Stefan Paweł Rowecki was a Polish general, journalist and the leader of the Armia Krajowa. He was murdered by the Gestapo in prison on the personal order of Heinrich Himmler.
Operation Tempest was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II against occupying German forces by the Polish Home Army, the dominant force in the Polish resistance.
Łapanka was the Polish name for a World War II practice in German-occupied Poland, whereby the German SS, Wehrmacht and Gestapo rounded up civilians on the streets of Polish cities. The civilians arrested were in most cases chosen at random from among passers-by or inhabitants of city quarters surrounded by German forces prior to the action.
The Union of Armed Struggle, also translated as the Union for Armed Struggle, Association of Armed Struggle, and Association for Armed Struggle, was an underground army formed in Poland following its invasion in September 1939 by Germany and the Soviet Union that opened World War II. It existed from 13 November 1939 until 14 February 1942, when it was renamed into Home Army.
Kraków Army was one of the Polish armies which took part in the Polish Defensive War of 1939. It was officially created on March 23, 1939 as the main pivot of Polish defence. It was commanded by Gen. Antoni Szylling. Originally, Kraków Army was to be made of seven infantry divisions, two cavalry brigades and one mountain brigade. On September 1, 1939, General Szylling had the force which consisted of five infantry divisions, two cavalry brigades and one brigade of mountain infantry. Altogether, the army was made of 59 battalions, 29 squadrons, 352 cannons, 90 tanks, two armoured trains and 44 planes. These forces were not enough to halt German advance, especially in the area north of Częstochowa, where Kraków Army connected with Łódź Army. Main thrust of Wehrmacht panzer units was directed there, and this area was defended only by the Polish 7th I.D., which was destroyed in the early days of September 1939, opening the way towards central Poland.
In Poland, the resistance movement during World War II was led by the Home Army. The Polish resistance is notable among others for disrupting German supply lines to the Eastern Front, and providing intelligence reports to the British intelligence agencies. It was a part of the Polish Underground State.
Union of Retaliation was a Polish World War II resistance organisation established on 20 April 1940. It was created by General Stefan Rowecki, head of the Armed Resistance, as that organization's branch dedicated to sabotage and covert operations.
Maciej Kalenkiewicz was a Polish engineer and lieutenant colonel of the Polish Army. During World War II was a soldier of Henryk Dobrzański's military unit, member of cichociemni, officer of the Home Army, partisan commander in the Nowogródek District of the Home Army.
The 8th Infantry Division was a tactical unit of the Polish Army. It was active in the Polish-Bolshevik War, as well as during the Invasion of Poland in 1939. During World War II, the division was reformed twice as part of two distinct armed forces: once as part of the Home Army during the Warsaw Uprising and again as part of the Polish Army in the East.
The Polish 4th Infantry Division was created following Polish independence after the end of World War I. The division participated in the Polish–Ukrainian War in 1919. During World War II, the division existed as three wholly separate organizations, the original incarnation of the division as part of the pre-war Polish Army, the second incarnation armed and equipped by the western Allies, and another division armed and equipped and controlled by the Soviet Union. The second and third incarnations of this division existed simultaneously from 1944 until 1947.
The 9th Infantry Division was a unit of the Polish Army in the Second Polish Republic. For most of 1919, the 9th Division's regiments were dispersed across the regions of Podlachia, Polesie and Volhynia, with one battalion sent to Dąbrowa Basin.
13th Kresy Infantry Division was a unit of the Polish Army in the interbellum period. Its origins go back to the World War I, when in June 1918 the 1st Division of Polish Rifles was formed in the French town of Villers-Marmery. On July 8, 1918, the Division consisted of 227 officers and 10.000 soldiers, and it had been planned to be used in French attack on the German town of Saarbrücken, in the fall of 1918. Armistice, signed in November 1918, changed those plans.
Operation Kutschera was the code name for the Polish resistance's lawful execution of Austrian Nazi Franz Kutschera, SS and Reich's Police Chief in German-occupied Warsaw, outside his office on his way to work.
The Kierbedź Bridge was the first steel bridge over the Vistula River in Warsaw. It was designed by Stanisław Kierbedź and built between 1859 and 1864. The bridge had six spans and was 474 m long.
21st Vistula Uhlan Regiment was a cavalry unit of the Polish Army in the Second Polish Republic. Formed in 1920, it fought both in the Polish–Soviet War and the Invasion of Poland. The regiment was garrisoned in the town of Rowne, Volhynia, and in 1939 belonged to Volhynian Cavalry Brigade.
The 1943 Pinsk Prison raid was one of the most spectacular raids in the history of the Home Army and the Polish Underground State. It took place on 18 January 1943 in Pinsk, the town in Eastern Poland, which at that time was under German occupation as part of Reichskommissariat Ukraine. The purpose of the raid was to release a Cichociemni agent and his comrades, who had been captured by the Germans while trying to blow up the Horyn river bridge.
Action Ghetto was the code name for the armed actions of the Polish Underground State during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising aimed at helping the insurgents. The name was given to a series of combat actions carried out by the Home Army during the uprising between 19 April 1943 and May 16, 1943.
Józef Pszenny - Polish military commander, sapper captain of Polish Army, head of the Sapper Department of "XII-s" Warsaw District of Home Army.
The Organization of Special Combat Actions(Osa–Kosa 30) was a unit of the Polish Home Army tasked with special operations, active from May 1942 to July 1943.
