Armia Krajowa The Armia Krajowa ( , abbreviated AK ) , or Home Army , was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German - occupied Poland . It was formed in February 1942 from the " Związek Walki Zbrojnej " ( Union for Armed Struggle ) . Over the next two years , it absorbed most other Polish underground forces . It was loyal to the Polish government in exile and constituted the armed wing of what became known as the " Polish Underground State . " Estimates of its membership in 1944 range from 200 , 000 to 600 , 000 , with the most common number being 400 , 000 ; that figure would make it not only the largest Polish underground resistance movement but one of the three largest in Europe during World War II . It was disbanded on January 20 , 1945 , when Polish territory had been mostly cleared of German forces by the advancing Soviet Red Army . The AK ' s primary resistance operations were the sabotage of German activities , including transports headed for the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union . The AK also fought several full - scale battle s against the Germans , particularly in 1943 and 1944 during Operation Tempest . They tied down significant German forces , diverting much - needed supplies , while trying to support the Soviet military . The most widely known AK operation was the failed Warsaw Uprising . The AK also defended Polish civilians against atrocities committed by German and non - German ( collaborationist ) military organizations . Due to its ties with the Polish government in exile , the " Armia Krajowa " was viewed by the Soviet Union as a major obstacle to its takeover of the country . There was increasing conflict between AK and Soviet forces both during and after the war . History and operations . World War II . The AK ' s origins were in the " Służba Zwycięstwu Polski " ( Service for the Victory of Poland ) , which had been set up , just as the joint German & Soviet invasions of Poland were nearing completion , on September 27 , 1939 , by General Michał Karaszewicz - Tokarzewski . Seven weeks later , November 17 , 1939 , on the orders of General Władysław Sikorski , this organization was succeeded by " Związek Walki Zbrojnej " ( Union for Armed Struggle ) , which over two years later , on February 14 , 1942 , became the AK . While these two organizations were the founders of the AK , intended as the main Polish resistance movement , there were numerous other resistance organizations in Poland . A majority of these groups would eventually merge with the ZWZ - AK during the years of 1939 - 1944 , significantly contributing to AK ' s growth . According to the Polish government in exile , AK was to be a non - political , nationwide resistance organization . The supreme command defined the main tasks of the AK as partisan warfare against the German occupiers , recreation of armed forces underground and , near the end of the German occupation , general armed revolt until victory . At the war ' s end , AK plans envisaged the seizure of power in Poland by the " Delegatura " ( Government Delegate ' s Office at Home ) establishment , the representatives of the London - based government in exile ; and by the government - in - exile itself , which would return to Poland . In addition to the London government there was also a political organization in Poland itself , a deliberative body of the resistance and the Polish Underground State . The Political Consultative Committee ( " Polityczny Komitet Porozumiewawczy " ) was formed in 1940 after an agreement by representatives of several major political parties ( Socialist Party , People ' s Party , National Party and Labor Party ) ; renamed to Home Political Representation ( " Krajowa Reprezentacja Polityczna " ) in 1943 and to Council of National Unity ( " Rada Jedności Politycznej " ) in 1944 . The AK , although in theory subordinated to the civil authorities and the government in exile , often acted somewhat independently with both the AK commanders in Poland and London government not fully aware of the situation of the other . Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 , the Soviet Union joined the Allies ; the Anglo - Soviet Agreement was signed on July 12 , 1941 . This shift put the Polish government in a difficult position , since it had previously pursued a policy of " two enemies . " Although a Polish - Soviet agreement was signed in August , co - operation continued to be difficult , and deteriorated further after the Katyn massacre was publicized in 1943 . Until the major revolt began in 1944 , the AK concentrated on self - defence ( freeing prisoners and hostages , defence against pacification measures ) and striking at the German forces . Throughout the period of its existence AK units carried out thousands of armed raids and intelligence operations , sabotaging hundreds of railway shipments and participating in many partisan