3. At the beginning the Home Army outnumbered the German garrison by as much as four to one
In addition to the German garrison troops, another up to six thousand men of the SS and the Waffen SS were available to the German commanders, and additional troops stationed around the city began to reinforce the German positions after the attack was launched. They were also supported by Russians rebelling against the Soviet Union. They were able to reinforce the garrison because the anticipated supporting attacks by the Red Army did not materialize. Decades later declassified documents provided unimpeachable evidence that the Red Army advance was ordered to a halt by the Kremlin. During the first four days the Poles were successful in some areas of Warsaw and its suburbs, less successful in others, and the areas which were placed under control of the resistance fighters were isolated districts, not connected to each other on surface streets.
The Polish plan was to hold the areas which they had seized from the Germans and await the Soviet columns. Over the first week of the uprising the Home Army established radio contact with the Red Army and Moscow, but their pleas to the Soviets were simply ignored. Contact was also established with the government in London, which informed Churchill of the situation in Warsaw. On August 5, retreating German units counterattacked the resistance in the western districts of Wola and Ochota, pushing the Polish fighters back. As parts of the city’s boroughs were overrun by the advancing Germans, reprisals against the civilian population began. Within three days at least 40,000 civilian non-combatants were executed by the Germans in Wola alone, with some estimates as high as 100,000.