By September the 15, Praga was already cleared of German forces. Between the days of September 10 and 15, the Polish 1st Infantry Division, which had participated in the liberation of the city, suffered the following losses: 353 dead, 1,406 wounded and 109 missing in action (MIA). The official operational report for September 16 lists enemy losses caused by the Polish 1st Infantry Division and its support troops, i.e. the 1st Polish Volunteer Army, as 8 dead officers, 41 non-commissioned officers and 564 soldiers. One officer, 25 NCO’s and 59 soldiers had been taken prisoner — 33 rifles, 2 sub-machine guns, 16 light machineguns, 18 machineguns, 7 mortars, 16 artillery guns, 19 tanks, 4 armoured vehicles, and 16 other vehicles had been destroyed. Captured war material included: over 200 rifles, 15 sub-machineguns, 5 light machineguns, 1 mortar, 25 guns, (mainly 10.5 howitzers from the decimated Artillery-Regiment 173 from the 73rd Infantery-Division), plus 1 motorcycle, and 1 radio transmitter. The division’s successes were reflected in order No. 25 formulated by the Polish army’s chief commander, General Michał Rola-Żymerski, on September 15, in which he wrote among other things:
“Soldiers!
The Tadeusz Kościuszk-Division has, together with our brothers from the Red Army, in the early morning of September 14th, by means of storming, captured an entire suburb of our city — Praga, […] On the other side of the Wisła, in bloody flames of fire, there burn entire districts of our capital city. In Warsaw everyone is struggling […] They fight and curse the London-based government for this premature uprising.”
General Rola-Żymierski, well-aware of how many soldiers from the Home Army were now serving in the 1st Polish Volunteer Army, was forced to weigh his words carefully when he formulated this order. For this reason he added the following:
“Among Warsaw’s ruins and on its barricades fight the cream of the Polish people’s fighting spirit — Here, struggle heroic officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Polish resistance movement. Fighting with a degree of effort never before witnessed, they are making a great sacrifice in lives and blood in the struggle for our capital city. They are an inseparable part of the Polish Army.”
At the same time, following the regrouping and consolidation of the artillery, the 47th Army together with the 70th Army resumed their collective assault in the direction of Legionowo, at 1500 hours on September 16. But on this occasion their assault was met by a well ordered defence mounted by the IV SS-Panzer-Corps. Supported by tanks, the 114th Rifle Corps’ infantry occupied the narrow Królewski Canal near Rembelszczyzna. This location, however, lies in a clearing between two wooded areas which before the war had been called the Jabłonna Forest (the woods south of Nieporęt and the woods north of Choszczówka). When the Soviet troops approached the village from the south, they found themselves exposed to deadly machinegun fire — and from both woods, the SS-division’s hidden guns and tanks suddenly opened fire. Under this heavy bombardment, the soldiers of the 114th Rifle Corps became pinned down and throughout the entire day they were unable to improve their situation.
Further south around Białołęka, three divisions from the 47th Army began an assault with one of the tank brigades from the 8th Guards Tank Corps. Initially, the operation went well, they took the village of Tomaszów and, indeed, the Soviet tanks almost reached the town of Płudy. There, however, they ran into the 19th Panzer-Division’s positions equipped with anti-aircraft guns and these destroyed a couple of tanks and stopped any further attack. Just outside Choszczówka, the German tanks started a counterattack supported by a mixed Kampfgruppe composed of panzer-grenadiers and rapid-response Hungarian cavalry troops. The surprised Soviet units offered strong resistance but were unable to organise an effective defence of the newly-won ground. Towards evening, the 19th Panzer-Division had managed to throw back the opposition to their start-out positions. The commander of the division reported 26 destroyed Soviet tanks of the 40 said to have taken part in the battle. In this way, on September 16, the IV SS-Panzer-Corps was able to stabilise the situation.
