Operation Tempest

DATE: 09/11/2025

TIME (GMT): 19:00

ERA: WW2

MAP(S): Staszów

TYPE: COOP

GAME: Arma 3

EVENT: Official

AUTHOR(S): Sclembi

SLOTS: 19 / 66

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Operation Tempest was a series of uprisings conducted during the Second World War against occupying German forces by the Polish Armia Krajowa (shortened to AK), the dominant force in the Polish resistance. Operation Tempest's objective was to seize control of German-occupied cities and areas while the Germans were preparing their defenses against the advancing Soviet Red Army. The Polish Underground State hoped to take power before the Soviets arrived. A goal of the Polish government-in-exile in London was to restore Poland's 1939 borders with the USSR, rejecting the Curzon Line border.

From its inception, the Home Army had been preparing a national armed uprising against the Germans. The basic framework of the future uprising was created in September 1942. According to the plan, the Uprising was to be ordered by the Polish Commander-in-Chief in exile when the defeat of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front became apparent. The Uprising was to begin in Central Poland: in the General Government, Dąbrowa Basin, Kraków Voivodeship, and the Białystok and Brześć areas.

On April 25, 1943, Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations were broken off by Joseph Stalin due to Polish inquiries about the Katyn massacres, and it became clear that the advancing Red Army might not come to Poland as a liberator but rather, as General Rowecki put it, "our allies' ally." On November 26, 1943, the Polish government-in-exile issued instructions that, if diplomatic relations did not resume with the Soviet Union before the Soviets entered Poland, Home Army forces were to remain underground pending further decisions.

The Home Army's commander on the ground, however, took a different approach, and on November 30, 1943, a final version of the plan was drafted.

On January 2, 1944, Red Army forces of the 2nd Belorussian Front crossed the prewar Polish border and Operation Tempest began. In the east, AK's 7th Infantry Division managed to contact the commanders of the advancing Red Army and began successful joint operations against the Wehrmacht. Together they retook Kowel (April 6) and Włodzimierz. However, the Division was soon forced to retreat west, and in Polesia was attacked by both German and Soviet forces. Polish soldiers taken prisoner by the Soviets were given the choice of joining the Red Army or being sent to Soviet forced-labor camps. The remnants of the Division crossed the Bug River, where they were attacked by Soviet partisan units.

In Kozienice and Sandomierz, Polish units supported the advancing Soviets: on the night of July 31 / August 1, 1944, a German counterattack was halted by the Polish 2nd Infantry Regiment of Captain Michal Mandziara, which helped the Soviets keep their positions in the Sandomierz Bridgehead. On August 3, Polish and Soviet forces liberated Staszów; in the following days, Poles, helped by Soviet tanks, captured Stopnica and Busko.

This mission will take place on heavily modified map to recreate the town of Staszów more accurately. The playthrough of the mission however will focus on depicting the reality of the entire Operation Tempest rather than on events that took place in Staszów itself.

The mission objectives will be dynamic and the commander will have to adapt to changing situation. Our main objective is to launch a simultaneous assault to the ongoing soviet attack, however AK forces must acquire control over the town quicker than the soviets.