Editing Home Army (section)

==Operations==

=== Intelligence ===
{{further|History of Polish intelligence services#1939–1945}}
[[File:The Third Reich - polish resistance poster, German-occupied Poland, 1943.jpg|thumb|''Der Klabautermann'' (an [[Operation N]] magazine), 3 January 1943 issue, satirizing Nazi terror and genocide. From the right, emerging from the "III" (Roman numeral three", of the "[[Nazi Germany|Third Reich]]"): [[Himmler]], [[Hitler]], and [[Death]].]]
The Home Army supplied valuable [[Intelligence (information gathering)|intelligence]] to the Allies; 48 per cent of all reports received by the [[British secret services]] from continental Europe between 1939 and 1945 came from Polish sources.<ref name="Kochanski2012">{{cite book |last=Kochanski |first=Halik |title=The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EJ5vIyDBpLcC&pg=PA234 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |date=13 November 2012 |pages=234–236 |isbn=978-0-674-06816-2}}</ref> The total number of those reports is estimated at 80,000, and 85 per cent of them were deemed to be high quality or better.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Soybel |first=Phyllis L. |title=Intelligence Cooperation between Poland and Great Britain during World War II. The Report of the Anglo-Polish Historical Committee |url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=134025 |journal=[[Sarmatian Review]] |volume=XXVII |issue=1 |date=2007 |pages=1266–1267 |issn=1059-5872}}</ref> The Polish intelligence network grew rapidly; near the end of the war, it had over 1,600 registered agents.<ref name="Kochanski2012" />

The Western Allies had limited intelligence assets in Central and Eastern Europe. The extensive in-place Polish intelligence network proved a major resource; between the French capitulation and other Allied networks that were undeveloped at the time, it was even described as "the only [A]llied intelligence assets on the Continent".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Schwonek|first=Matthew R.|date=2006-04-19|title=Intelligence Co-operation Between Poland and Great Britain during World War II: The Report of the Anglo-Polish Historical Committee, vol. 1 (review)|journal=The Journal of Military History|volume=70|issue=2 |pages=528–529 |s2cid=161747036 |issn=1543-7795 |doi=10.1353/jmh.2006.0128}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Peszke|first=Michael Alfred|date=2006-12-01|title=A Review of: "Intelligence Co-Operation between Poland and Great Britain during World War II — The Report of the Anglo-Polish Historical Committee"|journal=The Journal of Slavic Military Studies|volume=19|issue=4 |pages=787–790|doi=10.1080/13518040601028578|s2cid=219626554 |issn=1351-8046}}</ref><ref name="Kochanski2012" /> According to {{ill|Marek Ney-Krwawicz|pl|Marek Ney-Krwawicz}}, for the Western Allies, the intelligence provided by the Home Army was considered to be the best source of information on the Eastern Front.{{sfnp|Ney-Krwawicz|2001|p=98}}

Home Army intelligence provided the Allies with information on [[German concentration camps]] and [[the Holocaust in Poland]] (including [[Karski's reports|the first reports]] on this subject received by the Allies{{sfnp|Zimmerman|2015|p=54}}<ref name="Engel">{{Cite journal|last=Engel|first=David|date=1983|title=An Early Account of Polish Jewry under Nazi and Soviet Occupation Presented to the Polish Government-In-Exile, February 1940|journal=Jewish Social Studies|volume=45|issue=1|pages=1–16|issn=0021-6704|jstor=4467201}}</ref>), German submarine operations, and, most famously, [[Home Army and V1 and V2|the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket]].<ref name="MNK" />{{sfnp|Ney-Krwawicz|2001|p=98}} In one [[Project Big Ben]] mission ([[Operation Most III|Operation Wildhorn III]];<ref name="Wildhorn" /> Polish [[cryptonym]], ''Most III'', "Bridge III"), a stripped-for-lightness RAF twin-engine [[Douglas Dakota|Dakota]] flew from [[Brindisi]], [[Italy]], to an abandoned German airfield in Poland to pick up intelligence prepared by Polish aircraft-designer [[Antoni Kocjan]], including {{convert|100|lb|abbr=on}} of [[V-2 rocket]] wreckage from a [[Peenemünde]] launch, a ''Special Report 1/R, no. 242'', photographs, eight key V-2 parts, and drawings of the wreckage.<ref name="Kocjan" /> Polish agents also provided reports on the German war production, morale, and troop movements.<ref name="Kochanski2012" /> The Polish intelligence network extended beyond Poland and even beyond Europe: for example, the intelligence network organized by Mieczysław Zygfryd Słowikowski in North Africa has been described as "the only [A]llied ... network in North Africa".<ref name="Kochanski2012" /> The Polish network even had two agents in the German high command itself.<ref name="Kochanski2012" />

