V-2 Rocket Smuggled Out of Occupied Poland

Today is the 80th anniversary of a coup by Polish Underground Intelligence and British Special Operations Executive (SOE).

On July 25, 1944, a Dakota transport plane landed secretly at night in German-occupied Poland and loaded up with parts of a new German “wonder weapon” — the V-2 rocket — along with Polish experts’ analyses, to send back to Britain for further analysis.

Polish Underground members recovering a V-2 rocket from the Bug River. Photo public domain via Wikipedia.

The V-2 rocket was the world’s first ballistic weapon. With the Germans being pressured on both the Western and Eastern Fronts after D-Day, Hitler hoped that this new weapon would turn the tide of the war against the Western Allies. The Germans were testing V-2 rockets in Poland from a missile launch site near Blizna, northwest of Rzeszów. The Polish Underground made a concerted effort to recover and analyze the rockets from failed tests. 

This was only the third time that an SOE plane had landed in and taken off from German-occupied Poland (the so-called “Bridge” or, in Polish “Most,” flights organized by SOE). All prior flights had been flyovers to release parachutists (mostly Cichociemni, the “Unseen and Silent” Polish special forces parachutists) and supplies. Landing and taking off in any German-occupied territory was beyond risky.

The Dakota took off from the Allied base at Brindisi, Italy at 8 p.m. on July 25, 1944. The crew was British, with the exception of the navigator, Flight Lieutenant Kazimierz Szrajer, who was in command. The plane carried 19 suitcases full of special equipment and four Polish military passengers.

The SOE transport landed at the Polish Underground landing site ‘Motyl’ (‘Butterfly’). The suitcases and passengers were offloaded, while a westbound group boarded in a predetermined order of priority in case the plane could not take the full load: first and foremost, the V-2 rocket parts; secondly, Jerzy Chmielewski ‘Raphael,’ who carried a detailed report on the secret weapon and was ready to supplement it from his unfailing memory; followed by four passengers in order of importance.

The plane had to take off well before daylight. Unfortunately, when it tried to take off, the plane’s wheels stuck in the mud. Twice everything was unloaded and efforts were made to provide traction for the wheels — first with straw, and finally with planks. If the plane could not take off, it was to be destroyed by dousing it in gasoline and burning it. The aircrew was actually splashing gasoline on the landing gear when the planks were tried … and succeeded, enabling the plane to take off.

The Dakota arrived back in Brindisi at 5:50 a.m. on the 26th. After a detour the following day to Rabat in Morocco to deliver three of the passengers, the V-2 rocket was safely delivered in London on July 28, 1944.

V-2 rocket four seconds after take-off from Test Stand VII in Peenemünde, Summer 1943. Photo Bundesarchiv Bild 141-1880.

The Germans sent the first V-2 to London on September 18, 1944. By that time, such methods of defense as were possible had been organized, as well as the launching sites having been pushed back by the advance of Allied armies.

 

 

 

 

Poland at the 2024 Olympics

2024 Summer Olympics Logo. Image courtesy Wikipedia.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Poland’s participation in the Summer Olympics!

Polish athletes have appeared in every Summer Olympics since 1924, except for the 1984 Summer Olympics because of the Soviet boycott. According to History.com, since the opening of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, the competition has only been canceled three times: once during World War I (1916) and twice during World War II (1940, 1944). The 2020 COVID-19 outbreak postponed the Summer Olympic games for a year. Since its debut at the 1924 Olympics, Poland has won at least 79 Gold, 96 Silver, and 146 Bronze medals.

But here’s a little-known fact: at the 1928 Summer Olympics, Poland’s only athletic Gold Medal was won by Halina Konopacka in the women’s discus throw. However, at those Olympics Polish poet and writer Kazimierz Wierzyński also won a Gold Medal: for Literature — from 1912 until abandoned in 1948, in addition to athletic competitions, medals were also given for Architecture, Literature, Music, Painting, and Sculpture. All submitted works had to be original and sports-themed and, like their more athletic counterparts, the artists participating in the new “Pentathlon of the Muses” were supposed to be amateurs. You can read more about these artistic Olympic competitions here.

