Home Army

"Home Army" redirects here. For other uses, see Home Army (disambiguation).

Armia Krajowa (the Home Army), abbreviated "AK," was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Union for Armed Struggle) and over the next two years incorporated most other Polish underground forces. It was disbanded in January 1945, when Polish territory had largely been cleared of German forces by the advancing Soviet Red Army.

Armia Krajowa, with over 400,000 members, was by far the largest Polish underground resistance movement, and the world's second largest after that in Yugoslavia. It constituted the armed wing of what became known as the "Polish Secret State" ("państwo podziemne").

AK's primary activity was sabotage of German transports headed for the eastern front in the Soviet Union. AK also fought some full-scale battles against the Germans, particularly in 1943 and 1944 during Operation Tempest, thereby tying down a number of German Army divisions.

Armia Krajowa, loyal to the Polish Government in Exile, was viewed by the Soviet Union as an antagonistic force, leading to growing conflicts between AK and Soviet forces both during and after the war.

History

World War II

AK's origins were in Służba Zwycięstwu Polski (Service for the Victory of Poland), which had been set up, just as the German invasion of Poland was nearing completion, on September 27, 1939, by General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski. Seven weeks later, November 17, 1939, on the orders of General Władysław Sikorski, this organization was succeeded by Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Union for Armed Struggle), which over two years later, on February 14, 1942, became AK.

While those two were the founders of AK, other Polish resistance movements existed, yet most of them eventually joined AK: Narodowa Organizacja Wojskowa (fall 1942/summer 1943, partially), Konfederacja Narodu (fall 1943), Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (summer 1944, partially), Bataliony Chłopskie (partially), Gwardia Ludowa (1943, partially). The most notable movement that did not join with AK was Armia Ludowa.

Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski.

Stefan Rowecki (pseudonym Grot, or "Arrowhead"), served as the AK's first commander until his arrest in 1943; Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski commanded from July 1943 until his capture in September 1944. Leopold Okulicki, pseudonym Niedzwiadek ("Bear Cub") led the organisation in its final days.

Throughout the period of its existence AK units carried out thousands of armed raids and daring intelligence operations, bombed hundreds of railway shipments, and participated in many partisan clashes and battles with German police and Wehrmacht units. AK also conducted retaliatory operations to assassinate Gestapo officials in response to Nazi terror tactics imposed on the civilian population of Poland.

Armia Krajowa supplied valuable intelligence information to the Allies, for example, about V-1 and V-2 flying bombs and on German concentration camps.

While the AK did not engender a general revolt, its forces did carry out intensive economic and armed sabotage in addition to engaging the occupying forces in guerilla attacks. In 1944 it acted on a broad scale, notably in initiating the Warsaw Uprising, which broke out on 1 August 1944 with the aim of liberating Polish capital of Warsaw before the arrival of the Soviet Red Army. While the insurgents released a few hundred prisoners from the Gęsia St. concentration camp and carried out fierce street-fighting, the Germans eventually defeated the rebels and burned the city, finally quelling the Uprising only on 2 October 1944.

Polish Home Army's 26th Infantry Regiment en route from the Kielce-Radom area to Warsaw in an attempt to join the Warsaw Uprising.

Major military and sabotage operations included the Operation Belt in 1943, a series of attacks against German border guarding stations on the frontier between the General Government and the territories annexed by Germany and the Operation Tempest in 1944, a series of uprisings whose chief goal 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. The largest and most known of the Operation Tempest battles was the Warsaw Uprising - the attempt to liberate Warsaw. It started on August 1 1944; the Polish troops took control of significant portion of the city and resisted the German-led forces until October 2 (63 days in total). Other similar actions included the Wilno Uprising and Lwów Uprising.

Axis casualties due to the actions of the Polish underground, of which AK formed the bulk of, are estimated at up to 150,000. The AK primary activity was sabotage of German rail and road transports to the eastern front in Russia, but the organization also fought some full scale battles with the Germans, particularly in 1943 and 1944, tying down several German divisions.

Postwar

The AK officially disbanded on 19 January 1945 to avoid armed conflict with the Soviets and a civil war. However, many units decided to continue their struggle under new circumstances.

