Battle for Warsaw (1978) - full transcript

(dramatic piano music)

- [Narrator] Poland's capital, Warsaw,

the largest city on the road
between Berlin and Moscow.

And there's the snag for
the people who live there.

(bright piano music)

In the 30 or so years since the
end of the Second World War,

the Polish capital has been
almost entirely rebuilt,

much of it in exactly the style as before.

(bright piano music)

Seeing Warsaw today,
it's not easy to imagine

what the Polish capital
looked like in 1945.



(soft ominous music)

(somber violin music)

90% of Warsaw lay in
ruins, most of it destroyed

by the Germans in the weeks
before they were driven

out of it, destroyed in
retaliation for the citizens

of Warsaw having risen against the Germans

in a vain attempt to liberate
their city for themselves

before the Russians came.

The Warsaw uprising of autumn
1944 is one of the great

and controversial epics of human history,

a compound of glory and despair,

of unparalleled individual gallantry,

and of wretched political trickery.

(dramatic orchestral music)



(suspenseful orchestral music)

Few people remember now
that the Second World War

began in Warsaw, a city then

of a million and a quarter souls.

(gentle music)
(traffic rumbling)

A civilized city, a
beautiful city, a great city.

A city where Copernicus
had lived and Madame Curie,

and of course, Chopin.

(bright piano music)

It was Britain going to Poland's aid

when Hitler attacked her in September 1939

that widened a local squabble
into a global struggle.

But Britain's gesture had not prevented

German bombs raining
down on Poland's capital.

(explosions booming)

Hitler had needed just 30 days to bring

his Eastern neighbor to her knees

and for the German Stukas to make way

in Warsaw's streets
for strutting soldiers.

(rhythmic marching drum music)

(upbeat marching band music)

The Pols were used to conquerors.

In their history, they've
tasted freedom only seldom,

squeezed have they so often
been between the giants

of Germany and Russia.

But equally, the Pols do not
take too gladly to conquerors.

Even as Hitler was heiling
his goosestepping troops

in Poland's capital, a Polish
resistance to him was forming.

Representatives of Poland's
main political parties

met that very day in the strong room

of the Polish savings bank in Warsaw

to set up a resistance movement.

The communists, of
course, did not take part.

Many choose to forget now

that when the Second World War began,

Russia sided with Hitler
in carving up Poland.

After more than a century
of their subjugation,

the Pols had said goodbye
to the czars in 1919.

Just 20 years later in September 1939,

they had to witness a new
generation of Russians,

this time Stalin's Bolsheviks
petitioning their country.

Within a week of Warsaw's surrender,

a Polish government in exile
had been set up in Paris

under General Sikorski.

(stately orchestral music)

When France fell in May 1940,
it was to move to London

and Sikorski and his
colleagues were to be courted

by the British as Polish
pilots played a prominent part

in the Battle of Britain.

But after Hitler attacked
Russia in June 1941,

the London Pols found
themselves less and less privy

to Allied thinking as first Roosevelt,

when the United States entered the war,

and then Churchill himself
sought to befriend the Soviets.

Many Pols had of course been imprisoned

by the Russians in September 1939.

Now, under an agreement
Sikorski signed with Stalin

in Moscow in early 1942, some were freed

and encouraged to take up arms
again, against the Germans.

But suspicions were aroused

at the smallness of their
numbers, despite the enthusiasm

of the newsreel commentators of the day.

(dramatic orchestral music)

- [Newsreel Narrator] The
premier of Soviet Russian,

in spite of his 62 years, is
a virile and shrewd statesman.

A sincere and good-natured
atmosphere pervades

the Moscow council chamber,

which augers well for the future.

- [Narrator] The future
of those Pols missing

in Russian hands had been
extremely short-lived.

(birds chirping)

Here, in woods near the village of Katyn

about 12 miles west of Smolensk,

the Germans in April 1943
discovered the decaying corpses

of some 4,500 Polish officers.

They had been buried without
coffins in mass graves.

All had been shot, most of
them in the back of the head.

Stalin claimed it was
the work of the Nazis,

but the medical evidence pointed to their

having been murdered three years before

when the area was under Russian rule.

When the London Pols demanded an inquiry

by the International Red Cross,

Moscow refused to have
anything more to do with them.

And even Churchill, though he tried,

failed to restore the shaky friendship.