At last count, according to Wikipedia there were 211 Polish athletes planning to compete in almost all the sports represented at the Olympics.

Check out all the outfits in which the Polish Olympians will march and compete here.     

Some of the outfits that will be worn by the Polish athletes during the 2024 Summer Olympics. Photo courtesy polskieradio.pl.

The opening ceremony is next Friday, July 26, but a few competitions will start on Wednesday and Thursday, July 24 and 25.

As reported by Reuters and other sources, Poland is sending troops and sniffer dogs to Paris as part of a multinational security force to help ensure the safety of this year’s Summer Olympics.

 

 

Chopin’s Music – A Universal Language

American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote: “Music is the universal language of mankind” — music has the ability to transcend different cultures and times, and speak to humans directly on an emotional level.

Fryderyk Chopin. Watercolor by Maria Wodzińska, 1835. She is reputed to have once been engaged to Chopin. Image public domain, via PolishHistory.pl.

The music of Fryderyk Chopin (1810–1849) is among the most famous for its ability to speak to people regardless of their culture or the age in which they live.

In an interview with Professor Zbigniew Skowron at PolishHistory.pl, of the Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw, Professor Skowron notes:

Professor Zbigniew Skowron. Photo courtesy PolishHistory.pl.

“There is a saying that individual listeners perceive Chopin’s music as if it was addressed directly to them, so intimate and at the same time direct. I think that this is also due to the perfection of this music, the feeling that it does not have a single unnecessary note, just like in the case of other great masters: Bach or Mozart.”

He also notes that for Poles, Chopin’s music has deep patriotic meaning. Indeed, the Germans in World War II were very aware of this. As documented by Julian Kulski in his wartime diary The Color of Courage, the Germans banned the playing of Chopin’s music during their occupation of Poland. They also destroyed the statue of Chopin in Warsaw, and melted down the pieces. (The Color of Courage, pp. 60, 67)

Chopin statue, Łazienki Park, Warsaw (postwar replica). Photo from The Color of Courage.

In Roman Polański’s film “The Pianist,” there is a true scene where Władysław Szpilman plays Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23 in the presence of a German officer in the ruins of a Warsaw destroyed by the Germans. Professor Skowron’s  interviewer notes that this moving image is visible proof of the greatness of Chopin’s work. Professor Skowron agrees, saying, “This scene is emotionally moving when, in the presence of the executioner and the victim — in an almost inhuman situation — the music that comes from beneath his hands is a pure message of freedom.”

Do you have a favorite Chopin piece?

For myself, although I like virtually all of Chopin’s music, my all-time favorite is the “Heroic” Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53. I first heard it at a concert in a small salon in the beautiful Palace on the Water in Łazienki Park in Warsaw on my first trip to Poland almost twenty years ago, brilliantly played by Polish concert pianist Maciej Poliszewski. About halfway into the piece, the left hand plays a repetitive rhythm (not being a musician I don’t know the proper term), while the right hand plays a melody. When Mr. Poliszewski played this portion, he created a standing wave of energy in the room that I could feel physically — the most memorable concert experience I’ve ever had!

Click here for the PolishHistory.pl interview with Professor Skowron, where he discusses Chopin’s life and music.

Click here for more information about music as the universal language.

Click here for a recent Harvard University study finding that music transcends cultural boundaries.

 

 

Mascot of the Month: Monkey – 315 Squadron

While dogs were the most common mascots, they were only one of many furry or feathered companions adopted by fighting units during the war. These animal friends were popular with the troops and served an important function in helping to maintain morale, because they reminded soldiers of life beyond the battlefield.

315 Squadron’s monkey has hopped into the cockpit of a squadron Spitfire. Photo courtesy Wojtek Matusiak & Robert Gretzyngier.

Among the mascots of 315 Squadron was a monkey. Though we don’t know the monkey’s name, or how it came to be adopted by Polish pilot Włodzimierz Miksa and the rest of the Squadron, many pilots remember the little rascal in their memoirs as being quite unruly.

