The Epic of Warsaw
After three weeks of incredible heroism, which, as the Warsaw announcer justly claimed, will be written indelibly into history, the defenders of the Polish capital have capitu- lated, unconditionally according to the Germans, on honour- able terms according to themselves. The difference can hardly be important. By Wednesday, the twenty-first day of the attack on the city, resistance was no longer possible. The soldiers would have fought on, but on that day 3,000 civilians were killed, and perpetuation of the slaughter would have been purposeless. Not a public building remained intact ; the sewage-system, the water-supply, the power- plants, had all been destroyed or extensively damaged. Pestilence would soon have added its quota to the toll taken by the German bombs and shells. So Warsaw falls, and the Germans are left to do what they will with what remains of the shattered city. Its indomitable defenders could have done nothing to avert the fate of Poland, but their unbreak- able spirit shows what the Polish armies might have achieved if they had been able to make a stand on the line they were occupying when the Russians attacked them in the rear. This, for the moment is the end. Once more Poland dis- appears from the map of Europe, unless indeed some arti- ficial buffer State is allowed to remain on sufferance. But once more Poland, occupying, it may be hoped, the areas indisputably Polish in population, will be re-established. That is still the aim of the Allies, by whatever means it may be realised.
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