Hitler's propagandists
made the most of Katyan

to drive and drive a
wedge between the Soviets

and their Western
allies, not that Hitler's

own treatment of the Pols was any better.

The nation that had given so
much to Western civilization

had become simply a source of slave labor

for Hitler's Reich.

(prisoners chattering)

To the Nazis, the Pols
were less than human.

Jews, Gypsies, and Pols
was a well-worn phrase

in Nazi pronouncements.

Said the Gauleiter appointed
by Hitler to rule in Warsaw,

"If I were to have one poster
hung for every seven Pols

"who have been liquidated,
all the forests of Poland

"could not supply enough paper."

Poland at that time was one

of the most densely forested
countries in Europe.

At the beginning of the war, one in three

of Warsaw's population was Jewish.

Confined at first to a ghetto
in the heart of the capital,

the Jews of Warsaw, along
with other Polish Jews,

were in time herded off
to extermination camps

at Auschwitz and Treblinka on Polish soil.

In the spring of 1943,
the remaining inhabitants

of Warsaw's Jewish ghetto,
barely 70,000 of them then

out of the 400,000 three years before,

rose up in a desperate, hopeless struggle

against their Nazi oppressors.

Those few who survived
that final Holocaust,

were eventually exterminated elsewhere.

While the ghetto itself,
amounting to a 20th

of the land space of Warsaw, was leveled

by Hitler's henchmen.

(explosion booms)

(building materials rumbling)

But even as the Warsaw
ghetto was being destroyed,

the tide of war was swinging
against the Germans,

particularly on the Eastern Front

following their great
defeat at Stalingrad.

By early 1944, the Russians
had cleared the Germans

from Soviet soil and
had crossed into Poland.

The Polish government in
London wrote to Stalin

asking that he respect Polish rights,

not knowing that Churchill and Roosevelt

had already agreed with Stalin that Russia

should keep that part
of Poland granted her

by Hitler in September 1939.

Humoring the Russians
had become more important

than honoring pledges.

What was more alarming for the London Pols

as the Soviets neared
Warsaw, instead of welcoming

the Polish resistance fighters
who came into the open

to greet them, the Russians were disarming

and imprisoning them, and in some cases,

even shooting them in cold blood.

When the Polish city of
Lublin was recaptured

on July the 24th, 1944,
Stalin set up there

a rival Polish government
to the London one,

a communist government, of course.

Time was clearly running out

for the non-communist London Pols.

As the Germans set about sabotaging

the Soviet lines of communication,

the London Pols saw that
an effort was needed

that would stir the
conscience of the world.

Two years previously, the
bulk of the Polish resistance

inside Poland, numbering some 350,000 men,

had been organized into a
secret so-called Home Army

supplied from Britain.

The London Pols had the
idea of using this army

to liberate Poland, or
at least to free Warsaw,

when the time came.

Plans for an uprising
in Warsaw had been made

as early as February 1943.

(explosions booming)

By mid-July 1944, the Russians
having cleared the Germans

from their zone of Poland,
looked poised to take Warsaw.

On July the 23rd, the
routed German 9th Army

streamed through Warsaw blowing up

strategic installations as they went.

(explosions booming)

Within the capital, the Gestapo
began burning their files.

German civilians had already left,

including the German governor
and the German mayor.

By the last week of July, only a garrison

of some 2,000 German soldiers remained.

To the Pols of Warsaw, their
liberation seemed at hand.

- You needed only to go out in one

of the east-west arteries of Warsaw

to see the Germans'
troops in full retreat.

We also seen a lot of
lorries taking the furniture

and belongings to the German officials

who were evacuating Warsaw.

And just, I believe, two days
before the uprising started,

even the Gestapo left.

- Plenty of German soldiers was passing

from east to the west in very bad shape.

They used peasant cart and very poor horse

and was lying wounded.

Sometimes soldiers was
without their shoes.

- You could see tanks and
German army going west

and there was a great
anxiety among Germans

and nobody had any doubts, you see.

We were sure the Germans were escaping

and we were sure that the
front, the Russian Front,

you see, was approaching.

We had cannons as a
matter of fact, you know,

from the east from time to time.

(explosions booming)

- [Narrator] On July the
27th, the Russians reached

the Vistula River 65
miles south of Warsaw,

and the next day, pushed to
within 10 miles of the city.

