The Red Army Offensive in the spring of 1944 reached Warsaw by the late summer. Poland had suffered for five years under Nazi occupation, and the Government-in-Exile in London kept the focus of the Polish cause.
In addition to the Polish airborne and regular units serving with the Allied armies in the west, a sizable irregular force was organizing in Warsaw. The city was already devastated, the bombing of 1939 barely touched by repair. “Warsaw shall not be rebuilt. ” Said Rudolf Hess, Deputy Führer, in 1940. Much more of the city destroyed by the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943.
The Polish Home Army, loyal to the London Poles, stocked weapons and supplies throughout the spring of 1944. Another group of Poles, Communists who were directly controlled by Stalin, set up another government-in-exile in Moscow. They controlled a much smaller network in Warsaw and other Polish cities.
In late July 1944 the sounds of battle could be heard in Warsaw. The London Polish Government-in-Exile sent orders to the Polish Home Army that they would liberate the Polish capital themselves, sending a message that Poland would not be indebted to or under the influence of the Soviet Union.