Many of the units were formed before the beginning of the Uprising ; several were organised in the following days as new volunteers joined. Units were assigned to given Areas:
Units were organised into battalions, companies and platoons. Many of those became famous either before the Uprising or during it, including 'Battalion Zośka', 'Czata 49', 'Parasol', 'Miotła'.
The following list does not correspond with the above area list. On September 20 this structure was reorganised to fit the structure of Polish forces fighting among the Western Allies. The entire force was renamed to Warsaw Home Army Corps, commanded by general Antoni Chruściel and consisted of three infantry divisions:
8th Romuald TrauguttInfantry Division commanded by col. Żywiciel-Niedzielski
10th Maciej Rataj Infantry Division commanded by col. Radwan-Pleiffer
28th Stefan Okrzeja Infantry Division commanded by col. Karol-Rokicki
The names of smaller units were left intact.
Composition of smaller fighting forces
Although the vast majority of the resistance in Warsaw were members of Home Army, there was a small number of fighters who weren't members of that organisation. In the course of the Uprising some 1,700 members of other resistance organisations joined the Uprising. Those included the Armia Ludowa, Gwardia Ludowa and Narodowe Siły Zbrojne. Along with the Polish soldiers who took part in the Uprising, there were also members of other nationalities. Among them was a number of Hungarian deserters and Italian escapees from POW camps in Poland. Another ex-POW soldier was RAF Sgt. John Ward, whose numerous coded radio dispatches gave an eyewitness account of the fighting to the British government and Polish government-in-exile, as well as the London press. There was also a Slovak 535th Home Army platoon under Lt. Stanko. It was composed mostly of Slovaks, Georgians, Armenians and Azeri, and suffered heavy casualties in the course of the uprising. It is believed that some 25,000 Jews were hiding in Warsaw before the Uprising. The vast majority of them died together with other Polish civilians. However, many Jews, including those released by Home Army from the Warsaw concentration camp, joined the Home Army. During the final stage of the battle a number of Soviet soldiers also crossed the river and fought the Germans in Powiśle area. Airdrops were carried out by allied airmen from Italy, mostly by Poles, Canadians and the British.
A large section of the forces on the "German" side were, according to Norman Davies, drawn from "'collaborationist forces'" including Russians who had left in the Tzar's era and Azeris. All of these forces, however, were clearly subject to the control of the German war machine
