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The Warsaw Airlift was an Allied air operation to re-supply the besieged Polish Home Army (AK) in Warsaw during the Second World War. It took place between 4 August and 28 September 1944 and was conducted by Polish, British and South African aircraft flying from Celone and Brindisi in Italy and Soviet aircraft from occupied Ukraine. One airdrop, launched on 18 September by United States aircraft was launched from Great Britain and the aircraft were forced to land at Poltava in Soviet Ukraine as the distance to the drop-zone precluded the aircraft returning to base. The flights from Italy were night operations with low level cargo drops, conducted without fighter escort while the single United States Army Air Forces mission of 18 September 1944 was a high-altitude, daylight operation consisting of 107 B-17s protected by P-51 fighters. From the night of 13/14 September the Soviets began their own airdrops, dropping about 130 tons in total until 27/28 September. Initially, this cargo was dropped without parachutes, resulting in much of the payload being damaged or destroyed. Allied aircraft dropped a total of 370 tons of supplies in the course of the two months of operations, of which at least 50% fell into German hands. The airlift proved to be ineffective and could not provide sufficient supplies to sustain the Polish resistance, who were overrun by Nazi forces on 2 October 1944. The airlift was further hampered by the Soviet Union not allowing Western Allies the use of its airfields for several weeks, forcing flights to operate at extended ranges from Italy and Britain and in so doing, reducing payload and limiting the number of sorties. An estimated 360 airmen and 41 British, Polish, South African and American aircraft were lost. ==Background== (詳細はSoviet forces had repelled the German formations over a wide front, from Lithuania in the north to the Black Sea in the south. Vilnius capitulated to the Russians on 13 July and thereafter the main Soviet spearhead was headed towards the Vistula River. Over the next two weeks, Brest-Litovsk as well as Lvov had fallen to the Soviets and then the Red Army swung north towards Warsaw. By 1 August Soviet troops had entered the suburb of Praga east of the Vistula River.〔Fritz (2011) pp.418-419〕 In their rush towards Warsaw, the Soviets had neglected intelligence collection, flank protection and had over-extended their supply lines〔Fritz (2011) pp.419〕 - to such an extent that a deliberate attack launched by General Walter Model stopped the Red Army's advance just short of Warsaw, preventing them from crossing the Vistula - this was after Hitler had finally consented to releasing four experienced and fresh panzer divisions to Model. This action caused the Soviets to pause in order to re-group and bought Army Group Centre the time needed to deal with the resistance encountered within Warsaw itself.〔 In accordance with plans initiated by the London Poles, General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski launched the Polish Home Army insurrection on 1 August 1944 in an attempt to seize Warsaw from the Germans before it was overrun by the Red Army.〔Taylor (1998) pp.181–182〕 They managed to occupy large areas of downtown Warsaw but failed to secure the four bridges over the Vistula and were therefore unable to hold the eastern suburbs of the city.〔Glantz (1995) pp.213〕 With the Red Army stalled on the Vistula, German counterattacks and insurrection suppression operations lead to the Polish Home Army (as well as the city) being systematically destroyed. The plight of the Poles captured the imagination of the Western Allies and the British Royal Air Force (RAF), South African Air Force (SAAF) and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) were ordered to fly supplies in to the beleaguered Polish resistance.〔 Supplies were to be dropped in special waterproofed metal containers, long and in diameter, weighing each. Each aircraft could carry 12 containers (a load of ) and with 20 aircraft per mission, it was hoped to deliver of supplies per night.〔Martin (1978) pp.249–250〕 Missions from Italy would follow the route along the Vistula, accessing Warsaw from the south along the river using the four bridges across the river as their aiming reference points. Supplies were to be released from a height of at an airspeed of (the slow speed to avoid separation of parachutes from their containers).〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Warsaw airlift」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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