On July the 29th, the
Russians broadcast in Polish

to Warsaw, "The hour
of action has arrived."

The next day, posters
appeared all over Warsaw,

signed by the commander of the so-called

Communist People's Army in Poland,

claiming that the leaders of the Home Army

had fled the capital.

(gun firing)

That was the last straw.

"Poland Fight" signs were
daubed around the city.

The leaders of the Home
Army had decided to revolt.

(group singing in foreign language)

After the long years of
waiting, life at that moment

was exhilarating for the Pols of Warsaw.

- [Survivor] We were
absolutely elated because

for the first time we could
move freely, talk freely.

We were free of the German Gestapo

who were always hanging over our heads

during the German occupation.

First days, everybody
was happy, enthusiastic.

Plenty of the Polish flag on the houses.

Everybody was singing, laughing,

and really expecting that
now is end of Germany.

And everybody was
suspecting one or two days

that Russia must close Vistula.

- At the very beginning of the uprising,

the mood was of elation,
and some foreboding as well.

We stood quite a lot from Germans,

but we were driven to absolute limit.

We just couldn't stand it any longer,

and we thought to ourselves
that enough is enough.

- [Narrator] An elaborate
network of anti-tank barricades

was now set up throughout the city,

made up mostly of the
inevitable paving stones.

A front emerged which
separated whole districts

of the capital and even individual houses

or floors within the same building.

(guns firing)

The start had been chaotic.

After four years preparing for it,

many Warsaw Pols were given only

a few hours' notice of the uprising.

Some of the Home Army
units found themselves

in a different part of the
city from that allotted

to them and without their weapons.

Surprise should have been paramount,

but alas, had not been achieved.

The German garrison commander
had known the timing

of the uprising before
most of the participants.

At the start of the
uprising, the Warsaw Pols

had some 38,000 soldiers,
4,000 of them women,

but only one in 15 of
them, 2,500 all told,

had suitable weapons.

The rest, until they could
capture some from the Germans,

had to make do with sticks and swords

and antique hunting guns.

They faced a German garrison
that during the last few days

had risen to over 13,000
men, all well-equipped

with heavy guns and tanks and
airplanes at their disposal.

(airplanes rumbling)

The Pols, of course, had no tanks

and no heavy guns and no airplanes.

(guns firing)

The first day didn't go at
all well for the Warsaw Pols.

They obtained none of
their major objectives

and suffered 2,000 casualties,

nearly a sixth of their effective force,

whereas the Germans lost a mere 500 men.

Ominously, few prisoners
were taken on either side.

The stage was being set for
a macabre dance of death.

(guns firing)

In that crucial opening 24 hours,

the Pols managed to capture
only a fraction of the city.

The Germans still
controlled all the bridges

over the Vistula, the electricity works,

the railway stations, the airports,

even the telephone exchange.

With the phones denied them,
and having only primitive

signals equipment, the
Pols had to rely on a bevy

of brave girls as couriers, many of whom

were to lose their lives.

When they did get their radio to work,

they call London asking
for food and weapons

to be flown in straight away,

for the Russians to launch
an immediate offensive,

and for the Polish Paratroop Brigade

to be dropped in one of the city's parks.

Even if that had been physically possible,

the brigade was in fact
earmarked for another exploit

closer to British hearts: Arnhem.

(guns firing)

But on the second day,

the Warsaw Pols did have some success.

(explosions booming)

They captured both the power station

and the main post office.

After five years of occupation,

seeing German prisoners
cowering before them,

boosted Polish morale greatly.

They'd also secured a
stock of German uniforms,

which to add to the general confusion,

they proceeded to wear,
though with armbands

in the Polish colors of red and white.

London had replied that
since Warsaw was so distant

from any major British
or American airbase,

supplies could not be
flown in straight away.

Such airdrops needed careful planning,

which would take time.

Meanwhile, Warsaw would have
to hold out as best it could.

For the moment, too, the German garrison

seemed content merely to contain the Pols.

No counteroffensive was
begun to dislodge them.

Though when news of the
uprising reached Hitler,

he ordered that the
Warsaw Pols be wiped out

and their city razed to the ground

as an example to the
rest of occupied Europe.

Heinrich Himmler, his SS
chief, was given the task,

but all this was unknown
to the Warsaw defenders

as they enjoyed a respite
in the warm August sunshine.