Soviet Union and Polish communists viewed the underground loyal to the Polish government in exile as a force which had to be removed before they could gain complete control over Poland. Future General Secretary of PZPR, Władysław Gomułka, is quoted as saying: "Soldiers of AK are a hostile element which must be removed without mercy". Another prominent Polish communist, Roman Zambrowski, said that AK had to be "exterminated".

The first AK structure designed primarily to deal with the Soviet threat was NIE, formed in the mid-1943. NIE's goals was not to engage the Soviet forces in combat, but rather to observe and conduct espionage while the Polish governent in exile decided how to deal with the Soviets; at that time the exiled government still believed that the solution could be found through negotiations. On 7 May 1945 NIE ("NO") was disbanded and transformed into Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj ("Homeland Armed Forces Delegation"), this organization however lasted only until 8 August 1945, when the decision was made to disband the organization and stop partisan resistance on Polish territories.

The first Polish communist government, PKWN, formed in July 1944, declined jurisdiction over AK soldiers, therefore for more than a year it was the Soviet Union agencies like NKVD that took care of dealing with AK. By the end of the war approximately 60,000 soldiers of AK were arrested, 50,000 of them were deported to Soviet Union's Gulags and prisons; most of those soldiers were captured by Soviets during or in the aftermath of Operation Tempest, when many AK units tried to cooperate with the Soviets in a nationwide uprising against the Germans. Other veterans were arrested when they decided to approach the government officials after being promised amnesty. After such broken promises during the first few years of communist control, AK soldiers stopped trusting the government.

The third AK organization was Wolność i Niezawisłość ("Freedom and Sovereignty"). Again its primary goal was not combat. Rather, it was designed to help the AK soldiers in transition from the life of partisans into that of civilians; the secrecy and conspiracy were necessary in the light of increasing persecution of AK veterans by the communist government. WiN was however in much need of funds, to pay for false documents and to provide resources for the partisans, many of whom had lost their homes and entire life's saving in the war. Viewed as enemies of the state, starved of resources, and with a vocal faction advocating armed resistance against the Soviets and their Polish proxies, WiN was far from efficient. A significant victory for the NKVD and the newly created Polish secret police, Urząd Bezpieczeństwa, came in the second half of 1945, when they managed to convince several leaders of AK and WiN that they truly wanted to offer amnesty to AK members. In a few months they managed to gain information about vast numbers of AK/WiN resources and people. By the time the (imprisoned) AK and WiN leaders realised their mistake several months later, the organizations had been crippled with thousands of their members having been arrested. WiN was finally disbanded in 1952.

AK Monument, Sopot, Poland.

NKVD and UB were certainly not beyond using force. In Autumn of 1946 a group of 100-200 soldiers of NSZ group were lured into a trap and then massacred. By 1947 a colonel of the communist forces declared that "Terrorist and political underground has ceased to be a threatening force, although there are still man of the forests" that need to be dealt with.

The persecution of AK was only part of the big picture of stalinism in Poland. In the period of 1944-1956, approximately 2 million people were arrested, over 20 thousand, such as the hero of Auschwitz, Witold Pilecki, were executed or murdered in communist prisons, and 6 million Polish citizens (i.e. every third adult Pole) were classifed as a 'reactionary or criminal element' and subject to invigilation by state agencies. In 1956 an amnesty released 35,000 former AK soldiers from prisons: for the crime of fighting for their homeland they had spent sometimes over 10 years in prisons. Still, some partisans remained in the countryside, unwilling or simply unable to rejoin the community; they became known as the cursed soldiers. Stanisław Marchewska "Ryba" was killed in 1957, and the last AK partisan, Józef Franczak "Lalek", was killed in 1963 - almost 2 decades after the Second World War ended. It was only four years later, in 1967, that Adam Boryczka, a soldier of AK and a member of the elite, Britain-trained Cichociemny ("The Silent and Hidden") intelligence and support group, was released from prison. Until the end of the People's Republic of Poland AK soldiers were under investigation by the secret police, and it was only in 1989, after the fall of communism, that the sentences of AK soldiers were finally declared invalid and annulled by the Polish courts.

