In August 1944 Warsaw appeared to present the last major obstacle to the Soviet Army's triumphant march from Moscow to Berlin. When the Wehrmacht had been pushed back to the Vistula, the people of Warsaw believed that liberation was at hand. So, too, did the Western leaders. The Resistance poured 40,000 armed fighters into the streets to drive the hated Germans out. But Stalin condemned the Rising as a criminal adventure and refused to cooperate. The Wehrmacht was given time to regroup and Hitler ordered the city and its inhabitants to be destroyed. For sixty-three days the Resistance battled the SS and Wehrmacht in the cellars and the sewers. Defenceless civilians were slaughtered in their tens of thousands every week. One by one the city's districts were reduced to rubble, as Soviet troops watched from across the river. Poland's Western allies expressed regret, but decided that there was little to be done. The sacrifice was in vain. Hitler's orders were executed. Poland was not to be allowed to be governed by Poles.Largely sidelined in the history books and often confused with the Ghetto Uprising of 1943, the Warsaw Rising was a pivotal moment both in the outcome of the Second World War and in the origins of the Cold War. Read Less