Warsaw, [no day given] June 1947
To,
The Institute of National Remembrance
at the Presidium of the Council of Ministers
in [place]
In response to your kind inquiry, I hereby send a description of the struggle for the Reduta Wawelska from 1–11 August 1944. At the same time, I would like to point out that although— as the senior officer there—I was actually in command of the division, I was never formally given the order to take this position.
Please note that the attached description may contain minor inaccuracies as to the dates and details that may have become blurred in my memory.
After this the division was transferred to Śródmieście, I was appointed to a different position and as such my direct contact with the division was interrupted. Information on the further operations of this unit (which among others distinguished itself in the battles for Sikorskiego Avenue in mid-September 1944) could be provided by the commander of the divison— Lt. Jerzy Modro (Infant Jesus Hospital, at the Jasińskis’ apartment)—while details on the behavior of the Germans and Vlasovtsys after winning the Reduta may be given by the unit’s adjutant, Engineer Maria Lachert (Katowicka Street 9).
In view of the length of the description, I made some necessary abbreviations. For my part, I reserve the right to publish this report in whole or in part.
Władysław Sieroszewski
The Defense of The Reduta Wawelska
(1–11 August 1944)
Our Own fOrces
The defense of the blocks located between Uniwersytecka, Mianowskiego, Pługa and Wawelską Streets, later known colloquially as the "Reduta Wawelska", had not been earmarked in the uprising plans. These blocks constituted the starting point for the attack on SS-Kaserne at the junction of Raszyńska and Wawelska Streets. After the collapse of this attack, the shattered platoons 435, [4] 36 and, from neighboring bases, 437 and 439 of the Home Army took refuge. They formed the core of the blocks’ crew, which was quickly joined by survivors from other operations in this area (the Radium Institute, part of the halls of residence) and smaller units that had lost contact with their command, as well as numerous volunteers from the local youth.
In total, the division consisted of over a hundred men and about thirty women (nurses and couriers). The command of the block was undertaken by Capt. Władyslaw Sieroszewski alias "Sabała", who found himself in the block by chance when the fighting broke out, and the company’s commander was the late Second Lieutenant "Stach", his deputy Second Lieutenant Jerzy Modro alias "Rarańcza"; the commanders of the platoon were Second Lieutenant Gapner-Bogucki alias "Janusz", Warrant Officer "Ryszard", the late Sergeant "Piń2" and Master Corporal "Róża". The command’s adjutant was Sergeant Maria Dziurżyńska alias "Mucha". The Chaplain was the late Prof. Salamucha. The Doctor was Dr. Lange, and the commander of the company’s paramedics was the late "Grazyna".
weapOns
One damaged light machine gun (only capable of firing single shots), one German Mauser rifle—about 500 good bullets, 3,000 musty cartridges (excavated from the basement, three shots out of two misfired), initially four submachine guns, later two Sten guns and one Bergman were acquired; about 40 rounds per gun. About fifteen regular guns of various calibers with a small quantity of rounds. Several hundred hand grenades ("Sidolówkas" and "Filipinkas"), six [illegible], a few German grenades that had been acquired. Three of them were taken from Vlasovtsys and were the old type with about 40 rounds. About 50 Molotov cocktails, prepared on the spot (there were two pharmacies in the building).
cOmmunicatiOn
Communications with the district command were immediately broken. On 3 August, a courier tried to cross Uniwersytecka Street, but he was killed by a shot coming from the halls of residence. No written orders or messages were found on the corpse. Until 7 August, the Reduta maintained nighttime communication with our base at the intersection of Raszyńska and Filtrowa Street, but this base didn’t have any further communication. Until 6 August, telephones still worked in the blocks, from which several private numbers in the city center were connected. News from the city was unfortunately a complete fantasy and misleading. Besides, in view of the fact that the telephone exchanges were in German hands, the utmost caution was advisable when conversing. Three radios were assembled to pick up foreign broadcasts.
medical service
The head of the outpatient clinic was Dr. Lange, assisted by one graduate and a few medical students. The paramedic patrol was under the command of "Grażyna", who fell on 3 August while pulling a fatally wounded courier out from under fire. Dressings were in sufficient quantity, while a lack of surgical instruments and appropriate operating room prevented any major treatments, which resulted in the death of several wounded from exsanguination.
