Editing Home Army (section)

==Origins==
{{Polish Underground State sidebar}}
The Home Army originated in the [[Service for Poland's Victory]] (''Służba Zwycięstwu Polski''), which General [[Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski]] set up on 27 September 1939, just as the coordinated [[German invasion of Poland|German]] and [[Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)|Soviet invasions of Poland]] neared completion.<ref name="MNK"/> Seven weeks later, on 17 November 1939, on orders from General [[Władysław Sikorski]], the Service for Poland's Victory was superseded by the [[Union for Armed Struggle|Armed Resistance]] (''Związek Walki Zbrojnej''), which in turn, a little over two years later, on 14 February 1942, became the Home Army.<ref name="MNK"/><ref name="Enc. PWN: AK"/> During that time, many other resistance organisations remained active in Poland,<ref name="Strzembosz 1996"/> although most of them, merged with the Armed Resistance or with its successor, the Home Army, and substantially augmented its numbers between 1939 and 1944.<ref name="Enc. PWN: AK"/><ref name="Strzembosz 1996"/>

The Home Army was loyal to the [[Polish government-in-exile]] and to its agency in occupied Poland, the [[Government Delegation for Poland]] (''Delegatura''). The Polish civilian government envisioned the Home Army as an apolitical, nationwide resistance organisation. The supreme command defined the Home Army's chief tasks as partisan warfare against the German occupiers, the re-creation of armed forces underground and, near the end of the German occupation, a general armed rising to be prosecuted until victory. Home Army plans envisioned, at war's end, the restoration of the pre-war government following the return of the government-in-exile to Poland.<ref name="Prazmowska2004">{{cite book |last=Prazmowska |first=A. |title=Civil War in Poland 1942-1948 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ReF8DAAAQBAJ&pg=PR10 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |date=29 July 2004 |page=10 |isbn=978-0-230-50488-2}}</ref><ref name="MNK" /><ref name="Enc. PWN: AK" /><ref name="Enc. WIEM: AK" /><ref name="Wróbel2014">{{cite book |last=Wróbel |first=Piotr |title=Historical Dictionary of Poland 1945-1996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U2O2AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1872 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |date=27 January 2014 |page=1872 |isbn=978-1-135-92701-1}}</ref><ref name="RozettSpector2013">{{cite book |last1=Rozett |first1=Robert |last2=Spector |first2=Shmuel |title=Encyclopedia of the Holocaust |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5MuAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT506 |publisher=Routledge |date=26 November 2013 |pages=506– |isbn=978-1-135-96957-8}}</ref>

The Home Army, though in theory subordinate to the civil authorities and to the government-in-exile, often acted somewhat independently, with neither the Home Army's commanders in Poland nor the "London government" fully aware of the other's situation.{{r|Leslie|pp=235–236}}

After [[Operation Barbarossa|Germany started its invasion of the Soviet Union]] on 22 June 1941, the Soviet Union joined the [[Allies in World War II|Allies]] and signed the [[Anglo-Soviet Agreement]] on 12 July 1941. This put the Polish government in a difficult position since it had previously pursued a policy of "two enemies". Although a [[Sikorski–Mayski Agreement|Polish–Soviet agreement]] was signed in August 1941, cooperation continued to be difficult and deteriorated further after 1943 when Nazi Germany publicised the [[Katyn massacre]] of 1940.<ref name="Michta 1990" />

Until the major rising in 1944, the Home Army concentrated on self-defense (the freeing of prisoners and hostages, defense against German pacification operations) and on attacks against German forces. Home Army units carried out thousands of armed raids and intelligence operations, sabotaged hundreds of railway shipments, and participated in many [[partisan (military)|partisan]] clashes and battles with German police and [[Wehrmacht]] units. The Home Army also assassinated prominent [[Collaboration during World War II|Nazi collaborators]] and [[Gestapo]] officials in retaliation against Nazi terror inflicted on Poland's civilian population; prominent individuals assassinated by the Home Army included [[Igo Sym]] (1941) and [[Franz Kutschera]] (1944).<ref name="MNK" /><ref name="Enc. WIEM: AK" />