Operation Tempest
Operation Storm (
Polish:
Plan Burza; sometimes also rendered into English as
Operation Burza or
Operation Tempest) was a series of uprisings conducted during
World War II by the
Polish Home Army.
The chief goal of Operation Storm was to seize control of cities and areas where
German forces were preparing their defenses against the Soviet
Red Army, so that Polish underground
civil authorities could take power before the arrival of the
Soviets.
Plan
The Home Army had from its inception been preparing a national armed rising against the
Germans. The basic framework of the future rising had been created in September
1942. According to the plan, the Uprising was to be ordered by the Polish
Commander-in-Chief in Exile when the defeat of the
Wehrmacht on the
Eastern Front became apparent. The Uprising was to begin in Central
Poland: in the "
General Gouvernement,"
Zagłębie,
Kraków Voivodship, and the
Białystok and
Brześć areas.
The Uprising's basic objectives were to:# end the German occupation;# seize arms and supplies needed for a Polish regular army on Polish soil;# counter the threat from the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army;# rebuild a regular
Polish Army;# rebuild civil authority, communications, and an arms industry;# maintain peace and order behind the front lines; and# begin offensive operations against
Wehrmacht forces still on
Polish soil.
Reconstruction of a Polish regular army was to be based on the prewar Polish
order of battle. Home Army units were to be turned into regular divisions. Initially to be created were 16 infantry divisions, 3 cavalry brigades and 1 motorized brigade, to be equipped with captured weapons or with arms and supplies delivered by the
Allies. The second phase was to see the re-building of an additional 15 divisions and 5 cavalry brigades which, before the
war, had been stationed in eastern and western Poland.
The plan had been partly implemented. Beginning in
1943, Home Army units were grouped into larger units bearing the names and numbers of prewar Polish divisions, brigades and regiments.
Allies' ally
In early
1943, after the German
defeat at Stalingrad, it was clear that the western Allies had made relatively little progress toward an invasion of the European continent, and that the planned Polish rising would face a still powerful German army rather than units retreating to an already defeated homeland.
In February
1943, the
Home Army chief, General
Stefan Rowecki, amended the plan. The Uprising would take place in three stages. The first stage would be an armed rising in the east (with main centers of resistance at
Lwów and
Wilno) in advance of the approaching
Red Army. In preparation, the "
Wachlarz" organization was formed. The second stage would be an armed struggle in the zone between the
Curzon Line and the
Vistula River; and the third stage would be a national rising over the rest of
Poland.
On
April 25,
1943, Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations were broken by
Stalin due to Polish inquiries about the
Katyn massacres, and it became clear that the advancing
Red Army might not come to Poland as a liberator but rather, as General Rowecki put it, "our allies' ally." On
November 26,
1943, the
Polish government in exile issued instructions that, if diplomatic relations had not resumed with the
Soviet Union before the Soviets entered
Poland, Home Army forces were to remain underground pending further decisions.
The Home Army's commander on the ground, however, took a different approach, and on
November 30,
1943, a final version of the plan was drafted.
Operation Storm
The plan was to cooperate with the advancing
Red Army on a tactical level, while Polish civil authorities came out from underground and took power in Allied-controlled Polish territory. This plan was approved by the Delegate of the
Polish government in exile and by the Polish underground parliament (
Krajowa Reprezentacja Polityczna).
On
January 2,
1944,
Red Army forces of the 2nd Belarusian Front crossed the prewar Polish border. At the same time,
massacres of Poles in Volhynia reached their peak and the
27th Polish Home Army Infantry Division was formed. Thus began Operation Storm. The Division managed to contact the commanders of the advancing
Red Army and began successful joint operations against the
Wehrmacht. Together they retook
Kowel (
April 6) and
Włodzimierz. The Division was, however, soon forced to retreat west, and in the
Polesie area was attacked by both German and Soviet forces. Polish soldiers taken prisoner by the Soviets were given the choice of joining the
Red Army or being sent to
Soviet forced-labor camps. The remnants of the Division crossed the
Bug River, where they were attacked by Soviet partisan units. After liberating the towns of
Lubartów and
Kock, the Division (reduced to some 3,200 men) was surrounded by the
Red Army and taken prisoner.
In the north, on
June 7,
1944, the forces of the Wilno and Nowogródek Home Army districts (some 13,000 men under Col.
Aleksander Krzyżanowski) opened an
armed rising in Wilno (now
Vilnius), successfully liberating the city before the arrival of the
Red Army. By
June 14, the surrounding countryside had also been liberated by the
Polish 19th Home Army Infantry Division. The Polish forces and the civil authorities were, however, captured by the Soviets and sent to
Russia.
Lwów Uprising
On
July 23, Home Army forces in Lwów (now
Lviv) began an armed rising in cooperation with advancing Soviet forces. In four days the city was liberated. The Polish civil and military authorities were then summoned to "a meeting with Red Army commanders" and taken prisoner by the Soviet
NKVD. Col.
Władysław Filipkowski's men were forcibly conscripted into the
Red Army or sent to
forced-labor camps, or went back underground.
Warsaw Uprising
Seeing the fate of the Home Army forces that had taken part in Operation Storm, the
Polish government in exile and the Home Army's current commander, Gen.
Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, decided that the last chance for regaining Poland's independence was to open an
uprising in Warsaw. On
July 21,
1944, Bór-Komorowski ordered that the
Warsaw Uprising begin at 17:00 hours on
August 1,
1944. The political goal was to emphasize for the Allies the existence of the Polish government and Polish civil authorities. Warsaw was to be taken in order to allow the legitimate
Polish government to return from exile to Poland.
At the same time, other Home Army districts were also mobilized. In the
Kielce and
Radom area, the
2nd Polish Home Army Division was formed and took control of the entire area except for the cities. Other units were also mustered in
Kraków,
Łódź and
Greater Poland.
Outcome
|
1st company of Sambor command of Drohobycz Armia Krajowa inspectorate during Operation Tempest |
The Germans' suppression of the
Warsaw Uprising, in the absence of Soviet assistance to the insurgents, marked the end of Operation Storm.
Joseph Stalin would not let the
Polish government in exile return and instead created a puppet
Moscow-backed government, while arresting or killing Home Army personnel and members of the civil authorities. In autumn
1944 many Home Army units were disbanded, while remaining forces returned underground.
*
Polish Secret State**
Polish Home Army**
Polish government in exile*
History of Poland (1939-1945)*
Polish contribution to World War II
