In the morning of 1 September 1944 we were given an order to deploy our platoon from Borman factory to the Panska 108 redoubt, which was in jeopardy. It was a four-storeyed corner building with garrets. There were no shops situated at the front of the building (along Panska street), but there were some in the part along Wronia Street. There was a perfumery on the corner. The gable was overlooking Prosta Street; on the second floor we broke through the wall to make observation posts. In that way we could observe Prosta Street up to the intersection with Towarowa Street and Wronia Street up to the intersection with Lucka and Grzybowska Street. The other side of narrow Wronia Street was full of German and Ukrainian troops. A four- storeyed tenement house Panska 110 was situated there, a place where Germans and Ukrainians from the Kaminski's troop were residing. Armed with a machine gun, they were occupying a corner balcony on the second floor and kept attacking our tired, poorly armed garrison of the Panska 108 redoubt.
         We were under constant fire from the direction of Siberia, where a cannon was placed - along Panska, Prosta, Lucka and Grzybowska Street. The intersection of Prosta and Wronia Street, together with buildings near Lucka, were also under German occupation.
         Our redoubt was under constant fire from tanks; what is more, we were being attacked from the direction of Panska 110 building. Our platoon, under command of officer cadet "Wildcat" (Zbik) Marian Tomaszewski, took position in the corner tailor's workshop on the second floor, overlooking Panska Street. Next, we occupied corner windows of the first and fourth floor and the shop on the ground floor. "Wildcat" positioned himself in the corner room on the second floor. "Zenek", "Rysiek" and "Giraffe" (Zyrafa) took positions at the makeshift observation post overlooking Wronia Street. The rest of the platoon ("Ghost" [Upior], "Czerski", "Lynx" [Rys] and "Wolf" [Wilk] ) positioned themselves on the ground floor (in the shops) and on the first floor.
         We had the second redoubt on the other side of Panska Street - the Panska 105 redoubt. Although both redoubts were under massed German and Ukrainian attacks, we were able to defend them till the end of the uprising. We were able to do this due to the great co-operation of our troops.
         Our post along Wronia Street (between Prosta and Lucka Street) had to be moved back, because of low, burned out buildings. The defense line was now at the level of 15 Lucka Street. A communication ditch joining the other side of Panska and Prosta Street was situated at the level of Panska 104, where we had our provisional quarters when off-duty. The shifts were six to seven hours long, depending on the condition of the platoon. In the meantime, we were organizing patrols to Siberia- to get some horses or to set fire to the train station.
         The second post was on the second floor of the tenement house. We made a hole (24" x 24") in the gable of the building (overlooking Prosta Street). In this way, we made it possible to observe Prosta Street up to the intersection with Towarowa Street and Lucka Street up to the intersection with Grzybowska, an area from which we were being attacked by gunfire and tank fire. The corner room was a tailor's workshop, two rooms next to it were the tailor and his family's place of living.
         Me, "Eagle" (Orzel), " Coin" and "Panther" (Pantera) position ourselves in the workshop. Me and Coin were shown in this big room. There was a huge table for cutting and ironing in the center of the room. There were three windows - one overlooking Panska Street, two overlooking narrow at this point Wronia Street. The greatest disadvantage of this post were the windows. They were big, with windowsills at the knee level .One of the windows was in the corner- enabling us to observe Panska Street, Siberian area and Wronia towards Casimir the Great Square. The Hartwig warehouses, where we also had our post, were also discernible. We were separated from our enemy only by a narrow lane and the pavement- approximately twenty, twenty-five feet distance.
         Through the second window (overlooking Wronia Street) we could observe only a tenement house on the other side of Panska and part of a barricade in Prosta Street. The view of the street was blotted out by a burned down house, which collapsed on the pavement. The other defect of the window was a narrow space of 8 to 12 inches between the window frame and the wall. Because of this, it was difficult to hide behind the wall near the window.
         While with "Coin" we were learning the arrangement of the rooms, the liaison officers carried in a big eleven-pound, floor-polish steel box filled with grenades made by our colleagues and they put it in the center of the room. We didn't pay attention to this at that time. The building was spacious. We had to be in a hurry, we were at risk of being attacked by "Ukrainian SS" soldiers. Every second someone would hurry in and report what the situation across the street is. It was getting tense.
