In the summer of 1944, the atmosphere in Warsaw was hot not only because of the sun. This was the fate of the Uprising. It was to be decided by three men - Tadeusz Pełczyński, Leopold Okulicki and Tadeusz "Bór" Komorowski. The problem was, they didn't quite agree ...
From the morning of July 21 in occupied Warsaw, an unusual liveliness was noticeable on the faces of the inhabitants. The news of the attack on Hitler inspired high-ranking officers of the Home Army - supporters of the uprising in the capital.
Generals Tadeusz Pełczyński and Leopold Okulicki decided to forge the iron while it is hot. And persuade the undecided General Tadeusz "Bor" Komorowski to his plans to fight the Germans in the capital as soon as possible . Therefore, during the meeting of the three generals, hastily improvised in the new political situation, they intended to influence the decision of the Home Army commander.
They knew well that he was in the habit of listening carefully to the opinions of his associates. Pełczyński and Okulicki agreed not to invite anyone else from the Home Army Headquarters to this meeting. They preferred not to risk presenting the positions of the opponents of the uprising in Warsaw.
"Bór" Komorowski - AK commander
The two above-mentioned generals noticed quite early that, unlike General Stefan "Grot" Rowecki, the resolute commander, who led the underground struggle on his own and made difficult decisions without hesitation, his successor is a completely different man. Introverted, calm and prudent, at times a bit lost and at the same time succumbing to the pressure of the environment.
Komorowski, however, had a good reputation for years. His superiors spoke highly of him. In the interwar period, General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski stated that he was a reliable, well-qualified and loyal worker with a high military culture. Others highly valued his talent, including the organizational skills he demonstrated as a commander of a regiment of lancers.
General "Bór" Komorowski
“Grot” Rowecki placed his full trust in Komorowski, appointing the newly appointed Brigadier General as his successor. When on June 30, 1943 the Germans arrested Rowecki, "Bór" Komorowski took over the command of the Home Army , which was officially confirmed by the Polish authorities in London on July 17.
Initially, he did not intend to assume this function. Only the closest associates of General Rowecki convinced him to make a positive decision.
Every inch an aristocrat
Pełczyński, chief of staff of the Home Army Headquarters, also knew Komorowski for a long time. He knew that during World War I, as a graduate of the Military Academy in Vienna, he commanded an Austrian platoon on the Italian and Russian fronts. And when the Republic of Poland was reborn, he joined the Polish Army. In August 1920, he commanded the 12th Podolian Lancers Regiment in the Polish-Bolshevik war, and during the victorious battle of Komarów, fought by the Polish 1st Cavalry Division with Budyonny's 1st Horse Army, he was wounded.
The text is an excerpt from the book by Tomasz Ławecki and Kazimierz Kunicki "13 days that changed Poland", which has just been published by the Bellona publishing house.
He was already a recognizable man, an aristocrat in every way. He was always smartly dressed, he liked to go hunting, he took part in horse racing competitions ... His childhood passion for horses resulted in the 1924 Olympics in Paris, in which he took part as a rider.
12 years later he went to the Summer Olympics again - to Berlin. He was very successful. His team won a silver medal in the team's All-round Riding Horse Competition.
Photography with Hitler
At that time, several photos were taken of him with Hitler and Goebbels. No wonder that in occupied Warsaw, Komorowski could have been exposed. He knew from the leaks that the Gestapo tried to recognize him on the basis of the photos from the Berlin Olympics.
It was similar with his friend from the Olympic team from 1936, winner of the bronze medal in javelin throw, Maria Kwaśniewska.
It was similar with his friend from the Olympic team from 1936, winner of the bronze medal in the javelin throw, Maria Kwaśniewska. Hitler invited to the box of honor all three medalists in this discipline - two German and Polish. He congratulated the success of the "little Polish woman" in a perfunctory way, to which Kwasniewska replied:"You are not too tall either."
During the occupation, the sportswoman took part in the resistance movement. In her apartment in Podkowa Leśna, she hid Jews and helped the homeless. When she was carrying valuable documents as a liaison officer, she remained stoic outside. Inside, she was trembling because the Germans could recognize her at any moment. A photo from Berlin, where she was sitting next to Hitler in a box, went around the world ...
Career in the underground
General Komorowski, who was just leaving his Warsaw apartment in a tenement house at 49 Wspólna Street, was accompanied by completely different thoughts. He was too determined to fight the Germans, to be concerned mainly for his own life.
It is true that the underground activity almost ended tragically for him once . After the September campaign, in which he fought as deputy commander of a cavalry brigade, quickly entered the underground, establishing the Military Organization of Krakow . He made contact with the Union for Armed Struggle (ZWZ) and was appointed commander of the Krakow - Silesia area.
