01/08/2026
We remember.
Before the „W Hour”
The Polish Home Army was in a hurry to liberate the capital city before the Soviet tanks would enter and the communists would reign their terror.
In the summer of 1944, there were no plans for the uprising in occupied Warsaw. It all changed when Gen. Leopold Okulicki, codename “Niedźwiadek” came to the occupied capital and started convincing the officers of the General Command of the Home Army to the idea of a single battle for Warsaw. Besides, Poles could already hear the roars of the Soviet cannons and saw the columns of beaten and disorganised enemy troops retreating through the city.
➡German officials working in Warsaw soon joined the demoralised escapees from the eastern front. The beginning of the last decade of July 1944 painted a picture of a German army beaten in the east and the interregnum in the city for the residents of Warsaw. Moreover, the information on the assassination attempt on Hi**er, even though it was unsuccessful, reached the city. Under these circumstances, the decision was made to fight in the capital.
➡The government of Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk gave the green light in the country, while the Supreme Commander Gen. Sosnkowski, even though personally against the uprising, in his order from the beginning of July left it open to interpretation, by writing that if there was a possibility to: 🗨 “even temporarily get a hold of Vilnius, Lviv or other, large centre […] – it needs to be done in order to be seen as their rightful owners”.
➡By the end of July, the Germans managed to take control of the situation in Warsaw. Officials returned to the city and reinforcements approached the Vistula River, including the elite “Hermann Göring” division. The armoured battle near Radzymin was coming to an end, but the Soviets managed to take, among others, Wołomin, Radzymin, Miłosna and many other towns, reaching as far as Praga, so the district on the right bank of Warsaw. One officer of the Home Army was riding on one of the tanks which reached the first buildings of the Praga district and immediately made a report on the situation on the other side of the river.
➡This information became the pretext for the final decision on the start of the uprising in Warsaw. Despite the news from the West, provided by courier Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, that the allies would not be of much help and the lack of armament stressed by the officers of the General Command of the Home Army (even in July several hundred submachine guns had been sent to the eastern zones of the Home Army from Warsaw), the date of the beginning of the resistance actions was set for August 1st 1944, at 5 pm. The code name for the start of the uprising was the “W Hour”.
📷Three unidentified insurgents from an unknown Home Army unit posing by a barricade on one of the streets in the centre of Warsaw (possibly in the area of Chmielna and Marszałkowska Streets). They are wearing pre-war Polish helmets, the first from the left is aiming a Soviet-made PPSz 7.62 mm machine pistol (with a drum magazine), the one in the middle is aiming a captured German-made Erna EMP 9 mm machine pistol, and the one on the far right is holding a rifle (probably one of the 7.92 mm Ma**er variants). The image found in the IPN Archive was taken in August 1944.
Warsaw Rising Museum