supplies
Thanks to the generosity and cooperation of the residents of the building, there was no lack of food at all. After calculating the food items submitted by residents and requisitioners in abandoned apartments, it was established that, without imposing any rationing, there was enough food for about three weeks for the crew and the residents (numbering about 500 people in total). Four kitchens run by local tenants provided the soldiers with a hot meal three times a day. In addition, soldiers taking a rest after service could always count on a glass of tea and a piece of bread.
characteristics Of the divisiOn
In close-knit units, which constituted the core of the crew, there were mainly school kids (many scouts), but there were also a fair number of working youngsters from the city’s outskirts (Wola, Targówek, Włochy). There were few men in the prime of their life, apart from some officers. Volunteers from the local population, apart from the youngsters, also included more mature people, fathers of families. There were very few cases of dubious morality (three instances of desertion, a few cases of minor looting). In general, the standard of the crew was quite high, somewhat higher than average for the insurgent units (apart from scouting battalions), although the discipline left a lot to be desired.
Among the crew, there were two Frenchmen—workers from a labor camp—and one Austrian.
preparatiOns fOr the defense
The Germans, by not attacking the house for the first two days, gave the insurgents—broken and demoralized by their failure—the chance to organize themselves and to regroup. With the help of wardrobes, couches and dressers filled with earth, all the ground-floor openings were barricaded, with the large windows at the corner of Wawelska Street and Pługa Street, where the school used to be, posing particular difficulty. Both gates (Wawelska Street 60 and Mianowskiego Street 15) were walled off with bricks and paving stones as well as sacks with soil. Bags were also placed on the window sills of the first and second floor windows, where shooting positions were installed. In some places, shooting holes were knocked out. Holes were made in the walls on every floor to give free access from window to window. The bathtubs in all the apartments were filled with water. This regulation proved to be most felicitous, because after a few days the water was cut off and only the well in the yard remained.
Some residents of the building were appointed as firemen, headed with full devotion by Engineer Wojsław Zaborski, the late Ignacy Grabski, a third person whose name I don’t remember, and the late Kazimierz Majewski.
enemy fOrces
A German SS company from the barracks on Datytyszka Street with one anti-tank cannon and a few guns. Probably also with one or two mortars. Two field guns.
The Vlasovtsy divisions, one or two companies strong, permanently blocked the Reduta from the side of Pola Mokotowskiego with about ten anti-aircraft guns in the area of Rakowiecka. Tanks gradually increased in number from two to seven (including five tigers, or panthers, and two small ones) as the operation progressed. In the last two days, they brought in some goliaths ready to fight.
the cOurse Of the fight
The Reduta’s command moved forward two checkpoints aimed at securing the block against an unexpected attack. One was 1:6 strong (with one submachine gun and grenades), in the house at Mianowskiego Street 24, the second 1 plus 3 strong, in the Admiralty building at the intersection of Żwirki i Wigury Street with Wawelska Street.
For the first two days the enemy showed little sign of activity, limiting themselves to setting up barricades from heavy machine gun fire along Uniwersytecka, Raszyńska and Wawelska Streets, and to harassing the crew with what was initially not particularly strong mortar fire.
On 3 August, the crew fired and threw grenades at the car transports heading in the direction of Okęcie. In response to this, the enemy directed anti-aircraft gunfire from Pola Mokotowski at the Reduta. The upper part of the corner of Raszyńska and Wawelska Streets was demolished. Heavy shells penetrated the front buildings and exploded in the yard. Fortunately, after about thirty shots were fired, the anti-aircraft batteries fell silent; but, firing field guns and heavy machine guns, the enemy went on to attack from the side of Wawelska Street with two companies of Vlasovtsy reluctantly advancing, only to be driven back by submachine gun fire and hand grenades. In this action, marksman "Kmicic" fell. On that day, our observer on the roof of the house was killed by a sniper, as well as two civilian by grenades, along with a few lightly wounded.