The researchers who produced the first Polish–British in-depth monograph on Home Army intelligence (''Intelligence Co-operation Between Poland and Great Britain During World War II: Report of the Anglo-Polish Historical Committee'', 2005) described contributions of Polish intelligence to the Allied victory as "disproportionally large"<ref name="StirlingNałęcz2005-32">{{cite book|title=Intelligence Co-operation Between Poland and Great Britain During World War II: Report of the Anglo-Polish Historical Committee |editor1=Tessa Stirling|editor2=Daria Nałęcz|editor3=Tadeusz Dubicki|publisher=Vallentine Mitchell|year=2005|isbn=978-0-85303-656-2|page=32|quote=This tendency influenced the unwillingness to recognize the disproportionally large contribution of Polish Intelligence to the Allied victory over Germany|author=Anglo-Polish Historical Committee}}</ref> and argued that "the work performed by Home Army intelligence undoubtedly supported the Allied armed effort much more effectively than subversive and guerilla activities".<ref name="StirlingNałęcz2005-410">{{cite book|editor1=Tessa Stirling|editor2=Daria Nałęcz|editor3=Tadeusz Dubicki|author=Anglo-Polish Historical Committee|title=Intelligence Co-operation Between Poland and Great Britain During World War II: Report of the Anglo-Polish Historical Committee|year=2005|publisher=Vallentine Mitchell|isbn=978-0-85303-656-2|page=410}}</ref>

=== Subversion and propaganda ===
The Home Army also conducted [[psychological warfare]]. Its [[Operation N]] created the illusion of a German movement opposing [[Adolf Hitler]] within Germany itself.<ref name="MNK" />

The Home Army published a weekly ''[[Biuletyn Informacyjny]]'' (Information Bulletin), with a top circulation (on 25 November 1943) of 50,000 copies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mbc.cyfrowemazowsze.pl/dlibra/publication/6932?tab=1|title=Biuletyn Informacyjny : wydanie codzienne|access-date=8 December 2019|website=dLibra Digital Library|publisher=Warsaw Public Library}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=24 November 2011|title="Biuletyn Informacyjny" wychodził w konspiracji co tydzień przez pięć lat. Rekordowy nakład - 50 tys. egzemplarzy|url=http://wpolityce.pl/polityka/122558-biuletyn-informacyjny-wychodzil-w-konspiracji-co-tydzien-przez-piec-lat-rekordowy-naklad-50-tys-egzemplarzy|access-date=2021-01-25|website=wpolityce.pl}}</ref>

===Major operations===
Sabotage was coordinated by the [[Union of Retaliation]] and later by ''[[Wachlarz]]'' and ''[[Kedyw]]'' units.<ref name="Enc. PWN: AK" />

Major Home Army military and sabotage operations included:
* the [[Zamość Uprising|Zamość Rising]] of 1942–1943, with the Home Army sabotaging German plans to [[Expulsion of Poles by Germany#Zamość|expel Poles]] under ''[[Generalplan Ost]]''<ref name="Enc. PWN: AK" />
* the protection of the Polish population from the [[massacres of Poles in Volhynia]] in 1943–1944<ref name="Enc. PWN: AK" />
* [[Operation Wieniec|Operation Garland]], in 1942, sabotaging German rail transport<ref name="Enc. PWN: AK" />
* [[Operation Belt]] in 1943, a series of attacks on German border outposts on the frontier between the [[General Government]] and the territories annexed by Germany
* Operation Jula, in 1944, another rail-sabotage operation<ref name="Enc. PWN: AK" />
* most notably [[Operation Tempest]]; in 1944, a series of nationwide risings which aimed primarily to seize control of cities and areas where German forces were preparing  defenses against the Soviet Red Army, so that Polish underground civil authorities could take power before the arrival of Soviet forces.<ref name="Enc. PWN: Burza" />
* May 1945, [[Attack on the NKVD Camp in Rembertów]]

