Operation "Storm" of the Home Army, or "We plowed"
July 27 will mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Lvov from the Nazi invaders by the troops of the heroic Red Army.
The liberation of the city became part of the strategic Lvov-Sandomierz operation, which is a striking example of military art, since it was characterized by a wide scope, variety of combat operations and unconventional use of various forms of operational maneuver.
During the operation, the fascist army group “Northern Ukraine”, consisting of 32 divisions, including the SS division “Galicia”, staffed by Ukrainian collaborators, was almost completely defeated.
As a result of the Lviv-Sandomierz strategic operation, not only Lviv, but also the entire Western Ukraine was liberated from the Nazis. Soviet troops crossed the Vistula and entered Poland, seizing a bridgehead near Sandomierz. The entire German front in the east turned out to be split in two, because of which communication between the northern and southern German groups could be carried out in a roundabout way through Czechoslovakia and Hungary, which created enormous difficulties for the Germans in operational command and the transfer of troops.
In modern Ukraine, the liberation of Lvov from the Nazis is a “holiday that does not exist.” However, in honor of this event and on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the Victory, festive fireworks will be given in Moscow.
Moscow has already saluted in honor of the liberation of the Soviet cities of Vilnius, Tallinn, Riga, as well as Odessa, which caused writhing and curses among the dejected “Young Europeans” who chose Nazi collaborators as their heroes.
In this article we will not touch on the details of the Lvov-Sandomierz operation, trying to embrace the immensity. We will look at just one not very well-known, but very interesting episode related to the liberation of Lviv, namely, Operation Storm, carried out by the “London Poles” from the Home Army.
The Home Army (AK), translated from Polish as “internal army,” is a rebel military formation formed by Polish soldiers, officers and sympathetic populations after the Nazis defeated Poland in the fall of 1939.
Politically, AK was subordinate to the Polish émigré government in London. Their relations with Soviet partisans were, to put it mildly, complex and usually depended on the will of specific commanders. Sometimes the parties managed to establish cooperation, but more often it came to violent clashes.
In general, AK was a formation hostile to the Soviet Union. The emigrant government proceeded from the “doctrine of two enemies” (i.e., both the German Nazis and the Bolsheviks were declared enemies) and was ready to cooperate with the Soviet authorities only on the condition that Kresy, the western regions of Belarus and Ukraine, was transferred to Poland and the “London Brothers” were recognized. as the only legitimate government.
And so, when in the summer of 1944 the Red Army troops began to rapidly approach the pre-war border line, pushing the enemy to the west, the “London Poles” developed a single operation “Storm”, as A very Cunning Plan designed to prevent the restoration of Soviet power in the liberated territories.
Its meaning was to use the approach of the Red Army to raise uprisings and seize power in the large cities of Poland and Kresy, and then dictate their will to the “Muscovites” from the position of a full-fledged owner.
Capture of an administrative building as part of the “Storm” plan
The armed formations of the AK in the underground were asked to predict the beginning of the uprising in such a way that the fascists would no longer have time to suppress these uprisings for fear that the punitive forces, carried away by reprisals, would be crushed by the advancing Russians. In the summer of 1944, as part of the “Storm” plan, AK members raised uprisings in Vilnius, Lvov, and other cities of the Transkerzone.
participants in Operation Storm
On July 7, 1944, the commander of the Lviv AK District, Colonel Vladislav Filipkovsky, received the long-awaited order from General Sosnyakovsky to begin implementing the “Storm” plan: to capture Lvov at any cost, to create a Polish administration that would represent the Polish government before the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front. To implement the “Storm” plan, Filipkovsky had about 5 thousand armed soldiers inside Lvov and about 2 thousand more in its environs.
preparation for the uprising
At the same time, AK units were ordered to counter possible attempts by UPA gangs to seize the city. The AK leaflet “To the Lvov Liberator Units” contained the following calls: “Fighters! You are going to punish! But not an enemy, but a rebel. Not an enemy fighter, but a bandit... Only the firm, merciless hand of a Polish fighter will be able to preserve the eastern lands for Poland and punish the villains.”
