Figure 1.-- |
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The Polish underground resistance to the NAZI occupation began almost immediately after the NAZI and Soviet occupations began. As far as we know if was
largely fovcused ahainst the NAZIs. The resistance effort continued throughout the War. The resistance was carried out primarily by the Home Army (Armia
Krajowa) which was loyal and under the control of the London-based government-in-exile. The Polish resistance was active, but impaired by Soviet actions against non-Communist Polish POWs and resistance groups. The Polish resistance played a role in soome of the major efforts of the War. Perhaps its most important role was at the very beginning of the War. The Poles played a role in the British cracking of the German Enigma code machines. The Polish resistance managed to obtain information on the German missile program and get it to London. The most notable action by the resistance was the Home Army's uprising in Warsaw.
The Polish underground resistance to the NAZI occupation began almost immediately after the NAZI and Soviet occupations began. As far as we know if was
largely fovcused ahainst the NAZIs. The resistance effort continued throughout the War. The Polish resistance played a role in soome of the major efforts of the War.
The cracking of the German Enigma code was one of the most important achievements of World War II. Credit is usually given to British cryptologists. Less well known is that the Poles played a major role. After the German introduced the Enigma code machines four Polish ELINT stations (Warsaw, Starogard near Danzig), Poznan and, Krzeslawice near Cracow) began noticing the signals (1928). Initial efforts to crack the codes failed and the Poles realized that the Germans had a very effective code system. The Ciphers Office (BS) of the Polish
Army's General Staff decided that academic assistance and a major effort would be requited.. They BS approached the Dean of the Department of Mathematics, Professor Zdzislaw Krygowski at the University of Poznan. He provided them a list of his most promising graduating students that would be available to work at the BS. The BS put them through a cryptology course and they began working on the project. Some of the leaders were: Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Rozycki and Henryk Zygalski. They at first worked at Poznan and later moved to Warsaw. The German Enigma was based on a commercial machine developed for the German railroad. The Poles one of the commercial machines and thus knew what the Germans were doing. The military Enigma macjine was, however, more complicated and the Polish cryptology group made little progressing in cracking the code. As a result of Poland's alliance with France, Polish Intelligence worked with French intelligence (Deuxieme Bureau). They developed an agent in the Reichswehr Cipher's Office (1931). Rejewski was thus able to obtain a description of the military Enigma and some of the old key tables. This helped Rejewski, create the internal connections and essebntially build a working Enigma machinr (December 1932). Within a month, the Poles were reading German military and Foreign Ministry messages (January 1933). This was of course the same month the NAZIs seized power in Germany. The BS established a special site for the German branch (BS-4) in the Kabaty Forest near Warsaw (1934). The Poles managed to dechiper over 100,000 German messages. The Poles thus were able to read German messages during some of the major pre-War operations of NAZI Germany (the remilitarization of the Rheinland, the Anschluss, and occupation of the Sudetenland after Munich. The Polish codebreaking operation was done in the upmost secrecy. . After Rejewski constructed a worable machine, the Poles built about 70 copes which they operated at BS-4. The Germans began changing how they used the Enigma machines and made mechanical changes further complicating the messages (September-December 1938). The Poles could still read the messages, but decphiering was made much more complicated, drastically reducing the number of messages that could be read. Rejewski developed a prototype computer (bomba kryptologiczna) to help with the effort (October 1938). The French assisted the Poles, but the Polish Enigma machine stayed exclusively in Polish hands until a few months before the WAr (July 1939).