Structure and membership

In the summers of 1943 and 1944 AK reached it's highest membership numbers, estimated at close to 400,000. Estimates of AK membership in the first half of 1944 range from 250,000 to 400,000, with an average being over 300,000, including a cadre of more than 10,000 officers. Such numbers made Armia Krajowa not only the largest of the Polish resistance movements, but also the second largest in the world, after Yugoslavian partisans who numbered over 800,000. Casualties during the war are estimated at about 34,000-100,000, plus about 20,000-50,000 after the war (casualties and imprisonment).

The executive branch of the AK was the operational command, composed of many units. Most of the other Polish underground armies became incorporated into the AK, including:

• The Konfederacja Narodu (Confederation of the People) (1943).
• The Bataliony Chłopskie (Peasants' Battalions).
• A large military organization of the Stronnictwo Ludowe (People's Party).
• The Socjalistyczna Organizacja Bojowa (Socialist Fighting Organization), established by the Polska Partia Socjalistyczna (Polish Socialist Party).
• The Narodowa Organizacja Wojskowa (National Military Organisation), established by the Stronnictwo Narodowe (National Party).
• From March 1944, parts of the extreme right-wing organization, the Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (National Armed Forces).

The largest group which refused to join AK was the pro-Soviet and communist Armia Ludowa (AL), which at it's height in 1944 numbered 30,000 people.

The AK divided itself organizationally into sixteen regional branches, subdivided in turn into eighty-nine inspectorates, which further comprised 278 districts. The supreme command defined the main tasks of the AK as preparation for action and, after the termination of German occupation, general armed revolt until victory. At that stage plans envisaged the seizure of power in Poland by the delegatura establishment, the representatives of the London-based Polish government in exile; and by the government-in-exile itself, which would return to Poland.

File:1Baon1PPLeg Radom-Kielce 1944.jpg

Soldiers of the 1st Battallion of the 1st Legions Home Army Regiment, from the Kielce-Radom Armia Krajowa inspectorate; August 1944

File:1Comp obwSambor inspecDrohobycz Burza3.jpg

Soldiers of the 1st company of Sambor command of Drohobycz Armia Krajowa inspectorate armed with German-made arms and dressed in captured German field uniforms. The soldier on the lower left appears to be holding a Russian-made PPSh-41, or some derivative of that weapon.

Area	Districts	Code-names	Sub-units	Operation Tempest
Warsaw area Warsaw Col. Łaszcz	Eastern Warsaw-Praga Col. Szeliga	Struga (stream), Krynica (source), Gorzelnia (distillery)		10th Infantry Division
	Western Warsaw Col. Roman	Hallerowo (Hallertown), Hajduki, Cukrownia (Sugar factory)		28th Infantry Division
	Northern Warsaw Lt. Col. Kazimierz	Olsztyn, Tuchola, Królewiec, Garbarnia (tannery)		8th Infantry Division
South-Eastern area Lwów Col. Janka	Lwów Lwów Col. Luśnia	Dukat (ducat), Lira (lire), Promień (ray)		5th Infantry Division
	Stanisławów Stanisławów Capt. Żuraw	Karaś (crucian carp), Struga (stream), Światła (lights)		11th Infantry Division
	Tarnopol Tarnopol Maj. Zawadzki	Komar (mosquito), Tarcza (shield), Ton (tone)		12th Infantry Division
Western area Poznań Col. Denhoff	Pomerania Gdynia Col. Piorun	Borówki (berries), Pomnik (monument)
	Poznań Poznań Col. Kowalówka	Pałac (palace), Parcela (lot)
Independent areas	Wilno Wilno Col. Wilk	Miód (honey), Wiano (dowry)	"Kaunas Lithuania"
	Nowogródek Nowogródek Lt.Col. Borsuk	Cyranka (duck), Nów (new moon)		Zgrupowanie Okręgu AK Nowogródek
	Warsaw Warsaw Col. Monter	Drapacz (sky-scraper), Przystań (harbour), Wydra (otter), Prom (shuttle)
	Polesie Pińsk Col. Leśny	Kwadra (quarter), Twierdza (keep), Żuraw (crane)		30th Infantry Division
	Wołyń Równe Col. Luboń	Hreczka (buckwheat), Konopie (hemp)		27th Infantry Division
	Białystok Białystok Col. Mścisław	Lin (tench), Czapla (aigrette), Pełnia (full moon)		29th Infantry Division
	Lublin Lublin Col. Marcin	Len (linnen), Salon (saloon), Żyto (rye)		3rd Legions' Infantry Division 9th Infantry Division
	Kraków Kraków various commanders, incl. Col. Róg	Gobelin, Godło (coat of arms), Muzeum (museum)		6th Infantry Division 106th Infantry Division 21st Infantry Division 22nd Infantry Division 24th Infantry Division Kraków Motorized Cavalry Brigade
	Silesia Katowice various commanders, incl. Col. Zygmunt	Kilof (pick), Komin (chimney), Kuźnia (foundry), Serce (heart)
	Kielce-Radom Kielce, Radom Col. Mieczysław	Rolnik (farmer), Jodła (fir)		2nd Legions' Infantry Division 7th Infantry Division
	Łódź Łódź Col. Grzegorz	Arka (ark), Barka (barge), Łania (bath)		25th Infantry Division 26th Infantry Division
Foreign areas	Hungary Budapest Lt.Col. Korkozowicz	Liszt
	Reich Berlin	Blok (block)

