Something of a forgotten chapter in Polish history, in many ways the operation can be viewed as being almost hauntingly prophetic of the Warsaw Uprising the following month.
The operation’s goal had been simple: to seize Vilnius - which until 1939 had been the Polish city of Wilno - and reclaim it as Polish territory before Soviet forces entered. By having troops already in place, and the Polish flag fluttering over the city, it was hoped that Poland would be able to stake its claim of future ownership.
However, unbeknownst to the combatants, the Allies had already predetermined the fate of Vilnius and Poland’s other eastern territories at the Tehran Conference.
Regardless, under the command of Lt Col Aleksander Krzyżanowski, plans were drawn up for between 10,000 to 15,000 Polish Home Army troops to attack Vilnius. Due to the speed of the Soviet advance, this operation was launched a day prematurely in the early hours of July 7th with only around 5,000 troops.
Despite their reduced firepower, many expected the occupying Germans to offer only light resistance but this was not to be the case. Well dug-in, the Germans fought back stubbornly and it was with little choice that Polish formations joined with the Red Army a few days later.
Vilnius fell on July 13, but for the Poles, any sense of triumph was quickly dispelled. Having already suffered the ignominy of fighting alongside the Red Army, Polish combatants soon found themselves placed under arrest by the NKVD.
Lech Parell, head of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Repression, says: “The participation of the Home Army soldiers who knew the city very well was significant in this victory, but although they won, it was a bittersweet victory. They paid for it with blood and the loss of illusions as to the future fate of the Vilnius region. Instead of laurels, they received repressions, which the Western Allies watched with indifference.”
Those arrested included Krzyżanowski, and he would later die in captivity. In this, he was not alone. Using the chance to round-up potentially subversive, anti-Soviet Poles, Home Army units that had taken part in the operation were encircled and captured. Thousands of soldiers were sent east to Stalin’s gulags, with many never returning home.
In the West, the entire episode was met with casual indifference.