As Hitler began increasing the presure on Poland, Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Waclaw Stachiewicz, ordered BS-4 to share their knowledge of Enigma with British and French intelligence. The Poles gave the British and French Polish clones of the Enigma machine (July 24-26 July, 1939. Polish officers delivered an Enigma clone to General Stewart Menzies at Victoria Station (August 16, 1939). Thus by mid-August the British were reading some German messages. NAZI Germany invaded Poland launching World War II (September 1, 1939). BS and ELINT surveillance stations were evacuated to Romania. As the Germans approached Warsaw and the Soviets invaded from the east (September 17), Polish authorities ordered BS-4 to destroy all documentation and equipment. As far as I know, the Germans never learned that their Enigma machine had been cracked. Given the number of people working on the oproject, this is quite astounding. Rejewski, Zygalski, and Rozycki managed to get to France (late September 1939). [Bury]
Poles operating at considerable personal danger formed many resistance groups in Poland after the NAZI invasion. Most were loyal to the Government-in-exile. The major exception was the Communists. They organized a network constituting an underground Polish state. The principal military force of the underground Polish state was the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa--AK) was the underground army fighting the Nazi German occupation of Poland during World War II. The AK evolved from the Service for the Victory of Poland (Sluzba Zwyciestwa Polski--SZP) (September 27, 1939). SZP was a political-military organization which was created the military organization Union for the Armed Struggle (Zwiazek Walki Zbrojnej--ZWZ. The ZWZ was the fondation for the AK. The AK was an integral part of the Polish Armed Forcesand under the command of the Polish Armed Forces in London. The best known commander of the Polish Army was General Sikorski. The activities of the AK were intelligence, sabotage, suppression, diversion, and finally uprising. The Polish resistance was active, but impaired by Soviet actions against non-Communist Polish POWs and resistance groups. The overwealming NAZI military superiority and the cooperarion of the Soviets in the supression of Poland made any kind of armed resistance virtually impossible. As a result the initial operations were aimed at organizing and intelligence. The AK assisted the British in learning about the NAZI V-weapons program. As the NAZI military situation weakened, overt military actions became feasible. The most dramatic resistance effort by the Polish Home Army was the uprising against the NAZIs in Warsaw when the Soviets neared the Vistula (July 1944).
There are many heros of the Polish resistance. For every know hero there are probably many more who commited heroic acts whose identity is unknown. One of these is an unknown boy who lived along the Polish-Hungarian border. Many Poles after the German invasion (September 1939) wanted to get to France to join Polish units being formed in France. One Pole managed to get forged travel documents that allowed him to get to Krakow. The border at the time was another 50 miles and it was heavily patrolled by Germans. He began walking south and was soon joined by others. As they neared the border, a local youth approached them and offered to show them how to avoid the German patrols. He asked for nothing in return. The youth helped Polish soldiers and others espcape to Hungary for several months. He was eventually shot by the Germans. [Nagorski]
The Polish resistance managed to obtain information on the German missile program and get it to London.
The most dramatic resistance effort by the Polish Home Army was the uprising against the NAZIs in Warsaw when the Soviets neared the Vistula (July 1944). After Operation Bagration (June-July 1944), Warsaw on the Vistula was the principle barrier standing between thev Red Army and Berlin. The Poles did not greet the Red Army in the same way that populations in the West cheered the Americans and British. They had no illusions about what would follow in the wake of the Red Army, a Stalinist dictatorship. The Home Army (loyal to thev London goverment-in-exile) decided on a desperate gambit at the Red army apprpached the Vistula. They would stage an insurrection and free Warsaw. The Home Army rebelled (August 1) anticipating the support of the Red army. Instead Stalin ordered the Soviet troops to stop on the far side if the Vistula. The German reaction was savage. On one day alone the SS rounded up and shot 25,000 Polish men women and children. The Americans offered to drop supplies, but Stalin refused permission for the flights to use needed Soviet air bases to refuel for the return trip. Thev Poles fought valiantly on, finally capitulating (October 2). The Germans at Hitler's orders virtualy razed the city. The Soviets finally took Warsaw with little resistance from the Germans (January 1945).
Bury, Jan. "The Greatest Secret of World War II - The Enigma Code Breach".
Nagorski, Zygmunt. "A brave boy at the border," Washington Post May 28, p. W11.
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