Uprising commemoration - excitement on Day 3

After breakfast, we are joined by Eddie for another three-generation day. We set out to find where my father lived for the first four years of his life before his family moved to ulica Filtrowa 68 (more on this tomorrow), and then onto the Uprising museum. Below: Warsaw's transformation continues to amaze my father, who remembers little more than street names and how the streets connected before the war. This is ul. Prosta, looking east towards ul. Świętokrzyska.

Left: here we are in Plac Europejski, Warsaw Spire in the background. My father is impressed by the urban planning - the wide boulevards, the amount of greenery and the new buildings. He quips that along with the ul. Złota, Żelazna, Miedziana, Srebrna etc there should be an ul. Szklana - so much glass is on these new buildings.

Below: we find the house of my father's childhood. This is ul. Łucka 16. It still exists! (it's set back from the road - I assumed that it had already been demolished, but it's still here, albeit it will be demolished soon.) My father doesn't remember it from the 1920s, but does remember revisiting it with his older brother Zdzich in later years; their flat was on the fourth floor. As they opened the window, a cat that was resting on the ledge was pushed off and it fell into the courtyard. They rushed down fearing the worse - but the cat was fine, having landed on all fours.

Below: on to the Warsaw Uprising Museum for a very special celebration organised by Peter Chudy, a great supporter of Polish military history (and historians). Peter had persuaded Representative Marcy Kaptur, a congresswoman with Polish-American parents, to arrange for U.S. flags flown over the Capitol to be presented to veterans of the Warsaw Uprising, including my father, by members of the U.S. military stationed in Poland

My father poses with U.S. military personnel in the library of the Warsaw Uprising museum, clearly delighted! Diplomatically symbolic, very important to strengthen the ties between NATO members.

Dziadzio wants to show his grandson where he what on Godzina W ('W' hour - the moment the Uprising began). It was here, in a first-floor room on ul. Filtrowa 7, visible in the photo below. Here, 20 soldiers from Batalion Odwet awaited their orders and weapons - they never came.

And so, to fight on, the soldiers had to make their way across Pole Mokotowskie to the Polish-held barricades along ul. Polna, defended by Batalion Golski. My father made it across, traversing first the cabbage fields (now buildings of the Politechnika Warszawska) and then through what was coincidentally his secondary school from 1935 to 1937, on ul. Śniadeckich. By a further coincidence, that building now hosts Cafe Krem, where we ate lunch today.

Below: looking for the rooms where my father manned the barricades along ul. Noakowskiego from 18 August to the end of the Uprising. Somewhere up there on the first floor, between staircase A and staircase B. Right across the road from the main Politechnika building, which was in German hands.

Below: we attended a commemoration in the Politechnika grounds. In the background, the white walls of ul. Noakowskiego 16. The Batalion Golski memorial is a sheet of armour penetrated by six shells and a section of tank track. Golski managed to destroy and disable a few German tanks early on in the Uprising, as a result, the Germans were wary of launching a headlong attack on the unit, fearing it was well-armed.

Finally, the last (and very lengthy) event of the day was a field Mass followed by a roll-call of the dead and a laying of wreathes at Plac Powstania Warszawskiego.

This time two years ago:
Ahead of the Big Day

This time three years ago:
Once in a blue moon

This time five years ago:
A return to Snowdon - Wales' highest peak

This time seven years ago:
On the eve of Warsaw's Veturillo revolution

This time eight years ago:
Getting ready for the 'W'-hour flypast

This time nine years ago:
A century of Polish scouting