Equally unknown to them, days
before the uprising began,

Hitler had decided
definitely to defend Warsaw

and was rushing there some
of his best remaining units.

After waiting so long, the die
was being cast for the Pols.

Many of the recruits to the Home Army

were totally untrained.

Now, the opportunity was
grasped for some instruction

in the use of their weapons.

(gun fires)

A few tanks were captured from the Germans

in those early days, and
some that had been damaged

were hurriedly repaired.

With the white eagle of old
Poland proudly painted on them,

these puny specimens were made ready

to meet the might of the German Panzers.

(bright marching band music)

(cymbals crash)

(bright marching band music)

Medals were struck and distributed

to some of the early heroes.

Time was even taken off
to celebrate weddings.

(somber organ music)

After being bottled up
all those terrible years

of German occupation, Polish cultural life

burst forth again.

(light playful music)

The children of course were not forgotten.

(children chattering)

Cinemas were reopened, newsreels shot.

The Polish people have
long had a reputation

for filmmaking, and most of these pictures

that we see were taken
by the brave cameramen

of the resistance.

Constantly exposed to
danger, many of them, alas,

did not survive the uprising.

- [Survivor] Everybody was
started publishing newspapers,

every little political group,

and there were daily
press conferences held

and the newspapers, even literary,

many articles were published
during the uprising.

So, there was a great
revival of Polish press,

which before was in the underground,

and in such a big numbers.

And all these newspapers were read widely

by the population of Warsaw.

- And we even had one or two concerts

organized by private citizens.

One particular one I
remember was in a private,

beautiful sitting room
typical before the wartime.

Things still somehow survive,

and elderly lady was playing
a lot of Chopin music.

(dramatic piano music)

Even a postal service was begun,

which issued its own
stamps, though no letters

bearing these stamps were ever

to leave Warsaw during the uprising.

(dramatic piano music)

It was run by boy scouts who
defied the German bullets,

ducking under conduits and
crawling through sewers

to make sure the letters reached

their destination within the day.

It was all free.

The recipients of letters were encouraged

to donate books for the wounded to read.

A veritable labyrinth
of tunnels crisscrossing

the German and Polish
lines were springing up

within free Warsaw, used
not only by the postal boys,

but also by the girl couriers

carrying messages between the units.

The ammunition, such as it was,
was conveyed this way, too.

(feet stomping rhythmically)

The respite for the Warsaw
Pols was short-lived.

On the morning of the
fifth day, Himmler's forces

threw themselves on the city.

A Saturday, it was soon to
be known as Black Saturday.

(guns firing)

Every Pol in sight was shot,
civilians and soldiers,

old and young, women and even children.

Nor were the sick and wounded
in the hospital spared.

30,000 Pols lost their lives that day.

The German casualties were
six dead and about 30 wounded.

So demoralized were the Pols,
that if Himmler's butchers

had concentrated more
on capturing territory

than killing people, the battle for Warsaw

would've been decided then.

(explosions booming)

Ammunition, too, was fast
running out on the Polish side.

And as if that were not
enough, the next day,

a Sunday, August the 6th,
the Stukas were sent in.

(airplane screeching)

(explosions booming)

(missiles screeching)
(explosions booming)

The bombing of August the 6th shattered

the Pols' system of communications

and created havoc behind their lines.

The atrocities of Black Saturday

and the ferocious bombing
of that terrible Sunday,

made the Warsaw Pols fight
that much more fanatically.

It so happened that the
regular German army,

hearing of the atrocities,
tried to put a stop to them,

perhaps more for military efficiency

than for reasons of morality.

(citizens chattering)
(guns firing)

Cellars were turned into hospitals

and the resources of doctors and nurses

were soon being stretched to the limit.

Drugs and dressings were in short supply

and linen bandages quickly
gave way to paper ones.

- [Survivor] From time to time,

some funeral was organized
in a ceremonial way.

We would stand around,
you see, at attention.

Somebody would recite a poem.

Priest would say a few words
about the hero who was killed.

(guns firing)

And then, even if the German
bombs would come, you see,

we would not move.

And that sort of a feeling, you see,

daily life is also full of ceremonies

and we take them for granted.

So, when the situation of danger comes,

you can not really change
your behavior too much.

- [Narrator] Warsaw's squares
and gardens were filling up

with the graves of the fallen.

