Editing Home Army (section)

==Membership==
===Size===
In February 1942, when the Home Army was formed from the Armed Resistance, it numbered around 100,000 members.<ref name="Enc. WIEM: AK" /> Less than a year later, at the start of 1943, it had reached a strength of around 200,000.<ref name="Enc. WIEM: AK" /> In the summer of 1944, when [[Operation Tempest]] began, the Home Army reached its highest membership:<ref name="Enc. WIEM: AK" /> estimates of membership in the first half and summer of 1944 range from 200,000,{{r|Leslie|p=234}} through 300,000,<ref name="Embassy PR 2006" /> 380,000<ref name="Enc. WIEM: AK" /> and 400,000<ref name="Laqueur 2019">{{cite book |last=Laqueur |first=Walter |title=Guerrilla: A Historical and Critical Study |publisher=Routledge |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-429-69636-7 |location=Milton |chapter=5. The Twentieth Century (II): Partisans against Hitler |oclc=1090493874}}</ref> to 450,000–500,000,<ref name="Salm 1994" /> though most estimates average at about 400,000; the strength estimates vary due to the constant integration of other resistance organisations into the Home Army, and that while the number of members was high and that of sympathizers was even higher, the number of armed members participating in operations at any given time was smaller—as little as one per cent in 1943, and as many as five to ten per cent in 1944<ref name="Laqueur 2019" />—due to an insufficient number of weapons.<ref name="Enc. WIEM: AK" /><ref name="Laqueur" />{{r|Leslie|p=234}}

Home Army numbers in 1944 included a cadre of over 10,000–11,000 officers, 7,500 officers-in-training (singular: ''[[podchorąży]]'') and 88,000 [[non-commissioned officer]]s (NCOs).<ref name="Enc. WIEM: AK"/> The officer cadre was formed from prewar officers and NCOs, graduates of underground courses, and elite operatives usually parachuted in from the West (the [[Silent Unseen]]).<ref name="Enc. WIEM: AK"/> The basic organizational unit was the platoon, numbering 35–50 people, with an unmobilized skeleton version of 16–25; in February 1944, the Home Army had 6,287 regular and 2,613 skeleton platoons operational.<ref name="Enc. WIEM: AK"/> Such numbers made the Home Army not only the largest Polish resistance movement, but one of the two largest in World War II Europe.{{efn|name=a}} Casualties during the war are estimated at 34,000<ref name="Embassy PR 2006"/> to 100,000,<ref name="Enc. WIEM: AK"/> plus some 20,000<ref name="Embassy PR 2006"/>–50,000<ref name="Enc. WIEM: AK"/> after the war (casualties and imprisonment).

===Demographics===
The Home Army was intended to be a mass organisation that was founded by a core of prewar officers.<ref name="Enc. WIEM: AK"/> Home Army soldiers fell into three groups. The first two consisted of "full-time members": undercover operatives, living mostly in urban settings under false identities (most senior Home Army officers belonged to this group); and uniformed (to a certain extent) partisans, living in forested regions (''leśni'', or "forest people"), who openly fought the Germans (the forest people are estimated at some 40 groups, numbering 1,200–4,000 persons in early 1943, but their numbers grew substantially during [[Operation Tempest]]).{{r|Leslie|pp=234–235}} The third, largest group were "part-time members": sympathisers who led "double lives" under their real names in their real homes, received no payment for their services, and stayed in touch with their undercover unit commanders but were seldom mustered for operations, as the Home Army planned to use them only during a planned nationwide rising.{{r|Leslie|pp=234–235}}

The Home Army was intended to be representative of the Polish nation, and its members were recruited from most parties and social classes.{{r|Leslie|pp=235–236}} Its growth was largely based on integrating scores of smaller resistance organisations into its ranks; most of the other Polish underground armed organizations were incorporated into the Home Army, though they retained varying degrees of autonomy.<ref name="Enc. PWN: AK"/> The largest organization that merged into the Home Army was the leftist Peasants' Battalions ({{lang|pl|[[Bataliony Chłopskie]]}}) around 1943–1944,<ref name=WPH>{{cite book|title=Wojskowy przegla̜d historyczny|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xFJpAAAAMAAJ|year=1996|publisher=s.n.|page=134|language=pl}}</ref> and parts of the National Armed Forces (''[[Narodowe Siły Zbrojne]]'') became subordinate to the Home Army.<ref name="KonopkaKonopka1999">{{cite book|author1=Hanna Konopka|author2=Adrian Konopka|title=Leksykon historii Polski po II wojnie światowej 1944–1997|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vqe1AAAAIAAJ|date=1 January 1999|publisher=Graf-Punkt|isbn=978-83-87988-08-1|page=130|language=pl}}</ref> In turn, individual Home Army units varied substantially in their political outlooks, notably in their attitudes toward ethnic minorities and toward the Soviets.{{r|Leslie|pp=235–236}} The largest group that completely refused to join the Home Army was the pro-Soviet, communist People's Army (''[[Armia Ludowa]]''), which numbered 30,000 people at its height in 1944.<ref name="Enc. PWN: AL"/>

===Women===
[[File:Polish Boy Scouts fighting in the Warsaw Uprising.jpg|thumb|Young [[Radosław Group]] soldiers, 2 September 1944, a month into the [[Warsaw Uprising]]. They had just marched several hours through Warsaw sewers.]]

