740.0011 European War 1939/9–2844
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Eastern European Affairs (Bohlen)
The Polish Ambassador called at his request and referred to the recent urgent appeal from Prime Minister Mikolajczyk for additional help for the Warsaw garrison. I informed the Ambassador that the substance of Prime Minister Mikolajczyk’s appeal had been sent to the President but we had as yet had no reply as to the possibility of additional air operations to aid Warsaw. The Ambassador then handed me the latest messages from the Warsaw garrison which his Government in London had received regarding the desperate situation there.28 The Ambassador said in sending these telegrams Prime Minister Mikolajczyk had particularly requested that they be sent to the President. I promised the Ambassador that this would be done.
- These telegrams, not printed, were sent from Warsaw to the Polish Government in Exile at London, which repeated them immediately to the Polish Ambassador in Washington. They covered the period of September 18–26, and were variously dispatched by an officer of the British Royal Air Force, by the head of the Polish Department of the Interior, by General Bor (on September 26), and by the Polish Government’s delegate in Poland. The plight of Warsaw and its population was portrayed as one of famine, exhaustion, lack of medical supplies, and tremendous destruction and loss of life. Despite the city’s heroism and some dropping of supplies by British, American, and Soviet aircraft, by September 26 Warsaw faced capitulation. The resistance did end on October 3, after 63 days of incessant struggle.↩