, rejecting the Curzon Line border. According to Jan Ciechanowski (diplomat), Jan Ciechanowski,"The [exiled] Polish Cabinet believed that by refusing to accept the Curzon Line they were defending their country's right to exist as a national entity. They were deter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Most III
Operation Most III ( Polish for ''Bridge III'') or Operation Wildhorn III (in British documents) was a World War II operation in which Poland's ''Armia Krajowa'' provided the Allies with crucial intelligence on the German V-2 rocket. Background From November 1943 onwards, the Intelligence Division of the Polish Home Army (''Armia Krajowa'') obtained parts of the V-2 rocket, which was being tested at a missile launch site near Blizna, central Poland. The availability of parts increased from April 1944, when numerous test rockets fell near Sarnaki village, in the vicinity of the Bug River, south of Siemiatycze. On the night of 20 May 1944 a particularly intact rocket fell into the swampy banks of the Bug. Parts of the rocket were secured by the Armia Krajowa, and analyzed at its secret laboratories in Warsaw. The analysis was performed by Professor Janusz Groszkowski (radio and guidance), Marceli Struszyński (fuel), Bogdan Stefanowski (engine), Antoni Kocjan, and others. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Fruhwirth
Akcja Fruhwirth (eng. Operation Fruhwirth) - assassination attempt carried out on October 25, 1943 at SS-Scharführer Engelberth Frühwirth, which was part of an extensive campaign to eliminate representatives of the Nazi German terror apparatus in occupied Poland called Operation Heads (). History The planned action to kill Frühwirth failed. The assassins mistook the aim and they shot the SS-Scharführer Stephan Klein, who was the official of the IVth Office of the Commander of the Security Police and Security Service of the Warsaw District in General Government. Klein was also sentenced to death by the Polish Underground State The Polish Underground State (, also known as the Polish Secret State) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Government of the Republic of Poland ... and his name was also on the list of people to be killed in "action Heads".Strzembosz (1983) References ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Góral
Operation Góral () was an action carried out by the Polish anti-Nazi resistance organization Home Army (''Armia Krajowa'', or "AK"), which involved a heist of over a million US dollars' worth of currency being transported by Nazi German authorities on 12 August 1943. It was carried out in the center of Warsaw by a unit of Kedyw, "Motor", which seized a transport car carrying the money. It was one of the best organized actions of the Polish underground during the German occupation, and it took only two minutes. The name of the action comes from the "Góral", the popular name for the 500 zloty note (which were also known as "''Młynarki''"). Polish historian Tomasz Strzembosz called this operation one of the most successful resistance operations in occupied Europe. History Following the German invasion and occupation of Poland in 1939, a large resistance network was formed. That resistance required funds to operate, and the resources of the Polish government in exile, delive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Belt
Operation Belt () was one of the large-scale anti-Nazi Germany operations of the Armia Krajowa Kedyw during World War II. In August 1943, the headquarters of the Armia Krajowa ordered Kedyw to prepare an armed action against German border guarding stations on the frontier between the General Government and the territories annexed by the Third Reich. By February 1944, 13 German outposts were destroyed with few losses on the Polish side. One of the Poles who died in the operation was the Boy Scout Tadeusz Zawadzki, one of the most important personalities of the Polish underground. Zawadzki was killed on 20 August 1943, during an attack on a German border station at the village of Sieczychy, near Wyszków. Operation Belt itself took place on the night of 20–21 August, when seven German stations were destroyed. On 30 August, General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski ordered to begin preparation of another armed action, Operation Chain (), which was the continuation of ''Belt''. During ''C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Bürkl