40,000 had died in the
first week of the uprising.

(birds chirping)

(airplane rumbling)

(explosion booms)

- [Survivor] In big blocks
of flats which had normally

10 or 12 apartments, there were sometimes

five or 6,000 people concentrated,

and therefore if the bomb
fell on such a house,

the casualties then were enormous.

- [Survivor] It was harder
for civilian population

to sustain morale because they
are confined to basements.

They didn't have passes
to run around Warsaw

and they're not involved in action.

In spite of all horrors, you know,

the view of fire and smoke
and the whole big drama

of burning and at the
same time very heroic city

was tremendously impressive aesthetically.

(fire crackling)

- [Narrator] Water was
needed to put out the fires.

But most of the mains had
been ruptured in the bombing

and those wells within
the city were soon buried

beneath piles of rubble.

It was not long before
water was being rationed.

(citizens chattering)

Food was a problem from the
start since the uprising

was begun with only five days' supply

of it for the whole Warsaw population.

- But there was very little food,

mainly soup with some, you know, macaroni

or some kasha, things of that sort.

Under those circumstances,

one doesn't think much about food.

We fell physically weak.

And sometimes we would have some sort of,

you know, nausea from
hunger, but this was all.

We did not have much meat.

Sometimes somebody would
kill a horse, you see,

or a dog, and I could eat
horse with reluctance.

I was used to it because during
the war from time to time,

my grandmother would prepare, you know,

the steak out of horse.

But when they started
killing dogs, you know,

I like dogs very much.

I would have felt
cannibalistic eating dogs,

so I never tried, you know.

But I understand that
people were even more hungry

than I would eat try dogs.

- There was no rats in Warsaw.

Warsaw was in flame, burning city,

and probably the rats
has gone 'cause of heat.

- One thing which was in quite

of plenty food supply
was sugar, lump sugar.

We used to eat lump sugar,
which I suppose sustained us.

And alcohol was also
in fairly large supply.

One used to keep going
by sipping from a bottle

from time to time of alcohol.

- Looking back, I think
really I don't care at all

about my life, about my
food, my family even.

- Because once I saw myself in the mirror

and I said, oh, my legs became
really so nice, so thin.

I wish I could always have
such nice legs. (chuckles)

(explosion booms)

- [Narrator] The uprising was begun

with only enough ammunition

for five days' fighting by the Pols,

and so ways of supplementing
this was soon at a premium.

Unexploded German shells
and bombs were emptied

of their high explosive,
which was then crammed

into tin cans with a fuse attached

to serve as hand grenades.

Plumbers became gunsmiths.

Craftsmen who had spent
a lifetime fashioning

watches or violins were pressed

into manufacturing bullets and shells.

(guns firing)
(mortar pops)

Mortars were made out of drainpipes,

and car springs converted into catapults

to hurl homemade petrol bombs.

After the bombing of August the 6th,

the pleas to London of the Warsaw Pols

were answered in part
by occasional airdrops

from British planes.

But the losses were high
and most of the supplies

fell into German hands.

Churchill had asked
Stalin to help the Pols

since the Russians were nearest,

but Moscow was being ominously silent.

Roosevelt was reluctant to
press the Russians unduly

since the United States at that time

was trying to persuade them

to join in the war against Japan.

But the airdrops were a
great boost to Polish morale,

and the antitank equipment
that came this way

stood them in good stead when the Germans

resumed their attacks with heavy armor.

(tank rattling)

The German commander on the Eastern Front,

General Guderian, wrote in his memoirs

that the fighting for Warsaw in 1944

was far fiercer even
than that at Stalingrad.

(explosion booms)

The fiercest fighting of all in Warsaw

was that for the old heart of the city

where the bulk of the Polish defenders

had located themselves.

Street by street, building by building,

even brick by brick, the
battle for Old Warsaw went.

The Germans use their
tanks to bombard the city

from close quarters.

(tanks rumbling)

Polish resistance was stiff
and German casualties heavy.

Most of the German
casualties were the work

of Polish snipers stationed
in the upper stories

of the ruined buildings.

(guns firing)

With ammunition perilously
scarce, a German for every bullet

was the Polish slogan at this time.

And it was very nearly achieved

in the fighting for the Old Town.

