Editing Home Army (section)

===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/>