page_title: Polish Underground State
section_title: Military
hierarchical_section_title: Polish Underground State / Structure / Military
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Armia Krajowa - struktury organizacyjne w 1944English: Armia Krajowa - territorial organization in 1944
context_page_description: The Polish Underground State was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland, that were loyal to the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile in London. The first elements of the Underground State were established in the final days of the German and Soviet invasion of Poland, in late September 1939. The Underground State was perceived by supporters as a legal continuation of the pre-war Republic of Poland that waged an armed struggle against the country's occupying powers: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Underground State encompassed not only military resistance, one of the largest in the world, but also civilian structures, such as education, culture and social services.
  Although the Underground State enjoyed broad support throughout much of the war, it was not supported or recognized by the far left. The nationalists from the National Radical Camp Falanga and National Radical Camp ABC opposed the German occupation of Poland and the two movements were quickly replaced by the Konfederacja Narodu, a part of the Polish
  Underground State which also included most members of the pre-war far-right.
context_section_description: The military arm of the Polish Underground State consisted primarily of various branches of the Armia Krajowa (AK) and, until 1942, the Union of Armed Struggle. This arm of the state was designed to prepare the Polish society for a future fight for the country's liberation. Apart from armed resistance, sabotage, intelligence, training, and propaganda, the state's military arm was responsible for maintaining communication with the London-based government in exile, and for protecting the civilian arm of the state.
  The Armia Krajowa's primary resistance operations were the sabotage of German activities, including transports headed for the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union. The sabotage of German rail and road transports to the Eastern Front was so extensive it is estimated that one eighth of all German transports to the Eastern Front were destroyed or significantly delayed due to AK's activities.
  The AK also fought several full-scale battles against the Germans, particularly in 1943 and 1944 during Operation Tempest. They tied down significant German forces, worth at least several divisions (upper estimates suggest about 930,000 troops), diverting much-needed supplies, while trying to support the Soviet military. Polish intelligence operatives supplied valuable intelligence information to the Allies; 43 percent of all reports received by British secret services from continental Europe in 1939–45 came from Polish sources. At its height, AK numbered over 400,000 and was recognized as one of the three largest, or even the largest, resistance movement of the war. Axis fatalities due to the actions of the Polish underground, of which AK formed the bulk, are estimated at up to 150,000.
caption: Regional organization of Armia Krajowa in 1944
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