315 Squadron, nickname ‘Dęblin’ (for the town where the Polish Air Force College was, and still is, located), was a day fighter squadron. It was operational from January 1941 to December 1946. In July 1941, six months after formation, 315 Squadron was moved to RAF Northolt and was transferred from British to Polish command.

The Squadron’s emblem was the fighting cockerel, derived from one of the prewar fighter units based in Warsaw.

 

Check out the products in our Store featuring the 315 Squadron insignia!

 

 

 

 

POSK Leaders Awarded Medals

Reipublicae Memoriae Meritum medals. Photo courtesy IPN.

On July 9, 2024, leaders of POSK (Polski Ośrodek Społeczno-Kulturalny, or Polish Social and Cultural Association) in London were awarded the Reipublicae Memoriae Meritum medal by IPN (Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, or Institute of National Remembrance).

This medal was created to recognize efforts to commemorate events and people from the history of the Polish Nation between the years 1917 and 1990, as well as the support offered to the IPN in its educational, research and publishing mission.

For tireless work towards preserving Polish history and promoting it in the UK, Chairman Marek Laskiewicz was presented with a golden medal, while Małgorzata Bugaj-Martynowska and Sylwia Kosiec with silver ones.

Event opening of the “Trails of Hope: The Odyssey of Freedom” exhibition at POSK, and presenting the Reipublicae Memoriae Meritum medals. Photo courtesy IPN.

The medals were awarded at an event celebrating the opening of the IPN exhibition “Trails of Hope: The Odyssey of Freedom.” The event presented speakers on the role of Polish intelligence during World War II, SOE agents, the Cichociemni (Silent & Unseen) special forces paratroopers, and Polish cryptologists.

The speakers included IPN researcher Mateusz Marek and award-winning biographer Clare Mulley (see prior posts about her books Agent Zo and The Spy Who Loved).

Click here for a more detailed report on the event.

 

Polish Fighter Pilot Zdzisław Krasnodębski

Zdzisław Krasnodębski. Photo from 303 Squadron.

Today we honor the birthday of Zdzisław Krasnodębski, the first Polish commander of the legendary 303 Squadron, who was born 120 years ago on July 10, 1904 in Wola Osowińska near Łuków in the Lublin area. In 1920, at age 16, he joined the Polish Army and fought during the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1919–1920. He subsequently graduated from the Polish Air Force Academy at Dęblin, completing his flying training in 1929, and embarked on his career as a fighter pilot.

Krasnodębski tries to sleep between German raids during the Battle of Britain. Photo from 303 Squadron.

Krasnodębski was an obvious choice for commanding 303 Squadron, since he had previously commanded Polish pilots during the defense of both Poland and France in the German invasions. Krasnodębski shaped 303 Squadron into an organized fighting unit, which became the highest-scoring Allied fighter squadron in the Battle of Britain.

Krasnodębski was severely burned when he was shot down on September 6, 1940. Burns were a constant fear of pilots. Photo from 303 Squadron.

He scored one shared combat victory on September 3, 1940 before being shot down a few days later, on September 6, with severe burns. Due to his injuries, he was retired from flight service, and served as an instructor and station commander until the end of World War II.

303 Squadron ace Witold Urbanowicz, who assumed command after Krasnodębski was wounded, later said about Krasnodębski: “He didn’t score many victories in the air, his victory was on the ground — in the training and upbringing of the young officers in his command.”

Polish Prime Minister and Commander in Chief General Władysław Sikorski awards Krasnodebski the Virtuti Militari while he is still in the hospital. Photo from 303 Squadron.

After the war, Krasnodębski moved to Canada, where he lived until his death in 1980. He was awarded the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari, and the Cross of Valour.

 

 

 

 

German-Polish House – Memorial in Berlin to Polish Victims of WWII Germany

Logo of the proposed German-Polish House: “Remember, Encounter, Understand.” Image courtesy Notes from Poland.

The German government has approved the establishment in Berlin of an institution that will commemorate Polish victims of Nazi Germany. It says that the enormous suffering of Poles under German occupation is still not well known among Germans today.

