Originally posted by bobbis14
Well Stalin like Hitler is not one to listen to his Generals. If the Uprising broke out of the Ghettos wiped up popular support in other areas of Eastern Europe and gets significant support from the west then Stalin will go in all guns blazing to secure better post WW2 borders. That would make for an intresting TL with East-West divide on the Visula instead of Germany but would require an POD probably pre WW2.
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943) and Warsaw Uprising (1944) are NOT one and the same thing (obviously).
Now, realistically speaking Stalin was the only one who could really help Warsaw Uprising. Western Allies could have made some supply drops, but without Stalin's permission to land on Soviet airfields it was very difficult and losses were very big (sometimes even caused by Soviets, not Germans). However, since Stalin did not want an independent Poland he not only refused to help Warsaw, but even discouraged Allies from trying.
What Stalin could do:
- send Soviet military mission to coordinate Red Army actions with Polish Home Army
- establish Soviet air superiority over Warsaw to eliminate Luftwaffe actions and offer support for the Poles
- start supply drops for the insurgents (with captured German weapons and ammo, if possible - Polish fighters were familiar with them)
- allow Allied planes making supply drops to land in Soviet bases (or even operate from them)
- actually order Red Army to press forward to Warsaw, instead of ordering it to stop all actions in that area
- after capturing eastern part of Warsaw actively support Polish 1st Army in crossing the Vistula (if Stalin didn't want to send Red Army)
- after capturing eastern part of Warsaw offer artillery support for Polish fighters coordinated by Soviet military mission mentioned above.
There is also a matter of Polish 1st Parachute Brigade. I must say I see no way of getting it to Warsaw in August 1944. Polish Brigade was in Britain - sending large force of slow and easy to destroy cargo planes over heavily defended Germany would have been a suicide - for the Brigade and for the air crews. Even if they had tried to use bombers, it would have been extremely risky - not to mention how many bombers it would have taken to transport such a big unit with equipment and supplies.
Even if the Allies had tried to send the Brigade from Italy (and getting it there also takes time) all points mentioned above apply here as well.
The only even remotely realistic way the Brigade could have reached Warsaw was from east. Let's assume Stalin agrees. Now, we have to transport whole brigade from Britain to USSR (or Soviet controlled territory) - it takes a lot of time and resources. And then an air drop over a town - high losses guaranteed (not that it would have stopped Polish paras from trying). Other possible place of landing is the Kampinos Forest near Warsaw, but landing in a forest is also not recommended for an ariborne unit.
Personally, I beliveve that if Stalin really had wanted to help Warsaw, it wouldn't have been hard for the Red Army to do it. In my opinion Warsaw could have been fully liberated in late August 1944 (or even a little earlier).