"W" Hour in Warsaw, Poland, captured from helicopter.

Hello there! It's been a while since I wrote for the last time. First of all it was a pleasure to meet all Warsaw (and not only) Steemians at the First Steem Warsaw Meetup 2 weeks ago. It was nice to see you in person, flash and blood, and have some inspirational talks (hello @gtg, @zurvanic, @noisy). Hope to see you soon again!

But getting into spirit of things. You probably wonder what is "W" Hour in the post's title. Let me explain.

In 1939 the WWII started and Poland was attacked by Nazi Germany. Our capitol - Warsaw - was occupied by Germans, and people were living a life full of fear and death. Not going too much into history, turns, tension and so on, in 1944, after 5 years of occupation, Polish resistance decided to start an uprising against Nazis. By that time the Soviet front was arriving to Warsaw and Poles were hoping for they to help them.

Warsaw fighters didn't have too many guns, there were many young people, even kids. The beginning of the Warsaw Uprising took place 1.08.1944 at 17:00, and it was called "W" Hour - the time and date, when the fights started. The fighters believed they can succeed in freeing Warsaw, but in fact it was meant to fail from the very beginning. Nazis outnumbered us in every way possible. It was a success, that having much less ammunition, guns, people etc. the Uprising lasted for 2 months. Over 16,000 fighters and 150,000 civils were killed. And Soviets stopped at the other side of Vistula river watching the tragedy of Warsaw.

After the fighters capitulated Nazis began to burn everything that remained. By that time in the ashes of Warsaw lived less than 1000 people and it was prohibited to do so. A few months later the first inhabitants began coming back their city, looking for their close ones, and trying to live after the war.

Skipping all the other history (I'm not a historian but still I could write a book-long post about it), every year at 17:00 Warsawers and Poles try to commemorate the battles and those who have fallen. Almost every year at "W" Hour the people stopped for 1 minute and the sirens began screaming. It's a very emotional moment. Then, after 1 minute, the city comes back to it's normal rhythm.

Since a few years the anniversaries become more "national-like" and people began to block the strict city center 15 minut before the main event. They also fire white and red flares. I don't know if I like it myself since it's going into very nationalistic direction, and many parties want to sign under it. But I like the people remember about it.

Under the link below you can see the movie from a helicopter I shot this year. We were flying at the height of 1800 meters, and saw people gathering in the city center. It was one in a lifetime experience to see it from such perspective.

Below you can see the photo I shot 2 years ago. It became viral over Polish Internet having over 500,000 reach on Facebook only.

Also check out the full 2015 post - http://maciejmargas.com/godzina-w-w-centrum-warszawy/
and 2016 post - http://maciejmargas.com/godzina-w-z-lotu-ptaka/ .

I hope you liked what I wrote! Don't forget to follow me on Steemit and subscribe my Youtube channel. Currently I'm working on POLAND ON AIR project, aiming to make aerial photographs over the biggest cities in Poland. I started a videoblog and began a crowdfunding at http://polandonair.com. I also hope to cover the costs of flying (which are really big) with Steem Dollars, so please upvote the post and let me show the real power of Steemit to others! ;)