The “German-Polish House,” as the project is known, will “create a memorial site for the victims of Nazi Germany’s occupation of Poland, shed light on the centuries-long history of intertwining between Germany and Poland, and provide a space for education and encounters in the German-Polish context,” wrote the German government.

Almost six million Polish civilians — around half of them Polish Jews — are estimated to have died as a result of the war. That represents 17% of Poland’s pre-war population and was the highest proportional death toll of any country during the Second World War.

The German occupiers also laid waste to many Polish cities — including the capital, Warsaw, which saw around 85% of its buildings destroyed — and plundered or destroyed much of Poland’s cultural heritage.

The focus of the permanent exhibition of the German-Polish House will be the “tremendous brutality of the German occupation of Poland,” reports the Tagesspiegel daily. But it will also draw attention to relations in earlier centuries and the current ties between the two societies.

German Culture Minister Claudia Roth, who was responsible for developing the plans, yesterday said that the German-Polish House, which is to be located “in the heart of the capital,” will “advance remembrance for a common future for Germany and Poland as close partners in a strong, united Europe.”

Read more about this project in Notes from Poland.

Coincidentally, the Wall St. Journal reported last week that Poland and Germany are now teaming up against Russia:

“The former World War II foes — both of whom see Moscow as their biggest security threat — pledged to increase their military coordination from procurement to training, reinforce the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s military presence near Russia, and better coordinate their assistance to Ukraine. 

“ ‘The security of Poland is also the security of Germany,’ German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in Warsaw after the two countries’ first government consultations in six years. ‘We will pool our capacities, and we will coordinate more…We will jointly take responsibility for the protection of NATO’s eastern flank.’ “

 

July 4, 1943 – Sikorski Dies in Plane Crash

July 4, 1943: Polish Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief General Władysław Sikorski dies when his plane crashes off Gibraltar. The B-24 crashed into the sea just 16 seconds after takeoff, killing all aboard except the Czech pilot.

Among the eleven who died were General Sikorski; Sikorski’s daughter Zofia Leśniowska; the Polish Army Chief of General Staff, Major General Tadeusz Klimecki; the Polish Army Chief of Operations, Colonel Andrzej Marecki; and two British members of Parliament, Brigadier John Percival Whiteley OBE and Colonel Victor Cazalet MC.

General Władysław Sikorski, c. 1942. Photo courtesy U.S. Library of Congress.

At the time of his death, Sikorski faced great political challenges. Cautious diplomatic deals with the Soviet Union were shattered when the Katyń Forest Massacre was announced by Germany in April 1943. The Soviet Union tried to blame the massacre on Germany, but Sikorski called for an independent Red Cross investigation on the matter. The Soviets used Sikorski’s request for a neutral investigation as an excuse to sever diplomatic relations with the Poles.

The Polish government-in-exile lost influence with the Western Allies after Sikorski’s death. No other Polish official had Sikorski’s stature or credibility among the Western leaders, with whom he had a close working relationship.

The loss of Sikorski just four days after the Gestapo arrested General Grot-Rowecki, commander of the Armia Krajowa (AK or Home Army), was a huge blow to Poland and its position within the Allies — as Stalin was seeking to maneuver the U.S. and Britain into agreeing that Poland would fall into the Soviet sphere of influence after the war.

Sikorski’s tomb at Wawel Castle, Kraków. Photo: Witold Dzielski.

Sikorski was buried at the Polish War Cemetery in England, but his remains were moved to Poland after the fall of communism, and are now interred at Wawel Castle, Kraków.

A British Court of Inquiry investigated the crash. After interviewing numerous witnesses, the Court concluded:

“(b) The cause of the accident was, in the opinion of the Court, due to the aircraft becoming uncontrollable for reasons which cannot be established. The pilot, having eased the control column forward to build up speed after take-off, found that he was unable to move it back at all, the elevator controls being virtually jammed somewhere in the system. It is impossible, from the evidence available and examination of the wreckage, to offer any concrete reason as to why the elevator system should have become jammed.”

Questions remain even today as to whether Sikorski’s plane was sabotaged — given the complex political situation at the time, various theories of sabotage have blamed the British, the Germans, the Soviets and a rival Polish faction opposed to Sikorski within the government-in-exile.

