The Army of Free Poland
Karol POLEJOWSKI
Under the yoke of brutal occupation, the Poles managed to create the Home Army – a well-organised armed force that served the entire free world.
It was past midnight on 26 July 1944 when a Douglas C-47 5 ‘Dakota’ transport aircraft bearing the colours of the Royal Air Force landed in a meadow near Tarnów, several dozen kilometres east of Kraków. Loading and unloading had to be done with the utmost speed, as the operation was carried out right under the Germans’ noses. Fifteen minutes later, the plane was ready to take off again, but its wheels failed on the soft ground. ‘Time was running out. The tension was rising,’ recalled Captain Włodzimierz Gedymin, one of the participants in the operation. It seemed that the aircraft would have to be burned to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. Fortunately, the ‘Dakota’ lifted off on the fourth attempt. Early in the morning, it safely reached its base near Brindisi in southern Italy. Just two days later, the cargo from occupied Poland arrived in London.
The risky mission was so significant that Prime Minister Winston Churchill mentioned it in his memoirs. The delivery to Britain included parts of the V-2 rocket, the German Wunderwaffe that was to change the course of the Second World War, along with a detailed report on the weapon.
The acquisition and reverse engineering of the V-2 was one of the greatest successes of the Home Army, which the American historian Lynne Olson has described as ‘the best-organised resistance movement in all of Europe.’
The Underground Front
Poland has not yet perished / As long as we remain’ – are the first lines of the Polish national anthem. Józef Wybicki wrote these words in the late 18th century, shortly after Poland disappeared from the map of Europe, partitioned between Prussia, Russia and Austria. In the autumn of 1939, two totalitarian powers – Nazi Germany and the Communist Soviet Union – destroyed Poland’s independence and divided its territory. But even then, the grief of our compatriots did not extinguish their belief that Poland was not dead as long as her sons and daughters lived, and that decisive action was needed to restore her freedom.
As early as 27 September 1939, while Warsaw was still defending itself, the underground Service for Poland’s Victory was formed to ‘continue the fight for independence and territorial integrity.’ Later that year, its role was taken over by the Union for Armed Struggle, renamed the Home Army on 14 February 1942. Those who joined its ranks swore allegiance to Poland, vowing to ‘fight with all their might for the country’s liberation,’ even at the cost of their lives. Significantly, they also pledged unconditional obedience to the President of the Republic of Poland, then in British exile. The Home Army was not an armed wing of a political faction but an integral part of the Polish Armed Forces under the constitutional state authorities, which were forced to operate abroad. Together with the clandestine civilian administration, it formed the Polish Underground State.
Polish soldiers fought effectively alongside their Western allies on many fronts of the Second World War: in the air during the Battle of Britain, in the defence of Tobruk, in northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands and at Monte Cassino. They fought with dedication ‘for our freedom and yours.’ The Home Army soldiers waged the same struggle but under far more difficult conditions. Their strategic goal was clear: to prepare a nationwide uprising timed to coincide with the Reich’s military collapse. Meanwhile, they engaged in ongoing combat against the occupiers: sabotage, diversion, special operations, intelligence and propaganda. Over time, a broad partisan movement emerged, also providing protection for civilians against common banditry.
The Home Army’s activity uplifted the terrorised society. For a significant portion of young people, service in the organisation became a formative experience – a school of patriotism and civic engagement.
By the summer of 1944, the Home Army numbered around 380,000 sworn soldiers, as estimated by its commander at the time. This forced the Germans to maintain substantial military and police forces in occupied Poland – forces that were consequently unavailable for the front. Yet the role of the Home Army was not only demonstrated by the number of bridges blown up, trains derailed or attacks on occupying authorities. It was not only reflected in Operation ‘Tempest’ or the 63-day Warsaw Uprising. Thanks to the courageous people of the Polish underground – such as Captain Witold Pilecki, who infiltrated Auschwitz, or courier Jan Karski, who twice entered the Warsaw Ghetto – information about German terror and the extermination of the Jews reached the highest political leaders of the free world. In addition, the Home Army intelligence service, which operated successfully not only in occupied Poland but also deep inside the Reich, rendered invaluable assistance to the Western Allies.
A major achievement of Stefan Ignaszak ‘Nordyk’ and other Home Army officers was the intelligence work on the German research facility at Peenemünde on the island of Usedom, where tests were conducted on the ‘new weapons’ – the V-1 and V-2 missiles. The information gathered was passed to the West, leading to Allied air raids on Peenemünde, which significantly delayed German work on the Wunderwaffe.
In response, the Germans moved their test site to the Pustków-Blizna area near Dębica, beyond the reach of Allied aviation. Yet the Home Army intelligence service managed to locate this site as well. Moreover, on 20 May 1944, the Home Army captured an intact V-2 rocket, which had landed in a marshy area near the Bug River and failed to detonate. ‘The Poles (…) waited until the Germans had abandoned their search, later hauled it out and under cover of darkness, dismantled it,’ Churchill would recount. Just over two months after its acquisition, the V-2’s components and documentation were in London. The British could study the new weapon’s design and functions in time.
Dungeons for Heroes
A year later, Germany had been defeated, but for my compatriots, it didn’t mean the longed-for freedom. Poland found itself in the Soviet sphere of influence.
On 19 January 1945, the Home Army was disbanded. Some of its soldiers continued to fight underground for months and years in a desperate struggle against communist enslavement. Yet even many of those who laid down their arms faced severe repression: arrests, torture, death sentences. Such was the extent of the new regime’s fear of war heroes loyal to the ideal of a truly sovereign Poland. The Home Army lived on in the memory and hearts of Poles, becoming an inspiration for resistance against communist oppression for another half-century.
Today, in our free homeland, we pay due tribute to our Heroes.
Polish medieval historian. Deputy President of the Institute of National Remembrance.
Source:wszystkoconajwazniejsze.pl
