4th September 1944: day 35 of 63... The power plant in Powisle which had been supplying electricity to Warsaw since the start of the Uprising has been completely destroyed by German bombing. Since morning German troops have been pounding the area with heavy artillery fire and air raids as well as in northern part of Srodmiescie and Mokotow. German troops are attempting to cut off the insurgents in Powisle from Srodmiescie North and have launched a continuous barrage of attacks from Karowa Street along three parallel streets: Wybrzeze, Kociuszkowskie, Dobra and Browarna. However by noon the Poles succeeded in pushing the Germans back to the line at Karowa Street. Polish casualties were severe. Two hours later, German troops launched a second attack and were able to seize the Waterworks Head Office on Lipowa Street. Fighting is very heavy and has continued into the evening. Many parts of the city are ablaze making it difficult for insurgents to organize defensive positions. Captain Krybar ordered the immediate evacuation of civilians from the area to the Northern City Centre. Polish troops of the Armia Krajowa have redeployed to Upper Czerniakow. Civilians who sought refuge in Srodmiescie have all been killed under heavy German artillery fire. Houses located between Nowy Swiat Street and Napoleon Square have crumbled under massive bombardment. Neighborhoods of Twarda, Panska, Sliska and Sienna Streets have been methodically destroyed one by one. The printing house of the Home Army Military Publishers that was once on Szpitalna Street has been obliterated, as well as the PKO Bank building on the corner of Jasna and Swietokrzyska Streets. German troops unleashed their fury against the insurgents. They desecrated a Polish memorial by running their tanks over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, crushing the slab beneath their tracks. Hitler had ordered not only the destruction of Warsaw, but that it also be pacified. The rampant unbridled destruction has only intensified the Polish will to fight. Lt.John Ward, a British soldier and member of the Armia Krajowa has dispatched an urgent message to London describing the desperate situation of civilians and insurgents and pleaded for help for Warsaw. Today is the 35th day of the battle for the Polish capital – a city with a population of 1,300,000 people. During those 35 days there has been no communication with the provinces. Therefore no food has reached Warsaw. Rations are already very short, in many places people are starving. The greatest tragedy is for the small children who receive no milk or special nourishment that they need. The people here hear with hungry envy of the liberation of Paris after four days of fighting. They heard that the British Army rushed thousands of tons of food and medical supplies to the French population. Warsaw during the first few days of the uprising received some much needed help in form of ammunition dropped by the R.A.F., but for the past two or three weeks has received no relief whatever. Poland is our oldest ally in this war. Despite all she has suffered at the hands of the German invaders, she has remained always an active power against the enemy. Polish troops fought in France in 1940; later Polish pilots took part in the battle of Britain, her troops fought at Tobruk, and are still fighting in Italy and France. The Home Army in Poland itself has now risen and is also fighting openly as it has fought under cover during the whole war. Poland is a country which I, as an Englishman, am proud to call an ally. She produced no government to co-operate with the Germans. The only government she has acknowledged is the one in exile in London. To end I would like to make an appeal to the British Nation. It is short: HELP FOR WARSAW. Sources of text: warsawuprising/paper/day_by_day.htm polishgreatness.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/warsaw-uprising-1944-september-4-german.html [slightly edited. MS.]
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 07:52:37 +0000
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