The critical role of South African aircrews in supporting the 1944 Warsaw Rising

This year Poland celebrates the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Rising. On 1 August 1944 at 5pm, the people of Warsaw started the fight against the German occupiers – it was one of the most important events in the history of Poland in the 20th century.

Despite the fact that the German Wehrmacht had a huge advantage over the resistance, and that the Soviets showed hostile indifference, Poles fought for more than two months with extreme courage. Hardly anyone provided assistance to the insurgents of Warsaw.

The real help came from South Africa. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

The Warsaw Rising lasted for 63 days. During these more than two months, Warsaw was a free Poland, with legal authorities, administration, army and all the state institutions. It was a modern and democratic state.

Despite the fact that the whole city was the site of a very heavy battle, Poles issued two “Journals of Laws” for civil and military authorities that established the legal basis for a free state after the war. During the Rising, about 100 newspapers were published, giving space for all political opinions. There was one radio station and one of the cinemas showed regular newsreels of the events.

The people of Warsaw welcomed the outbreak of the Rising – after five years of brutal occupation, the city was free. All the streets were covered in Polish flags, people were singing Polish national songs in public. The inhabitants of Warsaw assisted the resisters with great enthusiasm and organised a social, cultural and religious life.

We can call them the true civil society – the Warsaw Rising was a national event; people throughout the country showed solidarity with Warsaw.

The Warsaw Rising was a part of a bigger action prepared by the Polish Government in Exile. The aim of this plan was to make a series of uprisings in major cities against the German occupiers and to meet the advancing Soviet Red Army as hosts and legal authorities of Poland.

Unfortunately, the Soviets did not respect that. Stalin never thought that after the war Poland would be an independent state. He wanted to conquer, not to liberate. His ultimate goal was to forcibly introduce communism to the whole of Europe and then to the whole world.

That is why the Red Army did not welcome the Polish legal authorities; insurgents from other cities were arrested and deported to Siberia or other parts of the Soviet Union. Some of them were incorporated into pro-Soviet Polish military units.

Two totalitarian regimes – Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union – did not accept Polish freedom. Adolf Hitler was a close ally of Joseph Stalin in 1939-1941. And even after that, even though they fought a bloody total war against each other, both of them suppressed the freedom movements of Central Eastern Europe, not only Polish, but also Ukrainian, Belorussian, Czechoslovak and others.

When Hitler was informed about the outbreak of the Warsaw Rising, he personally gave an order to destroy the whole city and kill all the inhabitants – about one million people.

From the very beginning Germans sent the cruellest units, made up of convicted criminals, to proceed with the mass killings. In the first days of the Rising they exterminated 40,000 civilians in planned executions in the Western part of Warsaw.

The Soviets not only stopped the offensive and let the Germans suppress the Rising, but they also did not allow Allied forces to land on territory conquered by them, thus significantly raising the losses among Allied airmen.

And this was the moment when South Africa came to help – the South African Air Force (SAAF) together with other allies conducted flights over Warsaw to drop much-needed supplies for the insurgents.

Between 13 August and 22 September 1944, South African airmen from 31 and 34 Squadrons of the SAAF dropped arms, food and clothes for Warsaw. They flew 2,815km from Brindisi in southern Italy and back – 86 aircraft participated in the mission and they dropped a total of 485 containers.

Those flights were extremely dangerous since the Germans still controlled most of the airspace on the route and the Soviets did not allow them to land. A total of 23 SAAF aircraft were lost and 44 members of the SAAF died during the flights.

Poland cherishes the memory of their duty: 67 SAAF members were honoured with a highly ranked Polish distinction: the Warsaw Rising Cross. Every year in Johannesburg we organise the commemoration event and pay respect to the South African airmen for their sacrifice for Polish freedom. This year we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Airlift, as it is called.

It was not the only help provided by South Africa to Poland during World War 2 – 500 Polish orphans who escaped from Soviet Gulags were given refuge in Oudtshoorn. After the war they remained here and established families. Their descendants still live here and cherish the memory of South African hospitality.

Unfortunately, despite the extremely courageous fight of Warsaw insurgents and help from South Africa, the Rising ended on 2 October 1944. The Germans finally captured Warsaw and finished the destruction of the city and the plundering of goods. They gave all the remaining inhabitants only three days to leave Warsaw; after 5 October 1944 the place was empty.

On 17 January 1945, the Red Army entered Warsaw and found 85% of the buildings in ruins.

Poland then fell under Soviet influence: Moscow introduced communism to our country and installed a series of puppet governments which lasted until 1989.

Nevertheless, the memory of the Warsaw Rising lived on among the people of Poland. The spirit of freedom shown by the people of Warsaw was an inspiration for the next generations of independence activists. The Polish “Solidarity” movement, which played a crucial role in liberating Poland and Central Eastern Europe from communism and Soviet oppression, also emerged from this tradition.

The memory of the Warsaw Rising has kept us internally free and we are still being inspired by this historical event.

Freedom is priceless – this is our message to the world. DM

Professor Adam Burakowski is the Ambassador of Poland to South Africa.