血債(英中对照)

古德明《征服英语》之英语军事故事，古德明，香港英语教育作家，他开了一个《征服英语专栏》，在专栏中专门用英语写了世界近代史上的军事小故事，用英语讲述历史中那些惊心动魄的战争。
血　債
in august 1944, the polish home army rose against the germans in an attempt to liberate warsaw and reinstate polish authorities. the soviet leader joseph stalin, however, wanted the uprising to fail so that the soviet occupation of poland would be uncontested. consequently, soviet forces were halted when they were just a few hundred metres from warsaw. home army detachments from outside warsaw which attempted to go to the city's aid were surrounded and disarmed by the soviets.
the poles fought for 63 days. about 18,000 polish soldiers and 200,000 civilians were killed, many in mass executions. on hitler's orders, warsaw was systematically bombed. the soviet army stood before the city, watching it burning. not surprisingly, the 1944 insurgents faced communist persecution in postwar poland.

一九四四年八月，波蘭本土軍起事，希望從德軍手上解放華沙，恢復波蘭統治。但蘇聯領袖約瑟夫．斯大林不想起事成功，否則蘇聯佔領波蘭會有障礙。於是蘇軍在華沙幾百公尺之外，停步不前。城外的波蘭本土軍支隊要進城救援，都被蘇軍包圍以及解除武裝。
波蘭人奮戰了六十三天，約一萬八千名士兵、二十萬平民被殺，不少是遭集體處決。希特勒下令對華沙展開按部就班式轟炸。波蘭陷入火海，城外蘇聯軍隊作壁上觀。在戰後的波蘭，一九四四年起事者遭共產黨迫害，當然並不奇怪。