During the next day, a weaker attack fell on the corner of Pługa and Mianowskiego Street. The enemy, setting fire to blocks on the opposite side of Pługa Street, prevented an attack from this side. At the same time, the fire from the Wawelska and Raszyńska sections intensified, and tanks joined in, whose missiles didn’t do (much) damage to the walls, but immediately broke down the barricades in the ground-floor windows that had taken so much effort to put up; however, because the Germans could not decide whether or not to storm the building, and because during the night they withdrew further, in the darkness the damage caused during the day was repaired. In the next few days, the Germans twice called on the crew to surrender, once directly from the streets, and the second time via a resident of the house, Dr. Trojanowski, whom they let through especially, allowing him to move his daughter and wife away from their home. Their appeals were rejected. A few Vlasovtsys who tried to penetrate the streets of Pługa, Mianowskigo and Uniwersytecka were beaten, their weapons and ammunition taken away, albeit unfortunately in very small amounts.
On 5 August, the enemy, under the cover of tiger fire and using smoke bombs, attacked the admiralty building, defended by four Home Army soldiers and local residents, mainly consisting of gypsies and suburban ruffians. Even though the defenders only had small firearms and grenades at their disposal, the fight lasted a few hours, the enemy had to proceed floor by floor. On our part, due to the ruthless necessity to save ammunition, it wasn’t possible to effectively help them. The Germans gave up on the last floors and just set fire to the building. During the night, two wounded soldiers managed to get to the main block, while the other two were reportedly also able to escape into the fields.
The next days were marked by increasing fire from tanks, machine guns and mortars. In the face of the demolition of a large part of the apartments, especially from the Wawelska side, the basements began to get overcrowded. The crews kept up their good mood, although the prolonged siege disheartened the civilian population.
On 7 August in the afternoon, our own observations led us to expect an attack on the house at Mianowskiego Street 24 (the second front on Mochnacki Street) and—faced with the impossibility of effectively defending this position—our command ordered the evacuation of the crew and wounded to the main block during the following night. However, before the evening, the Ukrainian SS from the halls of residence suddenly took control of the house at Mianowskiego 24. The crew managed to withdraw, but left the wounded to their fate. The Ukrainians, having taken control of the front windows from Mianowskiego Street, rained fire on our positions. In view of the enemy’s superior firepower, the situation took a dramatic turn: there was no way to prevent the enemy from crossing the narrow street and getting into the Reduta. Everyone was getting ready for a hand grenade battle inside the house. However, the Ukrainians didn’t opt for this approach, and even with the advent of the night, they withdrew from the front windows, without establishing any positions. Taking advantage of this neglect, our five-man patrol slipped into the house at Mianowskiego 24 at night, doused it with petrol and set it on fire. The house was partially burned down and the enemy was prevented from using a position that was so dangerous for us.
On 8 August, after heavy preparation of artillery and machine, which cost us a few wounded, the enemy, using two tanks, launched an attack on the corner of Wawelska and Pługa Street. After the tank had been set on fire with a bottle of gasoline thrown by a 16-year-old scout known as "Błysk" (who died in September on Nowogrodzka Street), the enemy retreated, contenting themselves with ruining the barricades in the ground-level windows of this section. We needed to work all night to compensate for the damage caused.
For the previous few days, the crew had been forced to idly watch the evacuation of the people to Okęcie just outside their windows. The Germans also sent civilian Poles to look for their dead and wounded under the walls of the Reduta; it happened that German machine guns opened fire on these unfortunates, and a few of them lay there on the street all day, wounded and moaning, because enemy bullets prevented anyone from helping them. Only when night fell were they able to get them inside the block. From that day, the increased pressure of artillery, machine guns and mortars indicated that the enemy were getting ready to liquidate the Reduta. Our own losses at that time numbered two killed and a dozen wounded, mostly lightly. The Germans began using incendiary rounds that caused a few local fires, easily extinguished. However, in the absence of water on the floors and a prolonged heatwave, there was a danger of a general fire breaking out. In order to prevent this danger, the command ordered furniture, curtains and other flammable objects to be removed from the front rooms.
