Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, paid their respects to fallen soldiers during the first day of their visit to Poland on Monday (17.07.17).
The royal couple, both 35, were joined by Polish president Andrzej Duda and his wife Agata on an exclusive tour of the Warsaw Rising Museum where they honoured the lives of the estimated 200,000 Poles who died in an ill-fated 63-day rebellion against Nazi occupation in 1944.
The museum documents the Polish resistance Home Army’s brave fight between August 1 and October 2, 1944 in which they tried to liberate the capital.
The battle – known as the Warsaw Rising – unfortunately ended in failure for Polish forces, after Soviet forces camped outside the capital refused to intervene as they were waiting to see the anti-communist resistance movement eliminated before they moved in to battle the Nazis.
Prince William and the president lit candles in the museum underneath a bell on a wall of remembrance which lists the name of every soldier who died in the lengthy battle.
The royals also stopped to honour a list of 34 British servicemen who were shot down and died trying to fly supplies into the resistance fighters.
During their visit to the Warsaw museum, William and Catherine also got the chance to meet with four Polish Second World War veterans, two of whom fought in the uprising, and another two who escaped from Poland to join Allied forces and take part in military campaigns.
One veteran, 98-year-old Colonel Edmund Brzozowski, joined the Polish resistance and was captured by Stalin’s forces early in the war and imprisoned in Russia, before being able to join up with British forces in the Middle East when the Soviet Union changed sides.
Another veteran, Major Marian Slowinski, also 98, fought with Allied troops in Normandy and in the liberation of Belgium.
Prince William and Duchess Catherine honour fallen Polish soldiers