clashes and battles with German police and Wehrmacht units . The AK also conducted retaliatory operations to assassinate prominent Nazi collaborators and Gestapo officials in response to Nazi terror tactics imposed on the civilian population of Poland ( notable individuals assassinated by AK include Igo Sym and Franz Kutschera ) . Intelligence . Armia Krajowa supplied valuable intelligence information to the Allies ; 43 % of all reports received by British secret services from continental Europe in 1939 - 45 had come from Polish sources . Until 1942 , most of British intelligence from Germany came from AK reports ; until the end of the war AK would remain the main British source for news from Central and Eastern Europe . Among other topics , provided the Allies with information on German concentration camps , as well as intelligence concerning the V - 1 flying bomb and the V - 2 rocket One Project Big Ben mission used a stripped - for - lightness RAF twin - engine Dakota ( Operation Wildhorn III ) ( Most III ) from Brindisi , Italy , to fly to an abandoned German airfield in Poland to retrieve information prepared by engineer and aircraft designer Antoni Kocjan , as well as of cargo regarding V - 2 rocket wreckage from a Peenemünde launch , including " Special Report 1 / R , no . 242 " , photographs , a select set of eight parts , and drawings of the wreckage . Sabotage was coordinated by the Union of Retaliation and later Wachlarz and Kedyw units . The AK also carried out psychological warfare , with the " Operation N " created the illusion of a German opposition movement to Hitler within Germany itself . Major operations . Major military and sabotage operations included : the Zamość Uprising of 1942 - 1943 , with AK sabotaging German plans for expulsion of Poles under the Generalplan Ost ; the protection of the Polish population from the massacres of Poles in Volhynia in 1943 - 1944 ; Operation Wieniec sabotaging German rail transport in 1942 ; Operation Taśma in 1943 , a series of attacks against German border outposts on the frontier between the General Government and the territories annexed by Germany ; Operation Jula – another rail sabotage in 1944 ; and most notably Operation Tempest in 1944 , a series of nationwide uprisings whose chief goal was to seize control of cities and areas where German forces were preparing their defenses against the Soviet Red Army , so that Polish underground civil authorities could take power before the arrival of Soviet forces . The largest and best known of the Operation Tempest battles was the Warsaw Uprising – the attempt to liberate Warsaw , the capital of Poland . It started on August 1 , 1944 ; the Polish troops took control of significant portion of the city and resisted the German - led forces until October 2 ( 63 days in total ) . With no aid from the approaching Red Army , the Germans eventually defeated the rebels and burned the city , finally quelling the Uprising on October 2 , 1944 . Other major city uprisings of AK included the Operation Ostra Brama in Wilno and the Lwów Uprising . In addition , AK prepared an uprising in Kraków , but it was canceled due to several circumstances . While the AK managed to liberate a number of places from German control , for example in the Lublin region where the regional structures were able to set up a functioning government , in the end due to hostility and lack of support from the Soviet Union , it failed to secure sufficient territory for the government in exile to return . Axis fatalities due to the actions of the Polish underground , of which AK formed the bulk , are estimated at up to 150 , 000 ( one should however note that estimates of guerrilla warfare inflicted casualties often have a wide margin of error ) . The AK primary focus was on sabotage of German rail and road transports to the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union . It is estimated that one eighth of all German transports to Eastern Front were destroyed or significantly delayed due to AK ' s activities . The battle s with the Germans , particularly in 1943 and 1944 , tied down several German divisions ( upper estimates suggest about 930 , 000 German soldiers in total ) . Post - war . The AK officially disbanded on January 19 , 1945 to avoid armed conflict with the Soviets and civil war . However , many units decided to continue their struggle under new circumstances . The Soviet Union and the Polish Communist Government it controlled viewed the underground , still loyal to the Polish government in exile , as a force that had to be removed before they could gain complete control over Poland . Future General Secretary of Polish United Workers ' Party , Władysław Gomułka , is quoted as saying : " Soldiers of AK are a hostile element which must be removed without mercy . " Another prominent Polish communist , Roman Zambrowski , said that AK had to be " exterminated . " The first AK structure designed primarily to deal with the Soviet threat was NIE , formed in mid - 1943 . NIE ' s goals was not to engage the Soviet forces in combat , but rather to observe and conduct espionage while the Polish government in exile decided how to deal with the Soviets ; at that time the exiled government still believed that the solution could be found through negotiations . On May 7 , 1945 NIE ( " NO " ) was disbanded and transformed into Delegatura Sił Zbrojnych na Kraj ( " Homeland Armed Forces Delegation " ) , this organization however lasted only until August 8 , 1945 , when the decision was made to disband the organization and stop partisan resistance on Polish territories . The first Polish communist government , the Polish Committee of National Liberation , formed in July 1944 , declined jurisdiction over AK soldiers , therefore for more than a year it was the Soviet Union agencies such as NKVD that took responsibility for disarming the AK . By the end of the war approximately 60 , 000 AK soldiers were arrested , 50 , 000 of them were deported to the Soviet Union ' s Gulags and prisons ; most of those soldiers were captured by Soviets during or in the aftermath of Operation Tempest , when many AK units tried to cooperate with the Soviets in a nationwide uprising against the Germans . Other veterans were arrested when they decided to approach the Polish communist government officials after being promised amnesty . After several such broken promises during the first few years of communist control , AK soldiers stopped trusting the government . The third post - AK organization was Wolność i Niezawisłość ( " Freedom and Sovereignty " ) . Again its primary goal was not combat . Rather , it was designed to help the AK soldiers in transition from the life of partisans into that of civilians ; while secrecy and conspiracy were necessary in the light of increasing persecution of AK veterans by the communist government . WiN was however in significant need of funds , necessary to pay for false documents and to provide resources for the partisans , many of whom had lost their homes and entire life ' s savings in the war . Viewed as enemies of the state , starved of resources , and with a vocal faction advocating armed resistance against the Soviets and their Polish proxies , WiN was far from efficient . A significant victory for the NKVD and the newly created Polish secret police , Urząd Bezpieczeństwa , came in the second half of 1945 , when they managed to convince several leaders of AK and WiN that they truly wanted to offer amnesty to AK members . In a few months they managed to gain information about vast numbers of AK / WiN resources and people . By the time the ( imprisoned ) AK and WiN leaders realised their mistake , the organizations had been crippled with thousands of their members having been arrested . WiN was finally disbanded in 1952 . By 1947 a colonel of the communist forces declared that " Terrorist and political underground has ceased to be a threatening force , although there are still men of the forests " that need to be dealt with . The persecution of AK was only part of the repressions under Stalinism in Poland . In the period of 1944 - 1956 , approximately 2 million people were arrested , over 20 , 000 , including the hero of Auschwitz , Witold Pilecki , were executed or murdered in communist prisons , and 6 million Polish citizens ( i . e . every third adult Pole ) were classified as a " reactionary or criminal element " and subject to invigilation by state agencies . Most soldiers of the Home Army were captured by the NKVD or UB political police . They were interrogated and imprisoned on various charges like fascism . Many of them were sent to Gulags , executed or " disappeared . " For example between 1944 and 1956 all members of Batalion Zośka unit who took part in Warsaw Uprising was closed in communist jail . In 1956 an amnesty released 35 , 000 former AK soldiers from prisons : for the crime of fighting for their homeland they had spent sometimes over 10 years in prisons . Even at this time however , some partisans remained in the countryside , unwilling or simply unable to rejoin the community ; they became known as the " cursed soldiers " . Stanisław Marchewka " Ryba " was killed in 1957 , and the last AK partisan , Józef Franczak " Lalek , " was killed in 1963 – almost 2 decades after World War II ended . It was only four years later , in 1967 , that Adam Boryczka , a soldier of AK and a member of the elite , Britain - trained Cichociemny ( " The Silent and Hidden " ) intelligence and support group , was released from prison . Until the end of the People ' s Republic of Poland AK soldiers remained under investigation by the secret police , and it was only in 1989 , after the fall of communism , that the sentences of AK soldiers were finally declared invalid and annulled by the Polish