Sikorski is mentioned in a number of our previous blog posts, which might be of interest, including:
May 20, 1881 – General Władysław Sikorski Born  
June 18, 1940 – Sikorski to Churchill: Will Britain Continue to Fight? 
June 14, 1940 – Germans Enter Paris 
The Polish Cipher Office & the Miracle on the Vistula

 

June 30, 1943 – General Grot-Rowecki Arrested by Gestapo

General Stefan ‘Grot’ Rowecki, c. 1930s. Photo public domain, via Wikipedia.

On June 30, 1943, General Stefan ‘Grot’ Rowecki, head of the Polish Underground Army (Armia Krajowa, AK or Home Army) was arrested by the Gestapo in German-occupied Warsaw. He had been betrayed by three Poles who were members of the AK, but were secretly Gestapo collaborators.

Following arrest, Rowecki was sent to Berlin where he was imprisoned at Oranienburg and questioned by several prominent German officials. It is believed that he was executed in August 1944 in Sachsenhausen at age 48 under orders from Heinrich Himmler.

General Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski, deputy commander of the AK who succeeded Rowecki as commander, describes the loss of Rowecki in his book The Secret Army (pp.140–141):

“The loss of General Rowecki was our heaviest blow to date. We had, it is true, lost someone from our ranks nearly every month for three years. The war had already lasted much longer than the average life of a man engaged in Underground work….This loss was, however, of far greater significance than the others. General Rowecki was one of the founders of the Home Army and had been its Commander for three years. He had gained an enormous authority amongst his subordinates and indeed throughout the Polish nation. His pseudonym, Grot, was well known everywhere. To the public, Grot was a symbol, a mysterious person who, from the Underground, directed the fight of a nation. We, who knew him more intimately and were in immediate contact with him in the work, knew his great value as a leader, a strong personality, and an outstanding brain, directing and linking the complicated Underground machinery.

“He created an organisation and methods of warfare without precedent. He united and centralized scores of military organisations which had arisen spontaneously, directed by the most varied parties and groups. His personal tact and political talents (the latter hitherto unsuspected) in working with persons of various opinion were important here. He was a handsome man of engaging personality, and a good mixer; he found it relatively easy to influence people….This charm and personality were never known to the public, but played a large part in smoothing out difficulties at the top level. His remarkably quick mind at once picked out the essential elements in every problem, and he could take decisions swiftly.”

This proved to be a black week for wartime Poland, as Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief Wladyslaw Sikorski was killed a few days later in a suspicious plane crash off Gibraltar.

The three traitors who betrayed Rowecki were sentenced to death for high treason by the Underground court. One was in fact executed by the Underground during the war. The other two, a married couple, escaped retribution and survived the war; postwar, they became informers for the communist secret police in Poland.

 

 

V-1 Rocket Found in Polish Desert

Members of Pasjonaci Historii Polonia Minor surround the remains of the V-1 rocket they’ve unearthed. Photo courtesy TVP World.

The remains of a World War II German V-1 rocket were found in the Błędow Desert in Poland by members of the Pasjonaci Historii Polonia Minor (History Enthusiasts of Lesser Poland) group.

In researching the history of the desert, one of the group’s members came across old film footage of German V-1 tests. He began searching the area and its periphery for any traces of the weapon.You can read more about this discovery in this TVP World article.

I’m sure that many of you, like me, didn’t know that Poland has a desert! The Błędow Desert is located northeast of Kraków. Occupying a relatively small area of about 12 square miles (32 sq. km), it’s Central Europe’s largest accumulation of loose sand in an area away from any sea. The desert has been used as a military proving ground since the beginning of the 20th century.

Błędow Desert. Photo public domain, via Wikipedia.

After Germany invaded and occupied Poland in 1939, German forces established a weapons testing ground in the Błędow Desert. They also used the desert as a training ground for troops and equipment — it was here that the German Afrika Korps trained before deployment in North Africa.

V-1 being rolled out for launch by German soldiers. Photo courtesy Bundesarchiv, via Wikipedia.