The courtyard of the block now presented an amazing view: pits in the ground used for barricades, graves of the fallen, grenade holes, broken furniture, the necks of gas bottles buried in the ground, and finally bricks and rubble from bullet holes in the walls all combined to produce one huge pile of debris on which, in rare moments of silence, the children imprisoned in the basements would play.
On 8 August at dusk, when the enemy, as usual, broke off their fire and assault, a roll call took place in the courtyard and a humble celebration devoted to the fact that the Reduta Wawelska had been defending itself for as long as Westerplatte. However, the reserves of the crew were already exhausted: communication with the world cut off, unfulfilled hopes for relief, and finally the lack of ammunition constantly hanging over their heads all took their toll. In the underground chapel, the prayers of the distraught civilian population continued. It should be emphasized, however, that these people never hampered the work of the crew, and in times of danger, for example when there was a threat of fire or broken barricades needed to be repaired, crowds—from 10-year-olds to 60-year-olds—rushed to help the soldiers.
On 9th August, from 11:00 a.m., the concentric fire of field and anti-aircraft artillery, mortars and tanks, rained down on the Reduta. Holes were blown out of the front wall from Wawelska Street. The corner of Pługa and Wawelska Street was obliterated. Only by risking their life could anyone appear in the courtyard, covered with shrapnel and bricks. A cloud of smoke and dust obscured the view.
At about 4:00 p.m. a fire broke out on the fourth and fifth floor. Human chains were immediately organized to deliver water to the endangered section, but the enemy positioned in the attics and windows of the houses on the opposite side of Wawelska Street fired machine and manual weapons on the firefighters. After an hour of effort, the fire was put out, but with heavy losses. The lawyer Ignacy Grabski and Judge Stefan Matej were killed. Capt. "Sabała" Sieroszewski, volunteer Magnuszewski-Skrzyński, scout Lewak and Engineer Zaborski were wounded. A lot of people received minor scratches and burns.
On this day, it was estimated that more than five hundred bullets of various caliber were fired.
A meeting of the command council at 9:00 decided on the evacuation of the Reduta.
tunneling
Two days earlier, on 8 August, the command of the Reduta had decided to dig their way through to the storm drain running under Wawel Street. Because everyone knew that the storm drain was small in diameter, the only hope was that in this way, through individual couriers, it would be possible to establish contact with our divisions in the city center and possibly deliver fresh supplies of ammunition. Work carried out by Engineer Jackiewicz continued without interruption day and night (by a couple of teams alternating). The eleven- meter tunnel dug out under the foundations of the house, after 48 hours, reached the storm drain in the evening of 10 August. It then turned out that it was one meter high and seventy centimeters wide (at its widest point). In view of the narrowness of the canals and the lack of any data regarding their direction and connections, the commander of the division decided to conduct a reconnaissance patrol in person in order to delineate the path. It was assumed that if a suitable connection could be found then on that very night, the crew and some of the civilian population would be able to be evacuated. Unfortunately, the patrol initially headed south with the aim of reaching the carrier drain running under Grójecka Street; however, after around 400 meters, they had to turn back, because the storm drain was broken. Neither the difficulties of advancing through a low and narrow channel with heat and lack of air (thankfully, the effect of the drought was that the sludge was only a few centimeters deep), nor the need to preserve silence, especially near the manholes, been taken into account.
It was only at 3:00 a.m. that the patrol, in a stroke of blind luck, came to the surface at the intersection of Wawelska and Prokuratorska Street, one hundred meters from German positions. During the following day, the commanders of the division managed to establish contact with our patrols from Lt. "Wrona’s" company, arriving at night through Pole Mokotowskie from the direction of Polna Street, and organize the further passage of the division towards Śródmieście.
the fall Of the redut a
The couriers from the division commander brought the order to maintain the Reduta until the night of 11th August, and then to evacuate the entire crew and stronger residents via the drains, so that at midnight the head of the column would be at the manhole on Prokuratorskiej Street. The rest of the residents, along with the wounded, were to go out into the street and surrender themselves into the hands of the Germans.