The Pols had their successes,

particularly when on
August the 20th they took

the telephone exchange from which

fanatical Ukrainian
mercenaries of the German army

had been harassing the
defenders in the Old Town.

A few days later, the
German police headquarters

was captured, many
Polish hostages released,

and some precious ammunition secured.

(explosion booms)

(guns firing)

From then on, the battle for the Old Town

grew in intensity as
the Pols were surrounded

and pushed into ever smaller positions.

The German attackers had
now doubled in numbers

to 30,000 or so.

(fire crackling)

(guns firing)

The worst fate of all befell
the luckless 100,000 civilians

crammed into the ancient
heart of the city.

- [Survivor] Bombing was
continuous, absolutely continuous

towards the end of my stay in Old Town.

I just didn't hear it any longer.

Artillery was constant,
mortars were constant.

Tanks were coming and they were

just bombarding every street.

Towards the end the fight was going

from one house to another.

At one point in Cathedral of St. John,

Germans were at the great altar

and our troops were at the choir.

Literally, we were fighting
from one room to another.

(guns firing)

There were dead all around, you see.

But we would cover them with newspapers

and we would not try to look at them.

- [Survivor] I had been so upset.

There's always smell of burning bodies

and smell for the street of
burning or decomposing horses.

Everything was burning.

It was very hot, by the way,
very hot August and September.

There was not a single drop of rain.

And it was very bad for us
because if it would be clouds,

would be no German planes which was just

picking up house after the house,

mainly churches, mainly bigger building

because they had been
expecting to kill more people

if they attack bigger object.

- When the house was burned out,

the heat kept in the
basements in the bricks

for quite a long time, and we
used to remove those bricks

and put potatoes in between
them and bake potatoes this way,

when they were available of course

because not everybody had potatoes.

- There was lots of praying,
lots of religious behavior.

There were also some fortune tellers

who were doing this sometimes
for money even, you know,

for piece of bread.

They're trying to predict
what will happen, you know.

They will tell about, oh,
English planes are coming.

American planes are coming.

Any minute we are going to be liberated.

So they perform important function

of sustaining morale of those people

who were not involved in action.

(guns firing)

(explosion booms)

- [Narrator] Peace delegates
from the German side

were sent into the Old
Town from time to time,

but the Pols were not
interested in surrendering,

particularly as they had
not been recognized yet

by Hitler as enlisted
competents due the rights

of prisoners of war under
the Geneva conventions.

The British threatened reprisals
against German prisoners

held in Britain if the Pols
were not properly treated.

(explosions booming)

The Germans meant business

and even brought up
their giant mortar, Thor,

to add its pennyworth
against the hapless defenders

of the Old Town.

Used previously only in
the Siege of Sevastopol,

it had to be fired from
one and a half miles away.

Each of its shells
weighed more than two tons

and they could penetrate a
hundred inches of concrete.

The fighting for the Old Town ended

on September the 1st after 32 days.

Those who could, escaped
through the sewers

to Polish positions
elsewhere in the capital

despite the Germans
harassing them en route

by dropping hand grenades down manholes

and even injecting explosive gas.

2,300 soldiers and 3,000 civilians

eluded the Germans in this way.

Left behind were 2,500 badly wounded

and 45,000 civilians, many
of whom were now massacred

by the enraged German attackers.

After the Old Town fell,
the Pols thought seriously

of surrendering,
particularly as the Germans

now recognized them as competents.

But suddenly, on September the 10th,

the Soviets renewed their
offensive against Warsaw

and even offered to help
the beleaguered Pols.

Backed by a public opinion in Britain

alarmed and embarrassed
at Warsaw's plight,

Churchill had been
hammering away at Stalin

despite the Soviet leader having dubbed

the Warsaw defenders as
criminal adventurers.

German air reconnaissance had established

that the Soviets had 60 airfields

manned by 2,400 planes
within easy reach of Warsaw.

On September the 13th,
a few Russian planes

made token airdrops over Warsaw.

Landing without parachutes,
much of the equipment

that didn't fall into German
hands was too damaged to use.

But some Soviet fighters did
start appearing over Warsaw

to deter the Stukas who had hitherto

been having it all their own way,

and some Soviet shells started
falling on German positions

within the capital.

That same day, the Red Army,

using mainly communist Polish units,

forced the Germans back to the
Vistula in front of Warsaw.

The next day, the Germans
blew all the bridges.