In 1944, intelligence reports from the Polish Underground disclosed that the Germans had been testing five-ton missiles in the Błędow Desert. These, it turned out, were V-1 rockets, also known as a ‘wunderwaffe’ (wonder weapon) to the Germans.

To the British, they were “buzz bombs” or “doodlebugs,” as V-1s began bombarding England on June 13, 1944, exactly one week after the D-Day Allied landings in Normandy. The world’s first operational cruise missile, the V-1’s pulsejet engine, based on rapid, intermittent combustion, produced a very loud buzzing sound.

Approximately 10,000 were fired at England before the end of the war, with about 2,400 reaching London and resulting in more than 20,000 deaths and injuries.

In his book On Wings of War, Polish 303 Squadron fighter ace Jan Zumbach describes how the fighter squadrons went after the V-1s:

“Almost simultaneously [with D-Day] the spluttering growl of the ‘doodlebugs’ — the V1s — started sounding in the skies over London. We had to find an immediate answer to these flying bombs, or pilotless planes, which were raining down on England….

“It was an absorbing game — a kind of aerial shooting gallery — but dangerous, as several of my pilots learned to their cost. To start with, they were approaching too close before opening fire, and getting caught in the blast. After a couple of days we found that the safe range was 200 yards. Later we invented a more entertaining answer, which involved flying cheek to cheek with a V1, then flipping it over with a wing-tip. This sent it off course, and it would veer away with its engine still roaring, to come down harmlessly in the Channel.

“The Germans soon caught on to this trick, and came up with the ingenious device of fitting small explosive charges to the underside of the V1’s wings. Two of my pilots were blown to pieces when they made contact, and we had to revert to the original technique of shooting them down at a distance.” (pp. 85–86)

 

 

 

 

2024 Michelin Guide to the Best Restaurants in Poland

The MICHELIN Guide proudly unveiled its 2024 selections for Poland last week, highlighting the country’s vibrant and evolving dining scene. Poland now boasts a total of 77 restaurants recognized by Michelin, including 6 Michelin-star restaurants!

These include the following outstanding restaurants:

Next time you’re in Poland, stop by and enjoy exquisite cuisine at any of these fine establishments! Click here for the full list of the 77 Michelin-recommended restaurants in Poland.

 

 

 

 

June 22, 1941 – Germany Invades the Soviet Union

17th Panzer Division advances into the Soviet Union, summer 1941. Photo from Fighting Auschwitz.
Generaloberst Adolf Strauss and a Wehrmacht captain study a map during the first week of the invasion. Photo from Fighting Auschwitz.

Code name Operation Barbarossa: on June 22, 1941, millions of German soldiers invade the Soviet Union, as Hitler turns on his erstwhile ally Stalin. The German invasion of the Soviet Union remains the largest invasion in history.

Two years earlier, in August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union had entered into the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact — a mutual non-aggression pact with secret provisions for the division of Central and Eastern Europe between the two countries. Having assured himself that the Soviets would not oppose him, Hitler felt confident in invading Poland, thereby beginning World War II.

Before Operation Barbarossa, even at his most cynical, Stalin believed that Hitler would not risk a war with the Soviet Union until after Britain had been conquered. The Polish Underground reported the massive German military buildup on the Soviet border to Allied leaders in London, and Britain repeatedly alerted the Soviets of the upcoming invasion. Stalin refused to believe the warnings. Consequently, the Germans achieved complete surprise during Operation Barbarossa — but also split their forces between Eastern and Western Europe.

German StuG III of the 192nd Assault Gun Battalion (the ‘Death’s Head Division’) in a rapid advance into the Soviet Union, summer 1941. Photo from Fighting Auschwitz.

As the Germans advanced, Stalin was desperate for Allied aid. His government even mended diplomatic ties with Poland, and approved the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement of 1941. This granted ‘amnesty’ for all Polish deportees and POWs (still alive) in the Soviet Union, with the promise that they would form an army on Soviet soil to fight Germany. Polish General Władysław Anders, newly released by the Soviets from Lubyanka Prison, was chosen to lead the future Polish Second Corps.