The 1939 Battle of Warsaw was fought between the Polish Warsaw Army (Armia Warszawa) garrisoned and entrenched in the capital of Poland (Warsaw) and the German Army. It started with huge aerial bombardments by the Luftwaffe starting on September 1, 1939.

Land fighting started on September 8, when the first German armoured unitsWola area and south-western suburbs of the city. Despite German radio broadcasts claiming to have captured Warsaw, the attack was stopped and soon afterwards Warsaw was under siege. The siege lasted until September 28, when the Polish garrison under Gen. Walerian Czuma capitulated. The following day approximately 100 000 Polish soldiers left the city and were taken POW. On October 1 the Wehrmacht entered Warsaw, which started a period of German occupation that lasted until the Warsaw Uprising and later until January 17, 1945.

Eve of the battle

On September 3 the forces of German 4th Panzer Division under major general Georg-Hans Reinhardt managed to break through positions of the Polish Łódź Army near Częstochowa and started their march towards the river Vistula and Warsaw. The same day Polish Commander in Chief, Marshal of Poland Edward Śmigły-Rydz ordered the creation of an improvised Command of the Defence of Warsaw (Dowództwo Obrony Warszawy). General Walerian Czuma, the head of the Border Guard (Straż Graniczna), became its commander and colonel Tadeusz Tomaszewski its chief of staff.

Initially the forces under command of General Czuma were very limited. Most of the city authorities withdrew together with a large part of the police forces, fire fighters and military garrison. Warsaw was left with only 4 battalions of infantry and one battery of artillery. Also, the spokesman of the garrison of Warsaw issued a communique in which he ordered all young men to leave Warsaw. To coordinate civilian efforts and counter the panic that started in Warsaw, Czuma appointed the president of Warsaw Stefan Starzyński as the Civilian Commissar of Warsaw. Starzyński started to organize the Civil Guard to replace the evacuated police forces and the fire fighters. He also ordered all members of the city's administration to retake their posts. In his daily radio releases he asked all civilians to construct barricades and anti-tank barriers at the outskirts of Warsaw. On September 7 the 40th Infantry Regiment "Children of Lwow" (commanded by Lt.Col. Józef Kalandyk} - transiting through Warsaw towards previously assigned positions with Army Pomorze - was stopped and joined the defence of Warsaw.

After the Battle of Bzura ended, the remnants of the Poznań Army and the Pomorze Army broke through German encirclement and arrived in Warsaw and Modlin. After that the forces of the defenders amounted to approximately 120 000 soldiers. The German forces preparing for an all-out assault numbered some 175 000 soldiers. On September 22 the last lines of communication between Warsaw and Modlin were cut by German forces reaching the Vistula.

As a preparation for the storming, the city was shelled day and night with artillery and aerial bombardment. Among the guns used were heavy railway guns and mortars. Two entire air fleets took part in the air raids against both civilian and military targets. Since September 20 the forces on the eastern bank of the Vistula started attacks on Praga on a daily basis. All were successfully counter-attacked by the Polish forces. On September 24 all German units concentrated around Warsaw were put under command of general Johannes Blaskowitz

On September 25 the final preparations commenced and the following day in the early morning the general assault was started on all fronts of surrounded Warsaw. Western parts of the city were attacked by 5 German divisions (10th, 18th, 19th, 31st and 46th) while the eastern part was attacked by 4 divisions (11th, 32nd, 61st and 217th). The attack was supported by approximately 70 batteries of field artillery, 80 batteries of heavy artillery and two entire air fleets (1st and 4th), which bombarded the city continuously causing heavy losses in the civilian population.

The attack was repelled and the German forces had to retreat to their initial positions. The following night the Polish forces managed to successfully counter-attack and destroyed several German outposts, especially the Polish positions in boroughs of Mokotów and Praga. On September 27 the German High Command organised yet another all-out assault that was yet again repelled with heavy casualties on both sides.

The Polish Army lost approximately 6,000 KIA and 16,000 WIA. After the capitulation approximately 5,000 officers and 97,000 soldiers and NCOs were taken into captivity. The civilian population of Warsaw lost 25,800 dead and approximately 50,000 wounded. As an effect of bombardment 12% of buildings were turned into ruins. No official list of German casualties was published.

_{Source: WikiPedia}