courts . Many monuments to Armia Krajowa have been erected in modern Poland , and there are many museum exhibitions such as the Armia Krajowa Museum in Kraków and the Warsaw Uprising Museum in Warsaw . The Polish Home Army Museum is located in Orchard Lake , Michigan , United States . Membership . In February 1942 , when AK was formed from ZWZ , it numbered about 100 , 000 members . In the beginning of 1943 , it had reached a strength of about 200 , 000 . In the summer of 1944 when Operation Tempest begun AK reached its highest membership numbers . Estimates of AK membership in the first half of 1944 and summer that year range from 200 , 000 , 300 , 000 , 380 , 000 , 400 , 000 , 450 , 000 - 500 , 000 to even " over 600 , 000 . " Most estimates put the highest numbers in summer 1944 between 300 , 000 and 500 , 000 , with the average of 400 , 000 . The strength estimates vary , due to constantly ongoing integration of other resistance organizations into AK ; as well as because while the number of members was high and sympathizers even much higher , the number of armed members participating in actions would be smaller ( due to insufficient number of weapons ) . AK ' s numbers in 1944 include a cadre of more than 10 , 000 - 11 , 000 officers , 7 , 500 officers - in - training ( podchorąży ) and 88 , 000 NCOs . The officer cadre was formed from pre - war officers and NCOs , graduates of underground courses and elite operatives usually parachuted from the West ( cichociemni ) . A basic organization unit was a platoon , which numbered 35 - 50 people , with a skeleton , unmobilized version of 16 - 25 ; in February 1944 AK had 6287 regular and 2613 skeleton platoons operational . Such numbers made Armia Krajowa not only the largest of the Polish resistance movements , but among the two largest in World War II - time Europe . Casualties during the war are estimated at about 34 , 000 - 100 , 000 , plus about 20 , 000 - 50 , 000 after the war ( casualties and imprisonment ) . AK was intended as a mass membership organization , organized around a core of pre - war officers . AK soldiers could be divided into three groups . The first two consisted of " full - time members " : the undercover operatives , living mostly in urban setting under false identities ( most senior AK officers belonged to this group ) and uniformed ( to a certain extent ) partisans , living in the forested regions ( see " leśni " ) , and fighting Germans openly ( the numbers of that group can be estimated at about 40 groups numbering in total 1 , 200 - 4 , 000 in early 1943 but the numbers would grow significantly during Operation Tempest ) . The largest group consisted of " part - time members , " sympathizers leading ' double life ' , under their real names in their real homes , receiving no payment for their services , staying in touch with their undercover unit commander , but usually not called for any actions , as AK was planning to use them only during the planned nationwide uprising . AK was intended as a representative of the Polish nation , as its members were recruited from all social parties and classes ( the communists sent by Soviets and Soviet created Armia Ludowa ( People ' s Army ) being the only notable exception ) . Growth of the AK was significantly based on integration of scores of smaller resistance organizations into its ranks . Most of the other Polish underground armies became incorporated into the AK ( retaining a varying amount of autonomy ) including : The largest group that refused to join AK was the pro - Soviet and communist Armia Ludowa ( AL ) , which at its height in 1944 numbered 30 , 000 people . As a result , individual AK units varied significantly in their political outlooks ( notably in their attitude towards ethnic minorities or the Soviets ) . Structure . Headquarters . AK ' s Headquarters was divided into five sections , two bureaus and several other specialized units : The Commanders of AK were subordinated to the Polish commander - in - chief ( General Inspector of the Armed Forces ) of the Government in Exile in the military chain of command and responsible to the Government Delegate ' s at Home in the civilian chain of command . Stefan Rowecki ( pseudonym " Grot " , or " Arrowhead " ) , served as the AK ' s first commander until his arrest in 1943 ; Tadeusz Bór - Komorowski commanded from July 1943 until his capture in October 1944 and Leopold Okulicki , pseudonym " Niedzwiadek " ( " Bear Cub " ) led the organisation in its final days . Regional . Geographically , AK was divided into regional branches or areas ( " obszar " ) . Below the branches ( or areas ) were the subregions ( or subareas ) ( " podokręg " ) or independent areas ( " okręgi samodzielne " ) . Smaller organizational units involved ; inspectorates ( " inspektorat " ) , of which there were eighty - nine ( 89 ) and districts ( " obwód " ) , of which there were two hundred