The Lwów uprising () was an armed insurrection by the Home Army () underground forces of the Polish resistance movement in World War II against the Nazi German occupation of the city of Lviv in the latter stages of World War II. It began on 23 July 1944 as part of a secret plan to launch the countrywide all-national uprising codenamed Operation Tempest ahead of the Soviet advance on the Eastern Front. The Lwów uprising lasted until 27 July. Shortly afterwards, the Polish troops were disarmed, soldiers either arrested or conscripted into the Polish communist armed forces and officers were arrested by the Soviet NKVD. Some were forced to join the Red Army, others sent to the Gulag camps. The city itself was occupied by the Soviet Union. Background In late December 1943, the Red Army initiated yet another offensive upon the 1939 territory of Poland. Already on 4 January 1944, the first Soviet units crossed the pre-war Polish border in Volhynia. By the end of March, most of Tarnopol Voivodeship lay in their hands, with the Germans preparing to retreat behind the Bug River. Under such circumstances, the Home Army devised a plan of a gradual uprising that was to break out before the advancing Soviets, defeat the withdrawing German troops, and allow the underground Polish authorities to appear in newly liberated areas as their legitimate governors. The plan, code-named Operation Tempest, was put into action. By early July 1944, the local Lwów Home Army division of the Jazlowce Uhlans (Ułani Jazłowieccy) prepared specific orders for all Polish partisan units in the area. According to the order of 5 July 1944, the forces of the Home Army within the city were divided into five districts, each with its own centre of mobilization and different tasks. On 18 July the German civilian authorities and pro-Nazi Ukrainian Auxiliary Police withdrew from the city. The following day, the forces of the Wehrmacht left Lwów, leaving only a token force. This left large parts of the town practically in Polish hands. However, at the same time, several new divisions of the Wehrmacht appeared at the city's outskirts, causing the Polish headquarters to postpone the uprising. It was not until the afternoon of 21 July that the first reconnaissance units of the Red Army arrived at the area. The uprising Soviet 29th Tank Brigade of the 4th Tank Army under Lt. Gen. Lelushenko reached