"Bór" Komorowski was too determined to fight the Germans
When the Gestapo arrested Komorowski in Kraków on April 20, 1941, he had to escape. Initially, he was hiding in the area. And when on July 1 this year, the underground command decided to dissolve the Krakow organization, he moved to Warsaw and became the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the ZWZ.
Three years have passed since then. Now he was distracted by sleep from his anxiety about the fate of his pregnant wife and his nearly two-year-old son. Before he reached the hastily organized meeting in a secret place at 67 Pańska Street, he remembered important events.
Briefing at a furniture factory
He had an accident back in the twenties. He fell off his horse and hurt his kidney painfully. When he was in the hospital, his fiancée visited him. They had planned a wedding before, but their health could have thwarted their plans. Prominent parents of the chosen one made a condition - they would agree to marriage if Tadeusz recovers. They arranged for an appointment with a famous Viennese doctor. Later he was treated in sanatoriums for a long time.
They married but had no child for twelve years. When he was slightly advanced in age, a son was born to him, and now the second child was on the way. He was happy on the one hand, and fearful on the other. He and his wife lived separately under changed names, but at any moment a catastrophe could happen.
The text is an excerpt from the book by Tomasz Ławecki and Kazimierz Kunicki "13 days that changed Poland", which has just been published by the Bellona publishing house.
The meetings were held in more and more other Warsaw apartments, so as not to arouse suspicion, including among tenants of tenement houses. After all, it happened on the hot days of July that they gathered twice a day - in the morning and in the early evening.
Therefore, next to popular premises, such as at 67 Pańska Street, where the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Army, General Komorowski "Bór", "worked", an apartment at 13 Tamka Street and on the ground floor of the tenement house at 1 Żelazna Street, in the last decade of July, also in the Kamler furniture factory at 72 Dzielna Street in Muranów (at the beginning of the uprising, on August 1-6, the Home Army Headquarters was stationed there), as well as in the building of the Grodzkie Courts in Leszno (today Aleja Solidarności), where a fortified German hospital was located during the occupation.
The silence after the "Storm"
After General "Bor" initiated the Operation "Storm" in the eastern territories of the Commonwealth on November 20, 1943, officers of the Home Army's underground asked themselves the question:to fight in an open fight with the Germans or not? A positive answer raised further doubts:should he reveal himself to the Soviets? And there was an enormous risk involved.
Generals Pełczyński and Okulicki, persuading Komorowski "Bor" (on March 21, 1944, by order of the Commander-in-Chief, he was appointed Major General) to change their decisions and fight in the streets of the city, had ready answers to these questions. - Welcoming the Red Army, we will play the role of hospodars - commanded general Okulicki.
After General "Bór" initiated the Operation "Storm" in the eastern territories of the Republic of Poland on November 20, 1943, officers of the Home Army underground asked themselves the question:to fight in an open fight with the Germans or not?
Why the belief that the Soviets will not imprison underground soldiers? Who if but Okulicki, imprisoned in 1941 for over half a year and tortured in the Moscow Lubyanka, should be the most cautious of the three generals participating in the conference. Did he lose his self-preservation instinct three years after the nightmare?
The Home Army Headquarters wondered why General Sosnkowski had decided to send to Warsaw a man who had been so badly experienced by the Moscow torturers. After all, no one from Lubyanka left spotless! And Okulicki - to save his life - was forced to write a detailed report on the Polish underground. If we were to use the analogy to the soldiers who escaped with their lives taken into the cauldron by the enemy and experienced a shock seeing the death of their comrades-in-arms, then their unsuitability for further fight could be associated with the mental taint of commanders after their experiences in Soviet prisons and camps.
Open secret
Regardless of these doubts, General Okulicki was considered a steadfast man. After the withdrawal from Warsaw to London of general Stanisław Tatar during the operation "Bridge I", carried out on the night of April 15/16, 1944, a month and a half later Okulicki, who now took the pseudonym Kobra, reported to General "Bor" Komorowski.
Officially, Tatar was thrown to the Thames to develop a modified underground combat strategy. In fact, an open secret in the occupied capital of Poland was the fact that he did not have a positive opinion about the operational skills of the generals - Komorowski and Pełczyński.
General Okulicki was considered a steadfast man.
Some Home Army officers also whispered in close friends' circles that modern war requires a completely different, modern strategy. Both bosses recently fought on the front nearly five years ago, during the September campaign.
Besides, General Tatar, who developed the operational programs of the Home Army, including plans for a general uprising and the “Tempest” action, was a decisive man. He made decisions quickly, he was able to force his mind. However, he was not an easy character. Moreover, he proclaimed an unpopular thesis in occupied Warsaw that it was necessary to come to an understanding with the Soviets before the Red Army reached Polish borders. That is why Komorowski and Pełczyński breathed a sigh of relief when he flew to London on a British plane.
Source:
The text is an excerpt from the book by Tomasz Ławecki and Kazimierz Kunicki "13 days that changed Poland", which has just been published by the Bellona publishing house.