WI Churchill and Roosevelt had been angry enough at the lack of Soviet support to take the bomber force from terror bombing to dropping supplies to the Poles?
Could this have changed things?
Could this have changed things?
Did a B-17 or Lancaster have the range to reach Warsaw from England or Italy?
Better to bomb the roads and rails leading to Warsaw, keep German supplies and reinforcements from reaching it.To support the uprising in Warsaw by bombing it flat?
Yes. For those that didn’t realise that; seriously? It isn’t brain surgery.I am assuming the bombers would be dropping supplies
Did a B-17 or Lancaster have the range to reach Warsaw from England or Italy?
The Allies ( Churchill) asked the USSR for permission for the aircraft to be refuelled in Soviet bases in order to be able to make the journey back. It was refused. It is often asked wether Roosevelt pushing Stalin along with Churchill would have forced Stalin's hand. But supplies alone would not have prevented the uprising from being crushed, they would have needed to be reached by the Soviets. Rossokovsky forces had been checked by a German counter attack and were unable press forward. The only thing that could have saved the city would have been a large air supply operation, with soviet cooperation, andthe Red Army shifting it's next offensive from Romania and Hungary to a renew effort towards Warsaw. We can't, however, be sure wether that manoeuvre was logistically possible, and if it would be scceful. What we can be sure off is that the USSR choose not to allow any help to reach the free poles, therefore both making that battle easier for the Germans and allowing the people better placed to resist the Sovietisation of Poland to die.
As a side comment, we know now that during the cold war the Soviets fully expected the poles to turn against them in the event of a major war, making a red offensive against NATO extremely problematic.