eighty ( 280 , as of early 1944 ) . Overall , AK regional structure resembled to a significant extent Polish interwar administration division , with " okręg " being similar to Polish voivodeship ( see also Administrative division of Second Polish Republic ) . There were three to five areas : Warsaw ( " Obszar Warszawski " , with some sources differentiating between left - and right - bank areas - " Obszar Warszawski prawo - i lewobrzeżny " ) , Western ( " Obszar Zachodni " in the Pomerania and Poznań regions ) , South - Eastern ( " Obszar Południowo - Wschodni " in the Lwów area ) ; sources vary on whether there was a North - Eastern Area ( centered in Białystok - " Obszar Białystocki " ) or whether Białystok was classified as an independent area ( " Okręg samodzielny Białystok " ) . From 1943 AK started to recreate the organization of the pre - war Polish Army , with its various units being designated as platoons , battalions , regiments , brigades and divisions and operational group s . Weapons and equipment . As a clandestine army operating in a country occupied by the enemy , separated by over a thousand kilometers from any friendly territory , the AK faced unique challenges in acquiring arms and equipment . AK was able to overcome these difficulties to some extent and put tens of thousands of armed soldiers into the field . Nevertheless , the difficult conditions meant that only infantry forces armed with light weapons could be fielded . Any use of artillery , armor or aircraft was impossible ( except for a few instances during the Warsaw Uprising , like the Kubuś armored car ) . Even these light infantry units were as a rule armed with a mixture of weapons of various types , usually in quantities sufficient to arm only a fraction of a unit ' s soldiers . In contrast , their opponents - the German armed forces and their allies – were almost universally supplied with plentiful arms and ammunition , and could count on a full array of support forces . Unit for unit , its German opponents enjoyed a crushing material superiority over the AK . This severely restricted the kind of operations that it could successfully undertake . The arms and equipment for Armia Krajowa mostly came from four sources : arms buried by the Polish armies on the battlefields after the Invasion of Poland in 1939 , arms purchased or captured from the Germans and their allies , arms clandestinely manufactured by Armia Krajowa itself , and arms received from Allied air drops . From the arms caches hidden in 1939 , the AK obtained : 614 heavy machine guns , 1 , 193 light machine guns , 33 , 052 rifles , 6 , 732 pistols , 28 antitank light field guns , 25 antitank rifles and 43 , 154 hand grenades . However , because of inadequate preservation , which had to be improvised in the chaos of the September campaign , most of these guns were in poor condition . Of those that were hidden in the ground and dug up in 1944 during preparation for Operation Tempest , only 30 % were usable . Sometimes arms were purchased on the black market from German soldiers or their allies or stolen from German supply depots or transports . Purchases were made by individual units and sometimes by individual soldiers . As Germany ' s prospects for victory diminished and the morale in German units dropped , the number of soldiers willing to sell their weapons correspondingly increased and thus made this source more important . All such purchases were highly risky , as the Gestapo was well aware of this black market in arms and tried to check it by setting up sting operations . For the most part this trade was limited to personal weapons , but occasionally light and heavy machine guns could also be purchased . It was much easier to trade with Italian and Hungarian units stationed in Poland , which more willingly sold their arms to the Polish underground as long as they could conceal this trade from the Germans . The efforts to capture weapons from Germans also proved highly successful . Raids were conducted on trains carrying equipment to the front , as well as guardhouses and gendarmerie posts . Sometimes weapons were taken from individual German soldiers accosted in the street . During the Warsaw Uprising , the AK even managed to capture several German armored vehicles . Arms were clandestinely manufactured by the AK in its own secret workshops , and also by its members working in German armament factories . In this way the AK was able to procure submachine guns ( copies of British Sten , indigenous Błyskawica and KIS ) , pistols ( Vis ) , flamethrowers , explosive devices , road mines and hand grenades ( Filipinka and Sidolówka ) . Hundreds of people were involved in this manufacturing effort . AK did not produce its own ammunition , but relied on supplies stolen by Polish workers from German - run factories . The final source of supply were Allied air drop s . This was the only way to obtain