Chapter 183: Polish Campaign: The Siege of Warsaw

Although the Polish military at the highest level had guessed that the Soviets might take action against themselves before the invasion of the Soviet Union, the pressure on them from the German forces on the Western Front was so great that they had to transfer a large part of the troops originally deployed on the Eastern Front to defend against the Soviet Union and replenish them on the Western Front.

As a result, the Polish army on the Eastern Front had less than 50,000 troops defending Poland, and they faced the Belarusian Front, led by Mikhail Kovalev, and the Ukrainian Front, led by Timoshenko, which numbered more than 800,000 in total!

Under such a huge disparity in strength, the decision-makers of the Polish army did not stupidly let the troops on the Eastern Front hold on, but directly ordered the Polish troops on the Eastern Front to abandon all positions and withdraw to neighboring Romania.

Polish President Mošićc appointed General Vładesław Rachikijević as the commander-in-chief of the Polish army on the second day of the Soviet attack, and he announced his resignation as Polish president after issuing this order.

Vwadesław Lachikijević's first order after taking over as commander-in-chief of the Polish army was to withdraw to Romania together with the troops on the Eastern Front the five main Polish armies of "Modlin", "Poznan", "Lodz", and "Narev", which were fighting fiercely against the German army, and the two major armies of "Krakow" and "Carpathians", which were resisting the Czechoslovak expeditionary group on the southern front, together with the troops of the Eastern Front.

But it was not so easy to retreat, the "Krakow" Army Group and the "Carpathian" Army Group on the Southern Front were better to say, they faced the Czechoslovak group of distant groups and they were not entangled fiercely, but the five major armies that resisted the German army on the Western Front were not so easy to withdraw, they were almost completely entangled with the German troops, and even a German forward unit had already advanced to the Prushkuw line.

And Prushkuv is less than 25 kilometers away from Warsaw.

In order to allow most of the people on the Western Front to evacuate safely to Romania, Rachikievich had to order the five major armies of the Western Front to leave 150,000 men to hold Warsaw and hold the pace of the German offensive for the retreating large forces.

After arranging the plan, the Polish army abandoned all positions on the western and southern fronts on May 26, and the whole army retreated in two directions under the cover of a small number of blocking troops, the large force retreated to Romanian territory, and the 150,000 men responsible for blocking the German army withdrew to Warsaw while attracting German firepower.

However, the Germans did not rush to Warsaw, the capital of Poland, as the Polish high command thought, but tried to completely annihilate the Polish army.

As soon as the Polish army began to retreat, the German High Command ordered Army Group A, regardless of the Polish decoy troops who were still trying to attract firepower, to pursue the main Polish army that was retreating, and on May 28, it bit the main Polish army.

Army Group C moved to both flanks of Warsaw, and on May 28, Army Group A completed the encirclement of Warsaw while biting the main force of the Polish army, enveloping 150,000 Polish decoy troops and more than 30,000 Warsaw garrison troops, totaling more than 180,000 people, in this city with an area of 512 square kilometers.

After encircling Warsaw, the Germans ordered the Polish army to surrender within 12 hours, but how could the Polish army, which was already responsible for holding back the German army, surrender easily? They sternly rejected the German persuasion to surrender and declared that they were ready to hold Warsaw for ten years.

After failing to persuade the Germans to surrender, they launched a massive air attack on China on May 29 with 900 sorties of medium-range and dive bombers. After the air raids, the Wehrmacht Army Group C and one SS Panzer Division, one Panzergrenadier Division, and five Grenadier Divisions, which were surrounding Warsaw, launched a ground attack on Warsaw.

West Town of Warsaw.

A group of German soldiers was cautiously advancing along Vorska Street, from west to east.

Felix hid in the ruins of a broken building, cautiously poking his head out to observe his surroundings.

After confirming that there was no one in front of him, he stretched out his right hand backwards and gave a thumbs up, and then made a fist with his backhand and shook it three times from top to bottom.

His sign language means: safe ahead, move fast.

After Felix made this group of sign language, 17 German soldiers sprang out of a fairly intact building about 150 meters behind him, bending down and quickly moving towards Felix's location.

150 meters was not far away, and everyone quickly ran to the ruins where Felix was, and then each found a place to hide.

A non-commissioned officer with the rank of sergeant climbed up to Felix, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Good job, Felix, how's it going?" Is there anything unusual ahead? ”

Hearing the squad leader's praise, Felix smiled shyly, then pointed to a small church not far in front of him, and said, "Squad leader, there is something wrong with the church in front, I saw a figure in that church when I first arrived here." ”

The squad leader nodded when he heard this, then carefully observed the nearby terrain, frowned and said, "If there are people in that church, then it will be difficult for us to do it." ”

"What's so hard?" Felix asked, "We can bypass the people in that church and head straight to the city center." ”

"There's no way we're going to get around them." The squad leader De Trissy shook his head and said, then analyzed the terrain for Felix, "You see, there is a square in front of us, and if we go directly through the square, we will definitely be seen by the people in the church. And on our left side is a small river, and at first glance if we go down into the river, we must be able to avoid the view of the people in the church, but if there are people on the other side of the river and find us, we will definitely be wiped out in the river, and on our right side, you can see, the church is there. ”

"Then we have to take that church?" Felix asked.

"I'm afraid so." De Trissy nodded, "I'm going to get the big guy ready, and you keep looking there." ”

With that, Detrisi patted Felix on the shoulder, and then slowly climbed down

"Ugh." Felix sighed, staring in the direction of the church, and complained to himself, "Why don't these Polish bastards surrender?" Someone has to die here in vain later, it's really not worth it! ”

Before he could complain, De Trissy climbed back to Felix with another man, signaling that everyone was ready.

The other person is the accurate shooter in the squad, who is responsible for covering everyone's attacks here.

Felix patted the precision shooter on the shoulder, then turned and crawled back into the ranks of soldiers, ready to attack the church.