Chapter 121
Chapter 121
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Warsaw Uprising (2)
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The Warsaw Uprising in the original timeline had crumbled away miserably amid the German army's merciless suppression and the Soviet army's inaction.
If the rebellion had broken out just a little later, even Stalin would have had a real headache on his hands.
In fact, with the thought of delaying the Warsaw Uprising a bit, I had subtly hinted as much to the Polish government-in-exile.
"If you rise up, the end of September would be ideal. That's the timing we've judged as optimal."
"We'll consider it."
Poland said as much, but once the Soviet army actually appeared near Warsaw, they got ahead of themselves in a panic and launched the uprising anyway.
'Of course they'd fail like that.'
The Soviets had neither the capability nor the will to attack Warsaw until October.
While maintaining contact with the Polish government-in-exile, I pondered ways to turn this uprising situation to our advantage.
'Honestly, the longer the Warsaw Uprising drags on, the better it is only for the Ivans?'
In this phase, it might be better to support the Nazis.
Sorry to the Poles, but they should've listened to me.
"Intelligence Director."
I called in Lee Kyung-ho and instructed him to open a channel to Germany through Switzerland.
Just like before, several pieces of critical intelligence were passed to Berlin via the German intelligence chief Schellenberg.
The intelligence I passed along boiled down to three points.
First, Stalin had reached the end of his offensive push and lacked both the ability and intent to intervene in the Warsaw Uprising.
In reality, even though the Soviet army had the capacity to supply some materiel, they provided none to Warsaw.
Second, the insurgents were extremely poorly armed.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to first seize open fields or clear areas wide enough for the Western Allies to drop supplies.
Third, the Warsaw insurgents would rely on the Warsaw brewery for food.
Set fire to its barley stores, whether with incendiary bombs or flamethrowers.
Whether the intelligence passed to Schellenberg took effect, starting from the last day of the first week of August, the Germans changed their strategy.
'Starvation and attrition tactics.'
The Germans had Warsaw surrounded and torched the brewery first.
Then they turned every likely food source into scorched earth with shelling and bombing.
The wailing from the Polish government-in-exile grew much louder.
The Polish ambassador pleaded with me to somehow persuade the Soviets to drop food on Warsaw.
"Don't worry. I'll try to convince the General Secretary."
Knowing the General Secretary well, I sent a message just as the Poles requested.
"To General Secretary Stalin. Your Excellency, letting the Poles' heroic struggle end like this would be a great loss. Wouldn't it benefit the Union to let the enemy of our enemy keep fighting a bit longer?"
It was a letter that paid lip service to saving Poland.
Honestly, there was no way Stalin would save Poland after reading that.
I trusted in Stalin's nature (that of a butcher).
But then, an unwanted miracle occurred.
"To Prime Minister Lee Seong-jun. Your Excellency, after carefully considering your request, I've concluded that supplying the Poles with an appropriate amount of food wouldn't be a bad idea. Starting mid-August, we'll permit the Allies to use our airfields."
What? What?
Weren't you a Pole-hater?
Why the sudden change in position?
Your character lacks consistency!
I couldn't hide my bewilderment at Stalin's reply.
"Your Excellency, if grain goes into Poland, won't it make it harder for the Germans to suppress the uprising?"
Lee Kyung-ho expressed concern about the situation as well.
Something felt off, but what could be done about what had already happened?
To buy the Germans some time as well, I sent another message to Stalin.
"General Secretary, Your Excellency, while the Germans' attention is focused on Poland, how about aiming for the Balkans?"
If the Soviets pushed into the Balkans, we could avoid the scenario of the German homeland getting hammered right after the Warsaw Uprising was crushed.
The General Secretary showed interest in my proposal.
"That doesn't sound bad. In fact, I'd been thinking along those lines myself."
So you planned to supply grain to Poland from the start?
Thinking about it, the overall picture was like that.
During the Warsaw Uprising in the original timeline, the eastern Balkans had completely collapsed.
The Soviets, gauging the timing for their next target of Poland, had wanted the 'Warsaw resistance' to disappear quickly.
But now the picture was different.
As long as Romania—the Germans' oil depot—remained intact, attacking it had to take strategic priority over Poland.
So there was no reason for Stalin to feel urgent if the resistance kept the Germans busy a little longer.
'I see, so that's how it was.'
If Stalin turned his gaze south, well, that was fine by me.
"You there."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
"Inform the Western side that Soviet airfield access has been approved, and make sure to explain just how much effort we've put into this."
After all, this had come about through my 'merit,' so I had to take full credit.
Gotta rack up some points with the West at times like this.
And so, I sold out dead Poland twice.
Even Lee Wan-yong probably couldn't have done it like me.
That much I could guarantee.
*
The head of the Polish government-in-exile, President Władysław Raczkiewicz, expressed sincere gratitude for Prime Minister Lee Seong-jun's mediation.
