RISING 44 The Battle for Warsaw

"In August 1944, Warsaw appeared to present the last major obstacle to the Soviet army's triumphant march from Moscow to Berlin. When the Wehrmacht was pushed back to the Vistula River, the people of Warsaw believed that liberation was at hand. So, too, did the Western leaders. The Polish Resistance poured forty thousand armed fighters into the streets to drive out the hated Germans, but Stalin condemned the Rising as a criminal adventure and refused to cooperate. The Wehrmacht was given time to regroup, and Hitler ordered the city and its inhabitants to be utterly destroyed."