My Boyhood War : Warsaw 1944 (Paperback)

Bohdan Hryniewicz was only 8 when war broke out and 13 when it ended. In those years he saw more than most men would in 10 lifetimes; and his recall is extraordinary. He cites three days as defining this period: the saddest, 19 September 1939 as Russian tanks rolled into his home town of Wilno; the happiest, August 1 1944, when the Polish flag flew once again from the highest building in Warsaw; the most bitter, October 3 that year, when his commanding officer forbade him to join the other members of his battalion as they entered a prisoner of war camp. His story is uniquely personal and at the same time tells the wider story of a pivotal battle that was virtually unheard of until the fall of communism. My Boyhood War, Warsaw 1944 is an intensely personal account of Hryniewicz' life in Poland during the Second World War, centered primarily on the Warsaw Uprising of August 1944. Despite being the longest urban battle between lightly armed irregular forces and the most professional Army of its day - in terms of ferocity, compared by the Germans themselves to the Battle of Stalingrad - the Warsaw Uprising still remains one of the least known chapters of World War II.

In this first-hand account, the harrowing details of life under years of occupation and heavy urban combat are told with disarming authenticity, through the eyes of a 13-year-old boy. Hryniewicz was eight when the war began and 13 when he became a runner to the Commanding Officer of a Polish Home Army Unit, making him both witness and participant in the midst of the 63-day long battle. These impressive personal recollections are explored together with the author's broader insights into the connected events that so transformed the map of Europe, which continue to dictate geopolitics today

Praised by eminent historians, authors and statesmen alike, the author's account stands as a cautionary tale about the brutal and lasting effects of war. As tensions in Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe continue to mount, this book serves as a timely reminder of the ever present dangers of Imperial annexation on Europe's eastern flank.