Home Army ranks included a number of female operatives.<ref name="zbiorowy2015">{{cite book|author=autor zbiorowy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=drg9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT294|title=Wielka Księga Armii Krajowej|date=23 November 2015|publisher=Otwarte|isbn=978-83-240-3431-4|page=294}}</ref> Most women worked in the communications branch, where many held leadership roles or served as couriers.<ref name=drap/> Approximately a seventh to a tenth of the Home Army insurgents were female.<ref name=":0"/><ref name=drap>{{cite journal|last=Drapikowska|first=Barbara|date=2013|title=Militarna partycypacja kobiet w Siłach Zbrojnych RP|url=https://yadda.icm.edu.pl/baztech/element/bwmeta1.element.baztech-74054546-5d38-4cce-bbbb-050e74b7659b|journal=Zeszyty Naukowe AON|volume=2|issue=91|pages=166–194|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230509110612/https://yadda.icm.edu.pl/baztech/element/bwmeta1.element.baztech-74054546-5d38-4cce-bbbb-050e74b7659b|archive-date=May 9, 2023}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite journal|last=Drapikowska|first=Barbara|date=2016|title=Kobiety w polskiej armii – ujęcie historyczne|url=http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.desklight-15ce8cd4-ff88-4a9f-93ac-3edebf946e9f|journal=Czasopismo Naukowe Instytutu Studiów Kobiecych|language=pl|issue=1|pages=45–65|doi=10.15290/cnisk.2016.01.01.03|issn=2451-3539|doi-access=free|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230516023825/http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.desklight-15ce8cd4-ff88-4a9f-93ac-3edebf946e9f|archive-date= May 16, 2023}}</ref>

Notable women in the Home Army included [[Elżbieta Zawacka]], an underground courier who was sometimes called the only female ''[[Cichociemna]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Półturzycki|first=Józef|date=2014|title=Spór o Elżbietę Zawacką – żołnierza i pedagoga|url=https://apcz.umk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/RA/article/view/RA.2014.023|journal=Rocznik Andragogiczny|language=pl|volume=21|pages=317–332|doi=10.12775/RA.2014.023|issn=2391-7571|doi-access=free|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111181739/https://apcz.umk.pl/RA/article/view/RA.2014.023|archive-date= January 11, 2023}}</ref> {{ill|Grażyna Lipińska|pl|Grażyna Lipińska}} organised an intelligence network in German-occupied [[Belarus]] in 1942–1944.<ref>{{cite web|language=pl|url=https://www.bip.pw.edu.pl/var/pw/storage/original/application/972c82c82689938ad5b317e0ce8fb859.pdf|work=Załącznik do Uchwały Senatu PW nr 202/XLVI/2007 z dnia 27 June 2007 r.|title=Grażyna Lipińska – życiorys|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230507232736/https://www.bip.pw.edu.pl/var/pw/storage/original/application/972c82c82689938ad5b317e0ce8fb859.pdf|archive-date= May 7, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Turonek1992">{{cite book|author=Jerzy Turonek|title=Wacław Iwanowski i odrodzenie Białorusi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bz4UAAAAIAAJ|year=1992|publisher=Warszawska Oficyna Wydawnicza "Gryf"|isbn=978-83-85209-12-6|page=118|language=pl}}</ref> {{ill|Janina Karasiówna|pl|Janina Karasiówna}} and [[Emilia Malessa]] were high-ranking officers described as "holding top posts" within the communication branch of the organisation.<ref name=drap/> {{ill|Wanda Kraszewska-Ancerewicz|pl|Wanda Kraszewska-Ancerewicz}} headed the distribution branch.<ref name=drap/> Several all-female units existed within the AK structures, including ''{{ill|Dysk|pl|Oddział Dysk}}'', an entirely female sabotage unit led by [[Wanda Gertz]], who carried out assassinations of female [[Gestapo]] informants in addition to sabotage.<ref name=drap/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Marcinkiewicz-Kaczmarczyk|first=Anna|date=18 November 2015|title=Żeńskie oddziały sabotażowo-dywersyjne w strukturach armii podziemnej w latach 1940–1944 na podstawie relacji i wspomnień ich członkiń|url=http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.desklight-94b7ed3d-0f3f-4463-aee5-a184c5e077b2|journal=Pamięć I Sprawiedliwość|volume=2|issue=26|pages=115–138|via=cejsh.icm.edu.pl}}</ref> During the [[Warsaw Uprising]], two all-female units were created—a demolition unit and a sewer system unit.<ref name=":0"/>

Many women participated in the Warsaw Uprising, particularly as medics or scouts;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3621391/The-Warsaw-women-who-took-on-Hitler.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3621391/The-Warsaw-women-who-took-on-Hitler.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The Warsaw women who took on Hitler|first=Bernadeta|last=Tendyra|date=26 July 2004|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="Fidelis2010">{{cite book|author=Malgorzata Fidelis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlT4A7xvIA0C&pg=PA38|title=Women, Communism, and Industrialization in Postwar Poland|date=21 June 2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-19687-1|page=38}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lyZYS_GxglIC&pg=PA472|title=Women and War: A Historical Encyclopedia from Antiquity to the Present|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2006|isbn=978-1-85109-770-8|pages=472}}</ref> they were estimated to form about 75% of the insurgent medical personnel.<ref name=":2" /> By the end of the uprising, there were about 5,000 female casualties among the insurgents, with over 2,000 female soldiers taken captive; the latter number reported in contemporary press caused a "European sensation".<ref name=drap/>