However, this plan wasn’t carried through due to the violence of the enemy advance. The Reduta command, after Capt. "Sabała" left on patrol, was assumed by Second Lieutenant "Rarańcza". Artillery and machine fire increased even more compared with the previous day, preventing the defenders from approaching the front windows. Fires broke out that no attempt was made to extinguish. Tanks and goliaths took part in the campaign. About 3:00 p.m. the tank overturned the barricade at the Wawelska 60 gate. The Ukrainian SS rushed through the gate with a heavy machine gun, but they were driven back by grenades. Using this opportunity, the majority of the crew—about seventy men and fifteen girls strong— reached the drain along with a few civilians. The injured could not be taken; the medical staff stayed with them, the chaplain and some paramedics. Some of the crew that didn’t make it or decided not to go down the drain, hid among the residents of the block.
At 5:00 p.m. on 11 August, on the rubble of the Reduta, almost completely demolished, white banners appeared from the direction of Wawelska Street. Enemy fire, however, didn’t let up. It was only at dusk that the Ukrainians cautiously approached the rubble, ordering everyone to go out from the burning building onto the street. Some of the wounded and those who were suspected of participating in the defense were shot on the spot. In such a way the following died: Fr. Professor Salamucha, Engineer Wojsław Zaborski, Engineer Maciejewski, Jarosław Skrzyński, Prof. Niewiadomski, editor Czosnowski with his son, and others. Everyone leaving was robbed of the few things they could take. In front of the German officers, drunken Ukrainians and Vlasovtsys body-searched the women: several were raped, including an underage girl. Several men were beaten unconscious. The rest were herded to the Zieleniak.
The Germans could not understand what had happened to the crew—they were convinced that the Reduta had been defended by well-armed paratroopers. When they discovered the tunnel to the drains, they decided not to enter it. They just tossed a few grenades into the hole and collapsed the tunnel supports.
capture
It took several hours to walk about a kilometer of the canal. Around midnight, the unit escaped to the surface at Prokuratorska Street, where the patrol that had been sent previously was already waiting along with guides from Lt. "Wrona’s" company. Passage through Pole Mokotowskie, despite the heavy firing of light bullets from the direction of Rakowiecka Street, proceeded without losses. At 3:00 a.m. on 12th August, the division crossed the barricades at the exit of Mokotowska Street. About fifteen people who managed to "break away" during the capture and stayed in Kolonia Staszica, after sitting for two days under the terrace of a burning building, among groups of marauding Germans, joined the division without losses on the night of 13-14 August.
Enemy lOsses and Our Own
Our own losses during the defense, both in terms of crew and civilians, amounted to about ten killed and around thirty wounded.
To this should be added about fifteen shot by the Germans during the taking of the Reduta and two missing in the drains (Lt. "Stach" and senior marksman "Ziemowit"). It is not known what happened to the wounded from the house at Mianowskiego Street 24.
The enemy losses, if the assertions of the Ukrainians are to be believed, amounted to ninety men. Because our own observations indicated that the number of enemies killed at the Reduta Wawelska section didn’t exceed 20-25 people, it should be assumed that the number 90 includes the wounded too.
evaluatiOn
Both the defense of the Reduta Wawelska and the passage through the sewers to the Śródmieście were rated very highly by the Command of the Defense of Warsaw, as evidenced by the large number of decorations in a period when decorations were not handed out like confetti as they were at the end of the uprising. Gen. "Monter" Chrusciel, speaking about the defenders of the Reduta, said that in the first days of the uprising, they and Wola gave an example to Warsaw of how it should defend itself.
During the uprising, the Reduta Wawelska was the only small and isolated base on the outskirts to defend itself so long and effectively that it merited the title of the "Warsaw Westerplatte". The passage to Warsaw via the drains was probably the first such passage by such a large division, and these drains were lower than on any other route. Today, when we realize the hopelessness of the uprising, the defense of the Reduta Wawelska also seems to have been without much purpose or significance.
However, from the point of view of a soldier’s duty, at that time, the crew passed a tough exam, resisting the enemy to the limits of their possibility, and then getting through to their own people in a tight formation.
Defense of the Reduta undoubtedly delayed the attack on the Polytechnic for a few days, and in this way allowed the insurgent front on the Śródmieście-Południe section to be organized and consolidated.