         I took the last glance at the other side of the street, where the enemy resided. The increasing movement in the building could be observed. When I came up to the corner window and looked in the direction of the tenement house no. 110, I saw a face of an Ukrainian. The man was observing us through binoculars. When he noticed me, he hid behind the wall. I did the same. We were both surprised by this situation- the distance was no longer than 30 feet. Seconds later, it happened again, but then we were ready to act. We leapt to our feet at the same moment, glanced at each other and took a few shots. An Ukrainian bullet, having gone through the frame of the window, crossed the air a few inches from my face. I felt a splinter in my cheek and blood trickling down. I learned a lesson not to stay too close to the window.
         "Coin" (Tadeusz Tarczynski) was observing movements on German side of the street through his binoculars. Soldiers were setting a machine gun and carrying ammunition in. Slowly but systematically, they were shelling our post. .Bullets were flying in the air. They were incendiary bullets- once they hit the wall they would screw in it and burst into flames. Then we could hear a machine-gun. It was also sending incendiary bullets, we could see how numerous they were. The shooting was more and more intense. The machine-gun was situated on the third floor of Panska 110 building in narrow Wronia Street. We were across the street, 40-50 feet away. Enemy bullets were destroying everything on their way. Me and "Coin", we were in dire straits. We weren't able to assess the enemy's strength, the reconnaissance we had undertaken was insufficient. Another threat was posed by the centrally located steel box full of grenades. We were unable to move it away. We stayed pushed to the wall. "Coin" was not in the field of fire, but he was unable to move. I was near the window, in a dead end situation. I was standing with my back against the wall separating the two rooms and incendiary bullets were whistling next to my face. I couldn't even tilt my head.
         Then, something terrible happened. Germans started to throw grenades. They were exploding one by one. Bangs were accompanied by machine-gun rumble.
         Suddenly, a hissing grenade reached at my feet. I was numb with terror. The grenade was hissing and whirling, it was going to explode. My whole life flashed before my eyes. I was sure that I was going to be torn into pieces. I was even glad I would die right away and not in suffering, with my skull shattered by sharp burst of machine gun fire. The grenade stopped whirling. I was awaiting the explosion, but the grenade did not go off. It was a miracle. The Mother of God must have been watching over me; she did not let me die.
         Behind the wall, in the other room, the grenades kept exploding. One of them blew up a hole in the wooden wall that was separating the two rooms. The breach in the wall was quite big. It was right next to me. I started to lean slowly towards it, with my whole body still closely pressed to the wall. At the same time, I was watching the grenade lying at my feet. The bullets were whistling a few inches away. I managed to kneel down on one leg. Then I started to turn my body slowly towards the whole and to force my way through it. This was very difficult, but the will to live was strong. Once my head went through the whole, I moved the rest of my body without paying attention to the shreds and splinters going into it. Without touching the grenade, I made it into the other room, where bullets could not reach me. I was saved. I thanked God for this miraculous salvation. Then I had to save "Coin". He was in quite a safe place. He wasn't wounded. After a machine-gun burst he courageously, with one great leap, made it through the line of fire. The bullets where everywhere, reaching the wall, screwing in it and bursting into flames. That was a strange and unique view, we never happened to see something like this again. What we had to do was save the grenade box standing in the center of the room. If the enemy fire had reached it, we would all have died in an explosion. Luckily, that did not happen. We found a boat-hook and slowly pulled the box into the hallway. We were out of the field of fire. The grenades were safe either. That was when the grenade lying where I used to stand went off.
