When German predominance cut off insurgent districts from each other, the only way of communication and rescue became Warsaw sewers. Thousands of soldiers of the Home Army from the Old Town, Mokotów and Żoliborz were evacuated in September 1944. A long journey in darkness, tightness, and uncleanness — frequently under grenades thrown by the Germans — became 1 of the most dramatic symbols of the Uprising.
Underground city
Warsaw had an extended 19th century network of channels, designed by engineer William Lindley. During the uprising, this underground network gained strategical importance. From the first days of the rallies, he utilized it to keep communication between isolated districts: the ducts were moved by linkers and linkers, transferring reports, orders, and sometimes weapons and supplies.
Moving underground took courage and courage. The routes were low, forcing them to march for hours in slope or on knees, in water and sewers, in full darkness and in the absence of air. Guides and guides who knew the entanglement of the corridors by heart played a key role.
The sewers had iron rules for survival. The march was held in silence and goose, with an arm on the predecessor's shoulder, frequently for hours. Lights and loud conversations were banned due to the fact that they were betraying their position. The canals were divided into slipways — advanced — that could be walked upright — and stormers and tight collectors, in which they had to be bent half in stinky goo. Fatigue, exhalation, and darkness broke even soldiers trained in combat; people sometimes lost their orientation, weak or panicked. It took all night to cross a fewer miles of road.
Old Town evacuation
The most celebrated channel operation was the evacuation of the Old Town. After a period of fierce defense, against a hopeless position, command decided to escort the defenders of the Old Town underground. On the night of September 1, 2, 1944, thousands of soldiers and civilians came down into the sewers via a hatch in the Krasiński Square area.
A fewer hours' hike led them with a main collector to Śródmieście, where they went out by hatches in the area of Warecka Street and Nowy Świat, and another way besides to Żoliborz. The march was held in tension and silence — Germany, aware of the usage of channels, threw grenades and irritants into the hatch, built underground dams and grates. Despite this, the evacuation took respective 1000 people and saved the core of the Old Town defenders who could proceed to fight in the Midtown. The wounded who could not be taken remained at the mercy of the enemy at Old Town, many of whom were Germans. This price made the evacuation a bitter taste.
Mokotov and Żoliborz drama
In late September, akin operations were carried out in Mokotów and Żoliborz, but they were accompanied by tragedy. During the evacuation of Mokotov on September 27, a condition of the troops got lost in the labyrinth of corridors, and Germans let gases into the sewers and threw grenades. A group of insurgents who left by hatch at Dworkowa Street got into the hands of the enemy and were shot at the scene. Many others are trapped underground without a way out. These events showed how thin the line between surviving and dying on an underground way — the same way that meant saving for some, for others it became a grave.
Women underground
The past of canals is mostly a past of women. Connectors and tour guides repeatedly travelled underground routes, carrying orders and leading troops. Their courage, calmness and cognition of the area have frequently determined the success of the full operation. Without them, maintaining communication and conducting evacuation would be impossible.
The Symbol That Survived
The ducts for permanent entered the memory of the Uprising as a symbol of his drama and determination. Among another things, he was preserved by Andrzej Wajda in the celebrated 1957 movie "Kanał" — 1 of the first works of cinema about the insurgent raven, which shocked the audience with the image of people dying in underground corridors on the threshold of freedom. present preserved hatches and plates in Warsaw remind of those for whom the way to rescue led down, underground.