"Your country and Prime Minister Lee Seong-jun, Your Excellency, have saved Warsaw. I don't even know how to thank you."
"The Republic has merely fulfilled its duty(?) as an ally."
The Korean ambassador replied as if it were the most natural thing.
Grateful for that sentiment, the Polish president bowed once more.
After the Korean ambassador left, Raczkiewicz summoned Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski, the Polish military supreme commander, and explained that supplies could now be sent from the Soviets to Warsaw.
"That's really great."
The two rejoiced in emotion, believing Poland had gained a chance to rise again.
If they could just hold out for two more months, the Soviet army would cross the Vistula River, and then Poland would be liberated.
The president had this news sent to Warsaw as well.
Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, who was commanding the resistance in Warsaw, sneered at the Soviets opening their airfields but acknowledged it was good news.
'The Ivans have their uses after all.'
The Poles' morale soared at the news that grain would arrive soon.
"Just hang in there a little longer. We'll at least get a bowl of soup."
People caught rats and bugs, boiled them into soup with leather from bags and clothes, and somehow staved off their hunger.
Everyone was in dire straits, but they drew strength from the hope of escaping Nazi rule.
The Jews especially.
"Come on, everyone, stay strong. Let's hold out just one more month."
While the Poles in Warsaw steeled their resolve, the Germans reorganized their forces as well.
Various divisions from the Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht gathered under the suppression force commander Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski.
Among them were the 36th SS Grenadier Division commanded by Oskar Dirlewanger, infamous as a human butcher, and the Kaminski Brigade led by Bronisław Kamiński.
"Dirlewanger? Kamiński? Those guys are, well, famously fucked-up bastards?"
Even Waffen-SS soldiers, who wouldn't yield to anyone in massacres, shook their heads at the mention of those two names.
True to their reputation, Dirlewanger and Kamiński began war crimes the moment they arrived in the city.
"Kill the women, rape the men, loot the property, burn the buildings!"
"Doesn't that sound backwards?"
"As long as they get the gist without nitpicking details."
Dirlewanger always showed up on-site, bellowing orders.
"Kill. Kill them all!"
No exceptions for women or children.
The Poles trembled in fury at the mad war criminals' slaughter show.
German commander von dem Bach abetted these massacres.
"They're all traitors who need to be swept away anyway. Might as well rebuild the city while we're at it."
The Germans even dragged in 600mm Karl self-propelled mortars, typically used for fortress assaults, and fired them into the city.
The Poles endured these attacks stoutly at first, but as time passed, they realized they couldn't hold out much longer.
"The, the Soviets have to come."
It was absurd to hope for help from the red commie arch-enemies who had devoured Poland, but it beat submitting to the Nazis bent on exterminating the Polish race.
The Polish Home Army sent a messenger to the Soviet army, now close on the other side of the Vistula.
"Please help us quickly. We'll all die like this."
The Soviets inwardly sneered at the plea.
'Why should we help you?'
Watching German fascists and Polish militarists bleed each other to death was a spectacle worth paying for.
Why ruin such delightful entertainment?
While the Soviets stood by with arms crossed, the Polish People's Army (the Soviet puppet Polish forces) felt pity for their compatriots' plight.
Ideology aside—communism or democracy—watching fellow countrymen massacred like that was a bit much.
"We can't stand by any longer!"
Even die-hard reds couldn't tolerate this.
Soldiers of the Polish People's Army under Zygmunt Berling crossed the Vistula to aid their kin.
But without proper pontoon bridges, just swimming across bare-handed, the Polish soldiers couldn't provide much help in combat.
Under Soviet inaction, the Germans unleashed firepower freely and butchered the resistance.
The Poles lost, and lost, and lost again.
The Germans even gassed the cornered Poles.
"It's do or die anyway."
The Germans seized all open areas where Polish forces might receive supplies and fragmented their holdings into isolated pockets.
This left the Poles with no way to receive external aid.
Losing the grain warehouse early and starving had been bad enough, but losing much of their territory proved fatal.
On September 1, 1944, one month into the fighting, the Polish forces faced defeat.
When Home Army commander Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski ordered surrender, the Poles' heroic resistance came to an end.
"Is Warsaw burning?"
"Yes, Your Excellency. It's burning clean."
Hitler was satisfied with the report.
But the Germans had no time to celebrate the victory.
They might have won the battle, but the war was already tilting against them.
On the Western and Eastern Fronts, the enemy was once again shattering German defenses on a massive scale.
What if their boots crossed into German borders?
The Germans looked back at the city they had just destroyed.
The ruins of Warsaw, utterly devastated by the German army, foreshadowed the fate awaiting the Reich's capital, Berlin.
When Carthage fell, the Roman commander Scipio Aemilianus had said:
"One day, Rome will meet the same end as Carthage."
Germany's fate would soon be the same.
Unlike the Romans, they wouldn't have to wait 1,600 years for the prophecy to come true.