more exotic but highly useful equipment such as plastic explosives or antitank weapons ( PIAT ) . During the war 485 air drop missions from the West ( about half of which was flown by Polish airmen ) delivered about 600 tons of supplies for Polish resistance . Besides equipment , the planes also parachuted highly qualified instructors ( the " Cichociemni " ) , of whom 316 were inserted into Poland during the war . Due to the large distance from bases in Britain and the Mediterranean , and lukewarm political support , the airdrop s were only a fraction of those carried out in support of French , Yugoslavian , Greek or other resistance movements . In the end despite their efforts most of AK forces had inadequate weaponry . In 1944 , when AK numbers where at their peak strength ( 200 , 000 - 600 , 000 according to various estimates ) , AK had enough weaponry only for about 32 , 000 soldiers . On 1 August 1944 when Warsaw Uprising started , only one sixth of AK fighters in Warsaw were armed . Relations with other groups . Relations with Jews . It is not very well known among the Polish or the Jewish communities abroad , that the Jewish resistance fighters were members of the Armia Krajowa in considerable numbers . The information provided by the Jewish veteran of the Polish Home Army First Armoured Division , Willie Glaser of Montreal , includes a mention of some 1 , 000 Jews participating in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 , of whom 115 died including 66 Jewish members of AK . In February 1942 , the Operational Command of the AK Information and Propaganda Office set up the Section for Jewish Affairs , directed by Henryk Woliński . This section collected data about the situation of the Jewish population , drafted reports and sent information to London . It also centralized contacts between Polish and Jewish military organizations . The AK also supported the Relief Council for Jews in Poland ( codenamed Żegota ) as well as the formation of Jewish resistance under Nazi rule organizations in Poland . One member of the AK , Witold Pilecki , was the only person to volunteer for imprisonment in Auschwitz . The information he gathered proved crucial in convincing Western Allies about the fate of the Jewish population . In 1942 , AK sent Jan Karski on a secret mission to personally carry the first eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust to the mostly disbelieving Winston Churchill and Franklin D . Roosevelt . Before leaving , Karski was visited by two leaders of the Jewish underground who had managed to briefly leave the Warsaw Ghetto . According to Professor Antony Polonsky , the commander of the AK General Stefan Grot - Roweski made clear in an order of 10 November 1942 , that they did not regard the Jews ' as part of our nation ' , and that action was not to be taken to defend them if it endangered other AK objectives . However others record that the AK provided the Warsaw Ghetto with some firearms , ammunition and explosives . Jewish fighters from Jewish Military Union received only from PKB : 2 heavy machine guns , 4 light machine guns , 21 submachine guns , 30 rifles , 50 pistols , and over 400 grenades . During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 , AK units tried twice to blow up the ghetto wall , carried out holding actions outside the ghetto walls , and together with GL forces sporadically attacked German sentry units near the ghetto walls . Security Cadre ( " Kadra Bezpieczeństwa " or KB ) , one of the organizations subordinate to the AK , under the command of Henryk Iwański took a direct part in fights inside the ghetto together with Jewish fighters from ŻZW and ŻOB . During the Warsaw Uprising a year later , Batalion Zośka , one of the most notable units of the Uprising , liberated hundreds of Jews from the Gęsiówka part of the Warsaw Concentration Camp . While AK was largely untainted with collaboration with Nazis during the Holocaust , some historians have asserted that because of antisemitism AK was reluctant to accept Jews into its ranks . This may have been due to the leftist leanings of the ŻOB . However many Jews , among many others Marek Edelman , Dawid Moryc Apfelbaum , Henryk Chmielewski , Alicja Gołod - Gołębiowska and Leon Kopelman ( members of the famous Zośka Battalion ) , Stanisław " Shlomo " Aronson in rank of Lieutenant was also a member of the elite Kedyw unit , " Kolegium A " , Ludwik Widerszal , Adolf Berman or Calel Perechodnik , were part of the AK , while others , such as Szmul Zygielbojm , held top leadership positions in the National Council of the Polish government in exile to which the AK answered . Over the years , hundreds of Jews ( such as Julian Aleksandrowicz ) had joined the AK ( particularly its Socialist Fighting Organization subsidiary . Polish resistance in German - occupied Poland founded also in September 1942 " The Council to Aid Jews Żegota "