In another dimension the AK was divided into seven sections: Organizations, Information and Espionage, Operations and Training, Logistics, Communications, Information and Propaganda, and finances.

Other important Armia Krajowa sub-units included:

• Kedyw (also known as 'special operations eight section')
• Wachlarz (part of Kedyw)

Weapons and equipment

File:1Comp obwSambor inspecDrohobycz Burza2.jpg

Soldiers of the 1st company of Sambor command, Drohobycz inspectorate during the Operation Tempest; the soldier on the right is equipped with Kb wz.98a while the one on the left with a German MP40 machine pistol

As a clandestine army operating in a country occupied by the enemy, separated by over a thousand kilometers from any friendly territory, the AK faced unique challenges in acquiring arms and equipment. In a tremendous achievement, the AK was able to overcome these difficulties to some extent and put tens of thousands of armed soldiers into the field. Nevertheless, the difficult conditions meant that only infantry forces armed with light weapons could be fielded. Any use of artillery, armor or aviation was obviously out of the question (except for a few instances during the Warsaw Uprising, like the Kubuś armored car). Even these light infantry units were as a rule armed with a mixture of weapons of various types, usually in quantities sufficient to arm only a fraction of a unit's soldiers.

In contrast, their opponents - the German armed forces and their allies - were almost universally supplied with plenty of arms and ammunition, and could count on a full array of support forces. Unit for unit, its German opponents enjoyed a crushing material superiority over the AK. This severely restricted the kind of operations that it could successfully undertake.

The arms and equipment for Armia Krajowa mostly came from four sources: arms buried by the Polish armies on the battlefields after the Invasion of Poland in 1939, arms purchased or captured from the Germans and their allies, arms clandestinely manufactured by Armia Krajowa itself, and arms received from Allied air drops.

From the arms caches hidden in 1939, the AK obtained: 614 heavy machine guns, 1,193 light machine guns, 33,052 rifles, 6,732 pistols, 28 antitank light field guns, 25 antitank rifles and 43,154 hand grenades. However, because of inadequate preservation which had to be improvised in the chaos of the September campaign, most of these guns were in poor condition. Of those that were hidden in the ground and dug up in 1944 during preparation for Operation Tempest, only 30% were usable.

Polish afterwar communist propaganda poster showing soldier of Armia Ludowa and soldier of Armia Krajowa, saying: "The Giant and the spat dwarf of reactionism."

Sometimes arms purchases from German soldiers were conducted on a "grass roots" level. Purchases were made by individual units and sometimes by individual soldiers. As Germany's prospects for victory diminished and the morale in German units dropped, the number of soldiers willing to sell their weapons correspondingly increased and thus made this source more important. All such purchases were highly risky, as the Gestapo was well aware of this black market in arms and tried to check it by setting up sting operations. For the most part this trade was limited to personal weapons, but occasionally light and heavy machine guns could also be purchased. It was much easier to trade with Italian and Hungarian units stationed in Poland, which willingly sold their arms to the Polish underground as long as they could conceal this trade from the Germans.