         We did not know our friends noticed the attack on the post and that they informed "Wildcat", who immediately arrived. At the beginning, he was of no help due to the fact, that we were under constant fire. Only when we had saved the grenades and escaped the field of fire, could he take command. In the meantime, he succeeded in getting a hand machine-gun with ammunition from some other troop. We were also joined by "Panther" who in the third room experienced more or less the same situation as me. The sudden attack shocked him to such a degree that he fainted. When he came round, the violent machine-gun fire made it impossible for him to get into the hallway. Together, we run up the fourth floor and pry the doors to a closed flat open. From above, we could easily see the enemy. Germans hadn't predicted it. We were observing them for some time. They were shooting at our posts on the first and second floor. Our friends, defending the Panska 108 redoubt, were answering with fire. Germans did not notice us up there. They were very self-confident. "Wildcat" deployed us, one at a window. The target was easily visible. We got the grenades ready- a few per person. "Wildcat" gave us a signal and we threw the grenades at surprised Ukrainians behind their machine-gun. "Wildcat" was firing his MG. We did not have to wait for results. The machine-gun fell silent. All we could hear was explosions of our grenades and Wildcat's MG rumble. Two enemies, dead or injured, fell on the ground. They tried to reach the machine-gun, but did not succeed. As an act of vengeance, they set fire to the room where they had the machine gun set. The room filled with smoke. Grenades and ammunition left there started to explode. We saw the Ukrainians looting what they could, setting fire to rooms and running out of the building. In a few seconds the whole building was engulfed in flames.
         We quickly run down the stairs to take positions in the corner of the building and "hunt" enemies that were running out of the building. We saw silhouettes of Ukrainians. They were carrying loads of looted goods. Weighted down by them, they were flitting along tenement houses number 112 and 114. However, they had to disclose themselves and cross Towarowa Street to get to the breach in the wall, through which they could get to Siberia, where they were safe. The hunt began. We pointed three guns at them. They were crossing the street. One of them was wounded. Some of them left their bundles behind to be able to jump over the wall. At that point, we fired the guns. One fell dead, the wounded one was still trying to make it through the wall. He made it. We could see him slide down the other side of the wall. The breach was secured with a barbed wire. The third Ukrainian, shot many times, was hanging by his coat on it. The other kept throwing bundles over the wall. One more fell dead. The rest managed to escape. Four dead people were lying by the wall, the fifth one was hanging on the barbed wire. Mission accomplished.
         The dusk was calm. The building was burning down slowly. Our friends who did not have any gun at that time went out to collect arms from the killed enemies. We were watching the three daredevils attentively, as they wrapped their boots in rags, so that their steps could not be heard in the still of the night. They merged into the blackness of the night, slowly prowling towards the wall. At one point, they had to cross Towarowa Street. It was still silent. Only from time to time could cracks of the burning building be heard. It was sending up a shower of sparks. Through binoculars, we saw them crossing the street one at a time, at short intervals and then crawling towards the dead, colleting weapons and belts with ammunition pouches. Then, they were trying to take down the one hanging on barbed wire. The enemy noticed that and rumble of machine guns crossed the night. The boys, heavily loaded, jumped to their knees and rushed to the wall of the Panska 114 building. The sky was illuminated by missiles. It got so bright one could think it was daytime. Bullets were piercing the air, but the boys were okay. They were rushing frantically without paying attention to the fire, stumbling on heaps of rubble. They ran by Panska 112 building and had to pass by Panska 110, that had been set on fire by the enemy. We could see the bullets against the wall of fire. Incendiary bullets. The boys were running down Wronia Street, which was under fire. Germans didn't notice what had happened and they were shooting at random. Almost everyone from our platoon gathered at the ground floor, they opened the doors to the chemist's, where the boys rushed into vigorously. They were safe and sound. They got a few rifles, small arms, two submachine guns. I do not know how they managed to fetch all of this- it was impressive. Our platoon was rearmed, we could organize more posts.
         Two days later, when Germans found out what had happened, they removed bodies of the dead and barricaded Panska Street at the level of Panska 112 house. There were shooting holes in the barricade. It had a passageway joining buildings Panska 112 with Panska 109. In that way, they had better access to Hartwig warehouses and Kurza Stopka. A machine gun set on the barricade kept firing at our posts. Germans also set a cannon, which was fired every few minutes, attacking observation posts on balconies. The barricade was being build first by Germans, then they had civilians with white bands build it for them overnight. We couldn't do anything. The barricade was made of bricks and flagstones, topped with old sheet metal.