soc.history.war.world-war-ii

Considering all the planning into the '44 uprising, the actual
opening attack was a cruel fiasco. The insurgents actually expected to
win in between *two days and a week*. The leaders thought they could
sit across the main arteries of the city and easily disarm the
Germans, then wait for their Soviet allies to drive the Wehrmacht
westward to Germany.

At the end of the first day, General Monter, the leader of the
uprising admitted "The most important objectives were *not* seized...
By the third day, Bor the Commander in Chief of the Armija Krajowa
(AK) said, "Our attack has not been successful, we do not have
ammunition for it's continuation. Now we to have to assume a defensive
position."
Why?
Out of some 40,000 insurgents, only about 3000 started with real
weapons. Ammunition situation was about 30 to 300 bullets per pistol;
190 per carbine. Considering they only had 1000 carbines and 2000
pistols, they were extremely optimistic about their chances.
Fortunately (?) they did have 25,000 hand grenades.
The AK had four ammunition dumps. Two were across the Vistula,
and they couldn't get to them. Secrecy of the locations was such that
60,000 rounds were found in a ruined house in 1947. A key person was
killed and Bor and his staff found (in 1957) they had been sitting on
a small mountain of weapons that took more than a week to remove.

Then of course they were relying on Joe Stalin...