In general, on July 23, 1944, when the German occupation administration of the Galicia district greased its heels and, together with the repressive apparatus of the security police, left Lvov under the blows of the Red Army, “AK heroes” crawled out of holes and gateways to shoot the fleeing people in the back without interference the Germans, without fanfare, seize administrative buildings, hoisting white and red Polish flags on them.
the suburbs of Lvov are burning, the “Storm” has begun
When General Lelyushenko’s tanks entered the suburbs of Lvov on July 25, they were greeted by Akovsky leaders swollen with importance, who explained to the Soviet soldiers that the city had been liberated by the Polish army, and they, the leaders, were ready to cooperate on equal terms.
tanks of General Lelyushenko in Lvov
The first few days it was like that. Mixed groups of Soviet military personnel and AK members patrolled the streets of the liberated city, and the Polish population was actively involved in catching hidden Germans and collaborators who did not have time to entangle.
However, the Soviet authorities did not intend to flirt with the “liberators.” The Soviet command already knew about the Cunning Plan “Storm”, and the “London” and other Polish businessmen were told that Lvov was a Soviet city. After which the top Akovites took the “pidaresh” and went straight to the Gulag, the extras were disarmed and joined the “external army” - the Polish Army, which fought as part of the Red Army.
But this graphic modern reconstruction is simply awesome. these two flags, in principle, could not hang side by side during the war.
If anyone thinks that such a practice is too cruel to situational allies, then it is in vain. Keeping alternative armed formations in your rear, subordinate to scoundrels and swindlers entrenched in London, would be stupid and short-sighted.
Such a fate awaited all the uprisings of the Akovites, which took place according to the “Storm” plan. A misfire occurred in Warsaw, when the AK command, which received the blessing from London, raised another “storm”, completely ignoring the important fact that the Germans brought five fresh divisions to Warsaw, including three tank divisions, and the Soviet troops, who had fought over 700 kilometers, were drained of blood and were forced to go on the defensive.
punitive units from the SS brigade “Dirlewanger” against the Warsaw insurgents
The thoughtless adventure of the “London Poles” cost Poland 200 thousand dead Warsaw citizens, 20 thousand killed Polish resistance fighters (not only AK militants), and Warsaw turned into ruins.
suppression of the Warsaw Uprising
It must be said that the harsh liquidation of the Akovsky underground by the Soviet special services was fully justified. TsAMO stores a whole array of documents, from which it follows that in the rear of the Active Army, the AK acted using terror methods, committing murders of Red Army and Polish Army soldiers, local representatives of the Soviet government, not disdaining sabotage, kidnappings and torture of people.
Partisans who united with units of the Red Army in the western regions of Belarus and Ukraine repeatedly testified how Akovites shot Soviet prisoners of war who fled from the Germans, and those who were accepted into their units were disarmed and sent into battle unarmed. Moreover, the leaders of the AK detachments carried out reprisals against Poles who showed sympathy or provided assistance to Soviet prisoners of war.
One of the most brutal actions of the Home Army was the slaughter of a hospital (200 wounded and all medical personnel) in Minsk-Mazowiecki in the summer of 1944, that is, during the period described. The "London Poles" managed to escape into the forest, but not from retribution. In order not to waste military personnel from units protecting the rear of the front in vain, the forest was surrounded, and specially called bombers plowed up the Akovites’ lair.
On the other hand, ordinary Akovites, not privy to the Napoleonic plans of their commanders, were given the opportunity to take part in the liberation of Poland from the Nazi occupiers together with the Red Army and without any tricks.
Moreover, Stalin and the Soviet leadership had their own plans regarding Poland, with which the allied countries of the USSR agreed. Poland, as the “hyena of Europe”, which strongly helped Hitler on the eve of the Second World War with the division of Czechoslovakia and anti-Soviet initiatives, was to be Sovietized, and the new legitimate Polish government was to begin work in liberated Lublin, which the Akovites also tried to capture as part of the operation “ Storm".
It is surprising that even Churchill, who protected the “London Poles”, did not object to the Sovietization of Poland, did not support the Warsaw uprising of the Akovites and opposed the transfer of the former Eastern Creses to Poland.
This information is very important for the modern understanding of the Ukrainian issue: the Yalta world order was obviously decided in favor of the USSR (and therefore Russia, as a successor), and not in favor of the Polish or Bandera ghouls and underdogs. And not just, but together with the UK and the USA.
Therefore, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the Victory, it would be fair to begin to prepare the ground for the restoration of the Yalta world order, shaken after the collapse of the USSR, in which Poland and Ukraine will have to go to the margins of history. And someone may have to move closer to the latrine.
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