Prelude To The Warsaw Uprising - Operation Tempest

Operation Tempest

From the very beginning of its existence the Home Army was planning a national uprising against the German forces. Initial plans created by the Polish government-in-exile in 1942 assumed that the allied invasion of Europe would lead to the withdrawal of considerable German forces from the Eastern Front for the defence of the Third Reich. The Home Army would act to prevent troop transfer to the west and to allow the British and American forces to seize Germany by breaking all communication links with the majority of German forces massed in the Soviet Union.

However, by 1943 it became apparent that the allied invasion of Europe would not come in time, and that in all probability the Red Army would reach the pre-war borders of Poland before the invasion had well begun. In February, 1943, general Stefan Rowecki amended the plan. The Uprising was to be started in three phases, the first being in the East (with main centres of resistance in Lwów and Wilno), before the advancing Red Army. The second part was to include armed struggle in the belt between the Curzon Line and the Vistula river, while the third part was to be a nationwide uprising in all of Poland.

Polish-Soviet relations were broken off on April 25, 1943 due to the Katyn massacre, and it became obvious that the advancing Red Army might not come to Poland as a liberator but rather, as General Rowecki put it, "Our Allies' Ally". On November 26, 1943 the Polish government in exile issued an instruction to the effect that if diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union were not resumed before their entry to Poland, the Home Army forces were to remain underground until further decisions were made. However, the Home Army commander took a different approach, and on November 30, 1943 the final version of the plan was created. It became known as Operation Tempest.