Thread by @HistorianBlood

#WarsawUprising - a short thread about the German command.

First a map that illustrates the full extent of Operation Bagration, the Red Army offensive.

Map - Zentrum für Militärgeschichte und Sozialwissenschaften der Bundeswehr

20 July 1944 Guderian became Chief of the General Staff, Himmler - chief of the reserve army. On 30 July Himmler met Bach-Zelewski had been inspecting East Prussian defences. On 31 July they both met Guderian and Bronislav Kaminski.
@BundesarchivD

The group were planning the defence and security of the Reich, post July plot and had received intelligence that an uprising was planned. Guderian bitterly denied this meeting took place during the postwar war crimes investigations.

1 August 1944, Bach-Zelewski was in Danzig. His first diary reference to the fighting in Warsaw was 2 August. He was in Sopot by the sea having a rest. On 3 August, he used his Luftwaffe aircraft to fly to SS field Hq in Giżycko. His command was still transferring to Bavaria.

The fighting up to Warsaw was very intense. 9th Army under Nicholas von Vormann were fighting to slow and stop the Soviets.

4 August 1944, Bach-Zelewski was ordered to Krakow to meet Himmler and received a message he was to command Warsaw. At that stage Himmler and the Luftwaffe were controlling German forces in Warsaw. He went into Warsaw to observe the fighting.

The joint army-SS moves were intended to be part of Guderian’s grand destruction of the Red Army. The intention being to draw the Red Army into Warsaw and surround it like a 2nd Tannenberg. They didn’t take the bait.

Gradually the Germans established a new chain of command, which became the primary discussion of responsibility for the butchery during the uprising. The map is in my book, which discusses the uprising from the German perspective.

The significance of the battle for the Germans was huge. It became the defence centre and the panzer divisions began striking out across the entire front in small local counterattacks.

For the SS Warsaw became the high point of their security warfare doctrines. Bach-Zelewski, Oskar Dirlewanger and HeinzReinefarth received the Knights’ Cross from Hitler. Kaminski was executed as fall guy for the crimes but the evidence against them all included Guderian.