The Home Army commander who organized and launched the uprising
In late July 1944, he prepared the underground forces for mobilization and ordered the uprising to begin on 1 August.
Antoni Chruściel was a Polish Army officer who commanded the Home Army Warsaw District during the Second World War. After the decision to approve an uprising on 25 July 1944, he prepared the underground forces for mobilization and judged when to begin the local action, then commanded Warsaw's armed units after the rising opened on 1 August. His optimism about outside assistance and German collapse nevertheless exposed the uprising's prolonged course and military limits. After the war he passed through prisoner-of-war camps, lived in exile in the West, and died in Washington after the communist authorities stripped him of Polish citizenship.
Career Timeline
- 1915–1918Officer in the Austro-Hungarian 90th Infantry Regiment
- 1919–1927Commander in the Polish Army's 14th and 42nd Infantry Regiments
- 1931–1937Tactics instructor at the Infantry Training Centre and War School
- 1938–1939Commander of the Polish Army's 82nd Siberian Infantry Regiment
- 1940–1941Head of Division III and chief of staff of the Warsaw District of the Union of Armed Struggle
- 1941–1944Commander of the Home Army Warsaw District
- 1944Commander of the Warsaw Uprising forces and the Warsaw Home Army Corps
- 1945–1948Staff officer and veterans' organization leader in the Polish forces in the West