units. The drops continued until 21 September. The total weight of allied drops was 104 tons. The Soviet Union did not give permission to the Allies for use of its airfields for those supply operations; thus the planes were forced to use distant bases in the United Kingdom and Italy, which reduced their carrying weight and number of sorties. The Allies' specific request for the use of landing strips made on 20 August was denied by Stalin on 22 August (he referred to the resistance as 'a handful of criminals'). United States planes did not join the operation. After Stalin's objections to support for the uprising, Churchill telegrammed Roosevelt on August 25, proposing to send planes in defiance of Stalin and 'see what happens'. Roosevelt replied on August 26: 'I do not consider it advantageous to the long-range general war prospect for me to join you in the proposed message to Uncle Joe'. Although German air defence over the Warsaw area itself was almost non-existent, except for elements of JG52, the highest-scoring fighter squadron (geschwader) in the Luftwaffe, which claimed its 10,000th kill of the war on a Soviet plane over the Warsaw suburb of Praga, about 12% of the 296 planes taking part in the operations were lost. Most of the drops were made at night-time, and poor accuracy left many parachuted packages stranded in German-controlled territory. From 13 September on the Soviets begun their own airdrop raids with supplies, and dropped about 55 tons in total. The drops continued until 28 September. Since the Soviet airmen did not equip the containers with parachutes, the majority of recovered packages were damaged. Finally on 18 September the Soviets allowed one USAAF flight of 110 B-17s of the 3 division Eighth Air Force to re-fuel at Soviet airfields used in Operation Frantic, but it was too little too late. A large air-drop from high altitude fell predominantly into German hands. Of the total of 239 tons of supplies dropped during the 8 weeks by 306 planes of the western Allies, only 88 Tons (36.8%) actually reached the Home Army in Warsaw, the Kabacki woods and the Kampinos forest. The remainder fell into enemy hands or was lost. Capitulation At 8 pm on 2 October General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski signed the capitulation of remaining Polish forces in Warsaw (Warszawski Korpus Armii Krajowej or Home Army Warsaw Corps) at the German headquarters in the