On September the 16th,
some of these Polish units

managed to cross the Vistula and link up

with the Warsaw defenders.

But they suffered terrible losses

mainly because they were newly
conscripted and inexperienced

and they were withdrawn
to the east bank again.

The Russians did not repeat the gesture.

Stalin obviously felt he'd done
enough to satisfy Churchill.

(airplane engines rumbling)

The United States Air
Force on September the 18th

mounted a big airdrop over Warsaw,

having been allowed just this once

to refuel at Soviet airfields.

110 Flying Fortresses flew from England.

More than a thousand parachutes were seen

to fall to the ground, but unfortunately,

90% fell into German hands.

So small was the area of
Warsaw still held by the Pols.

Even so, it boosted the morale for awhile

of the Warsaw defenders, but
alas, was not to be repeated.

The German garrison, as
well as being unexpectedly

resupplied from American sources,

was also now reinforced with those units

withdrawn across the Vistula

through the action of the Red Army.

The Warsaw Pols were thus doubly troubled,

and one by one, their
pockets of resistance

were picked off as the German Panzers

relentlessly pounded
building after building.

With their ammunition virtually gone,

all the Pols had left was their fervor.

The uprising produced
many new patriotic songs.

(group singing in foreign language)

- [Survivor] I didn't see
anybody in despair during

the Warsaw insurrection.

This is connected probably
with our very Polish attitudes

that we feel that the style of action

is more important than
the results of action.

(group singing in foreign language)

- If you look the Polish history,

we committed these sort
of acts of craziness

since, oh, 1797 to
defend our independence.

Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

And from that point of
view, it was no other way.

We always pay in blood
for our independence

and we never are lucky with our allies.

- We found out by then
that we couldn't account

on any help from the Russians
and our Western allies

were unable to help us,
so we were just like a rat

cornered in the corner by two cats,

and we were sure that we couldn't survive.

So, one lost completely
instinct for survival.

Before when I used to cross barricades

of the places which around the fire,

I used to duck, but afterwards
I was just walking erect

and hoping that I will be
killed by a bullet painlessly.

- I did not expect Russian
help because insurrection

was both against Germans
and against Russians.

We wanted to liberate our own capital.

- Well, if I climb to the
top of the five-floor block

of flats, I have seen this
really Polish First Army,

which under the Russian commands,

and they even was washing in the Vistula

on the opposite bank of Vistula.

- [Narrator] On September the 29th,

the Germans began a hurricane
artillery bombardment

of the remaining Polish positions.

(artillery screeching)
(explosions booming)

(artillery pops)

Moves had already been
begun on the Polish side

to negotiate a surrender.

The go between was the president

of the Polish Red Cross,
Countess Tarnowska.

Those last days of the struggle

were the most agonizing of all
for the civilians of Warsaw

since by now they had no
food, no water, nothing.

The end came on October the 4th.

First, the Germans allowed
the civilians to leave.

Their bewildered faces told the story.

(somber orchestral music)

The Polish commander,
General Bor-Komorowski,

came to his German opposite
number's headquarters

to complete the surrender formalities.

He was offered a meal,
which he clearly needed,

but which he refused.

Surprisingly, the Germans allowed the Pols

to surrender honorably.

No doubt, some of the German generals

had their minds on possible war
crimes trials in the future.

9,000 Polish soldiers surrendered.

Another 3,500 preferred to escape Warsaw

to continue the struggle elsewhere.

The hopeless fight had
lasted 10 long weeks,

63 days to be exact,

twice as long as the Pols had held out

against the Germans in September 1939.

It had cost the lives, though,

of nearly a quarter of a million Pols.

The German casualties
were only a few thousand.

Once the remaining
citizens had been driven

from the city, Warsaw was
systematically destroyed.

Hitler was determined it
should never rise again.

(explosion booms)

(building materials crashing)

(fire crackling)

(flamethrowers hissing)

(fire crackling)

(explosion booms)

(building materials crashing)

- [Survivor] Somebody
once said that if you take

a handful of Warsaw soil and squeeze it

that blood will run from it.

(somber violin music)

- [Narrator] On January the 17th, 1945,

15 weeks after the surrender and 25 weeks

after the beginning of the uprising,

the Red Army entered Warsaw.

Today, in a rebuilt Warsaw,
a Russian-backed government

rules in Poland.

(dramatic piano music)