wosung
Posts: 692
Joined: 7/18/2005 Status: offline
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Arguably no other people suffered more in WW 2 than the Polish people, given the tall percentage of dead of it’s overall population (with Russians and Chinese following next). Arguably Warsaw was the European city destroyed to the utmost degree in that war (with Manilla suffering a similar fate in the Pacific). So those all those deads and the said uprising really should be remembered. Remembering is not only about the past, but also about the later and present perception of the past. Thus national tragedies like Katyn and the Second Warsaw uprising (first was in the Ghetto) were highly sensitive (non-)events in communist Poland, because they defined Polands relation towards its socialist “brother” state in the East. And they continue to be the proud Polish nation’s key events, now symbolizing the costs of liberty and Poland’s relations towards it’s larger neigbours East and West. As with other national key events elsewhere in the world the Warsaw uprising doesn’t seem to be undisputed in present Poland, some hailing it as national symbol, some criticizing it as pointless symbol, weakening the Polish elite even more and thus influencing Poland’s later communist fate. Last not least a side note about the Red Army and the Warsaw uprising. It rather seems that end of July 1944 the advanced Red Army units after the destruction of German Army Group Centre hastily were ordered to capture Warsaw at all cost - without regard to their flanks and their logistical situation. Stalin’s rationale was to bag a future prize – exactly without any annoying attempt of Polish self-liberation. But this politically motivated military thrust failed miserably, resulting in the widely unknown tank battle of Warsaw: From August 1st to 4th 1944 the remnants of four German panzer divisions ( 19th, Hermann Göring, Wiking and 4th ) with some 223 Panzer and 54 assault guns under Model consecutively attacked northeast of Warsaw in order to protect Wehrmacht’s logistical centre there. In the cauldron of Radzymin, Wolomin and Okuniew, they bagged and destroyed the 3rd Soviet Tank Corps (Aleksej Ivanovic Radzievskij) and other parts of 2nd Tank Army, badly mauled it’s 8th and 16th Tank Corps plus the 8th Guard Tank Corps. Some 550 Soviet tanks were destroyed. This tank battle probably diminished Red Army’s real and potential chances of reaching Warsaw. But trying it did, albeit not exactly to help the inhabitants of Warsaw. Regards
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