The efforts to capture weapons from Germans also proved highly successful. Raids were conducted on trains carrying equipment to the front, as well as guardhouses and gendarmerie posts. Sometimes weapons were taken from individual German soldiers accosted in the street. During the Warsaw Uprising, the AK even managed to capture a few German armored vehicles.

Arms were clandestinely manufactured by the AK in its own secret workshops, and also by its members working in German armament factories. In this way the AK was able to procure submachine guns (copies of British Sten, indigenous Błyskawica and KIS), pistols (Vis), flamethrowers, explosive devices, road mines and hand grenades (Filipinka and Sidolówka). Hundreds of people were involved in this manufacturing effort.

The final source of supply were Allied air drops. This was the only way to obtain more exotic but highly useful equipment such as plastic explosives or antitank weapons (PIAT). During the war 485 Allied planes made air drops destined for the AK, delivering 600.9 tons of supplies. During these operations, 70 planes and 62 crews (of which 28 were Polish) were lost. Besides equipment, the planes also parachuted highly qualified instructors (the Cichociemni), of whom 316 were inserted into Poland during the war. Due to the large distance from bases in Britain and the Mediterranean, and lukewarm political support, the airdrops were only a fraction of those carried out in support of French or Yugoslavian resistance movements.

Kotwica, one of the symbols of the Armia Krajowa

Relations with other forces

Relations with Jews

In February 1942, the Operational Command of the AK Information and Propaganda Office set up the Section for Jewish Affairs, directed by Henryk Woliński. This section collected data about the situation of the Jewish population, drafted reports and sent information to London. It also centralized contacts between Polish and Jewish military organizations. The AK also organised financial aid for Jews (see Żegota). The AK accepted only a few Jews (about one thousand) into its own ranks: it generally turned down Jewish applicants, since they could be more easily identified by the Nazis.

One of AK members, Witold Pilecki, was the only person to volunteer for imprisonment in Auschwitz. The information he gathered proved crucial in convincing Western Allies about the fate of Jewish population.

The AK provided the Warsaw Ghetto with about sixty revolvers, several hundred hand grenades, and ammunition and explosives. During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, AK units tried twice to blow up the ghetto wall, carried out holding actions outside the ghetto walls, and together with GL forces sporadically attacked German sentry units near the ghetto walls. Security Cadre (Kadra Bezpieczeństwa or KB), one of the organizations subordinate to the AK, under the command of Henryk Iwański took a direct part in fights inside the ghetto together with Jewish fighters from ŻZW and ŻOB.

Three out of seven members of the Collective Command of the AK (KG AK) had Jewish origins.

While most historians agree that AK was largely untainted in collaboration with Nazis in the Holocaust, the accusations of the complicity of single AK members or groups in anti-Jewish violence are frequently brought up to this day. The issue remains a controversial one and is subject to a difficult debate.

Relations with Lithuanians

Further information: Polish-Lithuanian relations during the World War II

File:Armia Krajowa killings.jpg

Killed Lithuanian Vinslovai family by Armia Krajowa

Murderred Lithuanians by Armia Krajowa

Relations between Lithuanians and Poles were strained already during most of the interwar period and during the World War II. Although Lithuanian and Polish resistance movements had in principle the same enemies - Nazi Germany and Soviet Union - they never became allies during the war. The main obstacle in forming an alliance was a territorial dispute centering on Lithuania’s historical capital Vilnius. Only in 1944-1945, after the Soviet re-occupation, did Lithuanian and Polish resistance start cooperating in the fight against Soviet occupants.

Some Lithuanians, encouraged by German's vague promises of autonomy, cooperated with Nazis in their actions against Poles during the German occupation. In 1943-1944, Armia Krajowa collaborating with Nazis as well, started retaliation operations against the Lithuanian Nazi supporters, primarily the Lithuanian Secret Police and civilians. During this period hundreds of Lithuanian policemen, teachers, farmers and other civilians were killed, especially were damaged Lithuanian schools, which activities were paralyzed. In response, Lithuanian police, who had already murdered hundreds of Polish civilians since 1941, intensified their operations against the Poles. Eventually, this led a low-level civil war under German occupation, which culminated in the massacres of Polish and Lithuanian civilians in Glitiškės and Dubingiai villages.