Operation Bürkl (''operacja Bürkl''), or the special combat action Bürkl (''specjalna akcja bojowa Bürkl''), was an operation by the Polish resistance conducted on 7 September 1943. It was the second action of Operation Heads, a series of assassinations of notorious SS officers in Warsaw carried out by the Kedyw's special group Agat ("Anti-Gestapo") between 1943 and 1944, and their first success. History The goal of the operation was to "liquidate" Franz Bürkl, a notorious Sicherheitspolizei NCO who had been sentenced to death by the Polish Underground courts for the murder of at least several dozen people. Bürkl was ambushed in broad daylight on the city's main Marszałkowska Street by a group of five young AK partisans armed with Sten submachine guns and Filipinka hand grenades. The assassins, led by 21-year-old Jerzy Zborowski, were recruited for Agat from the underground scouting organization Szare Szeregi. Bürkl and seven other German policemen were killed in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghetto Action
Action Ghetto (pol. ''Akcja Getto'') was the code name for the armed actions of the Polish Underground State during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising aimed at helping the insurgents. The name was given to a series of combat actions carried out by the Home Army during the uprising between 19 April 1943 and May 16, 1943.Strzembosz (1978), page 277-296.Witkowski (1984). Background The right-wing faction Jewish Military Union, Żydowski Związek Wojskowy (ŻZW) which was founded by former Polish officers, was larger, more established and had closer ties with the Home Army, Polish resistance, making it better equipped. Zimmerman describes the arm supplies for the uprising as "limited but real". Specifically, Jewish fighters of the ŻZW received from the Polish Home Army: 2 heavy machine guns, 4 light machine guns, 21 submachine guns, 30 rifles, 50 pistols, and over 400 grenades for the uprising. During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, ŻZW is reported to have had about 400 well-armed fighters grou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iwieniec Uprising
The Iwieniec Uprising was an attack carried out by units of the Polish anti-German resistance, the Home Army (''Armia Krajowa'', AK) against a German garrison in the town of Iwieniec in German-occupied Poland (today Ivyanets, Belarus) on 19 June 1943. The action was carried out by the ''Polish Partisan Unit AK Stołpce Region''. The purpose of the attack was to free imprisoned members of the Polish underground, capture weapons and provisions from the Germans, capture and punish Nazi-collaborators, pre-empt a German conscription of local men for forced labor in Nazi Germany, and to demonstrate the significance of the Polish underground in the region. The Polish units suffered four casualties (two killed, two wounded) while killing approximately 150 German soldiers and policemen. Between 100 and 200 Belarusian Auxiliary policemen deserted during the attack, switched side to the Poles and ended up joining the Polish partisans. While the attacks was a success (although some of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Arsenal
The Operation Arsenal (), code name: "Meksyk II" (''Mexico 2''), was the first major operation by the Gray Ranks, Polish Underground formation during the Nazi German occupation of Poland. It took place on March 26, 1943 in Warsaw. Its name was coined after the Royal Arsenal, in front of which the action took place. The plan was to free the troop leader Jan Bytnar "Rudy", who was arrested together with his father by the Gestapo. The operation was executed by 28 scouts led by Warsaw Standard Commander Stanisław Broniewski "Orsza". The initiator and the commander of the "Attack Group" was Tadeusz Zawadzki "Zośka". The successfully conducted operation led to the release of Jan Bytnar and 24 other prisoners, including another Storm Group troop leader, Henryk Ostrowski "Henryk", and 6 women, in an attack on the prison van that was taking the inmates from Pawiak Prison to Gestapo Headquarters at Szucha Avenue. Bytnar himself died four days later on account of injuries sustained ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Heads
Operation Heads () was the code name for a series of assassinations of Nazi officials by the World War II Polish Resistance. Those targeted for assassination had been sentenced to death by Polish Underground Special Courts for crimes against Polish citizens during the World War II German occupation of Poland. The operation's code name, literally "Operation Little Heads", was a sardonic reference to the '' Totenkopf'' ("Death's Head") insignia on Nazi German SS uniforms and headgear. Background Operation Heads was the response of Polish Resistance fighters of the Home Army to Nazi terror in Poland. On the streets of Polish cities, the non-Jewish population was targeted by the '' łapanka'' policy, in which Nazi forces indiscriminately rounded up, kidnapped and murdered civilians. In Warsaw, between 1942 and 1944, there were approximately 400 daily victims of ''łapanka''. Tens of thousands of these victims were killed in mass executions, including an estimated 37,000 people at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
