This parade of victorious troops marching between two silent ranks of ghosts. They emerged like a silent audience, taking their places upon the grandstands of rubble and ruins lining the route of the troops of the “Warsaw Operation”. The ghosts of young men and women of the Home Army (AK), mingled with the crowds of inhabitants who, together with the defenders of Warsaw, had been the city’s face and soul, its smile, its despair and its fear […] a parade of liberators who no longer liberated anyone.

JEREMI PRZYBORA

Decisive Plans

On 12 January 1945, the Red Army, together with the accompanying Polish Army (the so-called “People’s” Polish Army), launched the Vistula–Oder Offensive, also known as the January Offensive. Its objective was to drive the Germans from the occupied territories of Poland and from East Prussia, then to cross the River Oder and capture Berlin. The operation was assigned to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts, as well as the 1st Ukrainian Front. One of the objectives of the 1st Belorussian Front, which included the 1st Army of the Polish Army, was to destroy the German forces on the Warsaw–Radom sector, liberate Warsaw, and then advance towards Poznań. The Front’s forces were to attack from three directions: the main assault from the Magnuszew bridgehead, a second from the Puławy bridgehead, and a supporting attack from the Jabłonna–Legionowo area and the outskirts of Warsaw. The latter was intended to outflank the Polish capital from the north-west and capture the city.

Did You Know?

The attempt to capture Warsaw from the west, rather than by a frontal assault from the east, was not unprecedented. Both Russian and Soviet forces had employed similar strategies. In 1831, the Imperial Russian Army under the command of Field Marshal Ivan Paskevich captured Warsaw after outflanking the city from the north and attacking from the west. In 1920, Mikhail Tukhachevsky attempted to repeat this manoeuvre. The plan failed, among other reasons, due to the heroic defence of Płock, which delayed the Soviet advance and prevented the attackers from reaching the rear of the defenders of the Polish capital. The operations carried out in 1945 therefore constituted yet another attempt to capture Warsaw by encircling the city.

The Decisive Attack

On 14 January, the Soviet 61st Army launched its attack from the Magnuszew bridgehead, while the 47th Army advanced from the Modlin area on the following day. As a result, the German forces in Warsaw found themselves encircled, and their commander ordered the withdrawal from the city. At 3:00 p.m. on 16 January, the 1st Army of the Polish Army, under the command of General Stanisław Popławski, commenced its direct attack on Warsaw. During the night of 16–17 January, the main forces of the Polish Army crossed to the western bank of the Vistula.

At the same time, the 6th Infantry Division of the Polish Army, originally assigned only to support the main force, launched an attack from Praga and drove the Germans out of central Warsaw. The following morning, the 2nd Infantry Division joined the fighting. By the afternoon, Warsaw had been liberated. That evening, the main forces of the 1st Army of the Polish Army entered the city.

Polish losses during the fighting for Warsaw amounted to approximately 110 killed and 165 wounded or missing. Over the course of the entire Warsaw Operation, 3,116 Polish soldiers were killed, while 7,421 were wounded or reported missing.

The Parade

Two days later, on 19 January 1945, selected units of the Polish Army marched in a victory parade along Marszałkowska Street. Among them were soldiers of the Tadeusz Kościuszko 1st Infantry Division – the first major formation of the so-called Berling Army, which had received its baptism of fire at the Battle of Lenino in October 1943. The handful of Warsaw residents who had survived the Warsaw Uprising may even have felt joy at the sight of soldiers marching with the Polish eagle on their helmets and caps. Yet it was a different eagle from the one they remembered from 1939 or from the Uprising itself. Its design was different, and it no longer bore a crown. Moreover, it was clear that it would not be the Polish Army that would shape the new political order, but the Red Army, which entered Warsaw shortly afterwards.

Having endured five years of German occupation, the people of Warsaw did not yet know what Soviet rule would look like or the true nature of the Soviet forces. They did, however, realise that the presence of the Soviets would inevitably bring new problems. They were soon to find out…

It is also impossible to overlook the stark contrast between the victors’ parade and Warsaw itself. A sea of ruins – a city that had, in physical terms, ceased to exist. The German occupiers had done everything in their power to ensure that Warsaw would never again appear on the map. And yet, it was upon its ruins that a parade of the Polish Army was held, while beside the miraculously preserved Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Polish soldiers lit a fire, continuing the pre-war tradition of the Eternal Flame.

One thing was certain: Warsaw had not yet perished.

Piotr Bosko