On 1993 Lithuanian Government established commission pronounced conclusions that Armia Krajowa threatened to Lithuania’s territorial integrity, made crimes against humanity, killed civilians, mostly Lithuanians. On 1999 the Prosecutor’s Office of Republic of Lithuania after investigation concluded that Armia Krajowa made genocide of Lithuanian people, hoping to reoccupy Vilnius Region. Only in recent years have Polish and Lithuanians historians been able to reach some compromises, even if they still differ in the interpretation of many events.

Relations with the Soviets

Further information: Soviet partisans in Poland

Armia Krajowa relations with the Soviets went proverbially from bad to worse. Not only did the Soviet Union invade Poland together with Germany during the Invasion of Poland in 1939, but even after Germans invaded Soviet Union the Soviets saw Polish partisans loyal to the government in exile as more of an enemy to their plans to take control of post-war Poland than as a potential ally. As ordered by Moscow on June 22 1943 the Soviet partisans engaged Polish partisans in combat, and actually they attacked the Poles more often than they did the Germans. Similarly, the main forces of the Red Army and the NKVD conducted operations against the AK partisans, even during or directly after the Polish Operation Tempest which was designed by the Poles to be a joint Polish-Soviet action against the retreating Germans and to document Polish claims to those territories. However Stalin's aim to ensure that an independent Poland would never reemerge in the postwar period which made the Operation Tempest idea doomed from the begining.

In late 1943, the actions of Soviet partisans, who were ordered to liquidate the AK forces resulted in a limited amount of uneasy cooperation between some units of AK and the Germans. While AK still treated Germans as the enemy and conducted various operations against them, when Germans offered AK some arms and provisions to be used against the Soviet partisans, some Polish units in the Nowogródek and Wilno decided to accept them. However, any such arrangements were purely tactical and did not evidence the type of ideological collaboration as shown by Vichy regime in France, Quisling regime in Norway or closer to the region, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The Poles main motivation was to gain intelligence on German morale and preparedness and to acquire some badly needed weapons. There are no known joint Polish-German actions, and the Germans were unsuccessful in their attempt to turn the Poles toward fighting exclusively against Soviet partisans. Even so, most of such collaboration of local commanders with the Germans was condemned by AK High Command. Tadeusz Piotrowski quotes Joseph Rotschild saying "The Polish Home Army was by and large untained by collaboration" and adds that "the honor of AK as a whole is beyond reproach".

Soviet forces continued to engage the elements of AK long after the war.

See also

Armia Krajowa Cross

• Armia Krajowa Cross
• Leśni
• Museum of Armia Krajowa in Kraków[1]
• Polish contribution to World War II

References

Inline:

Literature

• Norman Davies, Rising '44, Macmillan, 2003.
• Richard Lukasz, Forgotten Holocaust, The Poles under German Occupation 1939-1944 New York, 1997.
• Marek Ney-Krwawicz, The Polish Home Army, 1939-1945, London, 2001.
• Roger Moorhouse, Killing Hitler, Jonathan Cape, 2006. ISBN 0-224-07121-1
• Michael Alfred Peszke, Polish Underground Army, the Western Allies, and the Failure of Strategic Unity in World War II, McFarland & Company, 2004, ISBN 0-7864-2009-X Google Print
• Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski. Secret Army. Macmillan Company, New York 1951. ISBN 0-89839-082-6.
• Wołkonowski, Jarosław. "Wileński Okręg AK w świetle nieznanych dokumentów odnalezionych w kościele Bernardynów w Wilnie" (in Polish).

External links

• Armia Krajowa
• Armia Krajowa
• Die "Stunde W"
• Home Army (Polish) the Home Army, site in Polish
• POLAND: HERE IS THE RECORD
• Polish resistance - Site edited by the London Branch of the Polish Home Army Ex-Servicemen Association
• Warsaw Uprising 1944
• World War II - Poland