[[File:Warsaw Uprising poster 345.jpg|thumb|"To arms!" Home Army poster during the 1944 [[Warsaw Uprising]]]]
The largest and best-known of the Operation Tempest battles, the Warsaw Uprising, constituted an attempt to liberate Poland's capital and began on 1 August 1944. Polish forces took control of substantial parts of the city and resisted the German-led forces until 2 October (a total of 63 days). With the Poles receiving no aid from the approaching Red Army, the Germans eventually defeated the insurrectionists and burned the city, quelling the Uprising on 2 October 1944.<ref name="MNK" /> Other major Home Army city risings included [[Operation Ostra Brama]] in [[Wilno]] and the [[Lwów Uprising]]. The Home Army also prepared for a [[Kraków Uprising (1944)|rising in Kraków]] but aborted due to various circumstances. While the Home Army managed to liberate a number of places from German control—for example, the [[Lublin]] area, where regional structures were able to set up a functioning government—they ultimately failed to secure sufficient territory to enable the government-in-exile to return to Poland due to Soviet hostility.<ref name="MNK" /><ref name="Enc. PWN: AK" /><ref name="Enc. PWN: Burza" />

The Home Army also [[sabotage]]d German rail- and road-transports to the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]] in the Soviet Union.<ref name="Crampton 1994" /> [[Richard J. Crampton]] estimated that an eighth of all German transports to the Eastern Front were destroyed or substantially delayed due to Home Army operations.<ref name="Crampton 1994" />

{| # !! align="center" class="wikitable collapsible sortable state=collapsed"
|+ Confirmed sabotage and covert operations of the Armed Resistance (''ZWZ'') and Home Army (''AK'') <br />from 1 January 1941 to 30 June 1944, listed by type{{sfnp|Ney-Krwawicz|2001|p=166}}<ref name="Ney-Krwawicz1993-214">{{cite book|author=Marek Ney-Krwawicz|title=Armia Krajowa: siła zbrojna Polskiego Państwa Polskiego|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c9WAAAAAIAAJ|year=1993|publisher=Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne|isbn=978-83-02-05061-9|page=214|language=pl}}</ref>
!Sabotage / covert-operation type
!Total numbers
|-
|Damaged locomotives
|align=right |6,930
|-
|Damaged railway wagons
|align=right |19,058
|-
|Delayed repairs to locomotives
|align=right |803
|-
|Derailed transports
|align=right |732
|-
|Transports set on fire
|align=right |443
|-
|Blown-up railway bridges
|align=right |38
|-
|Disruptions to electricity supply in the Warsaw grid
|align=right |638
|-
|Damaged or destroyed army vehicles
|align=right |4,326
|-
|Damaged aeroplanes
|align=right |28
|-
|Destroyed fuel-tanks
|align=right |1,167
|-
|Destroyed fuel (in tonnes)
|align=right |4,674
|-
|Blocked oil wells
|align=right |5
|-
|Destroyed [[wood wool]] wagons
|align=right |150
|-
|Burned down military stores
|align=right |130
|-
|Disruptions in factory production
|align=right |7
|-
|Built-in flaws in aircraft engines parts
|align=right |4,710
|-
|Built-in flaws in cannon muzzles
|align=right |203
|-
|Built-in flaws in artillery projectiles
|align=right |92,000
|-
|Built-in flaws in air-traffic radio stations
|align=right |107
|-
|Built-in flaws in condensers
|align=right |70,000
|-
|Built-in flaws in electro-industrial lathes
|align=right |1,700
|-
|Damage to important factory machinery
|align=right |2,872
|-
|Acts of sabotage
|align=right |25,145
|-
|Assassinations of Nazi Germans
|align=right |5,733
|}

===Assassination of Nazi leaders===
{{Main|Operation Heads}}
[[File:Bekanntmachung Warschau 1943.jpg|thumb|upright|German poster listing 100 Polish hostages executed in reprisal for assassinations of German police and SS by a Polish "terrorist organization in the service of the English", Warsaw, 2 October 1943]]
The Polish Resistance carried out dozens of attacks on German commanders in Poland, the largest [[serial assassinations|series]] being that codenamed "[[Operation Heads]]". Dozens of additional assassinations were carried out, the best-known being:
* [[Operation Bürkl]]—[[Franz Bürkl]], ''[[SS]]-[[Oberscharführer]]'', [[Gestapo]] officer, and commandant of the [[Pawiak]] prison, assassinated 7 September 1943.{{sfnp|Strzembosz|1983|pp=343-346}}
* [[Operation Kutschera]]—[[Franz Kutschera]], SS-''[[Brigadeführer]]'' and ''[[Generalmajor]]'' of ''[[Ordnungspolizei]]''; [[SS and Police Leader]] of the Warsaw District, assassinated 1 February 1944.{{sfnp|Strzembosz|1983|p=423}}