Cichociemni (Polish SOE)

[StefanM]

There is only one think that I can not find, he was telling me that he work for British Government during and after WWII.

Hello Mariusz,

Thank you for sharing the story of your uncle. I have copies of many declassified Polish SOE documents from the National Archives, Kew, London which show which cichociemni were arrested by the UB and tortured and how they tried to make their way back to England after the war—there were quite a few successful jail breaks out of Poland!

However not all cichociemni were welcome back in England by some factions of the British Home Office, and there are many memos written by friends of cichociemni pleading with government officials to let them back into England and help rescue their families from communist Poland, sadly not such all requests were granted.

[dorava]

as the French say it so well
"perfide de Albion"!!

dont trust the British ...ask those that were partisans in Yugoslavia
under Mijhalovich...

I love them...but their foreign policies have been not very nice..
anyone read Nicolas Tolstoys book
"the victims of Yalta"??

one hell of a scary book of what the English did right after the war..giving the Cossacks interned in Austria back into the sweet hands of the NKVD

[3mk]

Thats what happend after the Battle Of Berlin
German soldiers tried escaping to the British sectors and instead they threatened to shoot them unless they go back to the Russians.

[WORLDMILITARY]

Some CC paperwork from priv collection.

[StefanM]

Thats what happend after the Battle Of Berlin
German soldiers tried escaping to the British sectors and instead they threatened to shoot them unless they go back to the Russians.

Without intending to create animosity on here .... IMO quite right too!

[StefanM]

Some CC paperwork from priv collection.

Thanks WORLDMILITARY, for sharing this nice collection of document—are these in your private collection?

I am assuming the V.M. and A.K. war medals were awarded posthumously to cichociemni ppor. Stefan Górski "Brzeg" as I have a read a reference that Górski was executed in Motokow prison, Warsaw 27 Sept. 1948 so before the dates on his Legitymacja .

Another former cichociemni Bolesław Kontrym was also executed by the Polish communist regime at Mokotow on 2.1.1953.

[A.J. Zawadzki]

. . . That other great book about the cichociemni exploits The unseen and silent : adventures from the underground movement narrated by paratroops of the Polish Home Army by George Iraneck-Osmecki and published by Sheed and Ward, London 1954 had several adventures of its own.

A special edition was published for the US Army which shipped copies out to its troops fighting in the Korean war; the book was used as a morale raiser.

Another specaial edition of The Unseen and Silent was printed on light-weight bible paper for the CIA in West Germany who sent hundreds of copies to be dropped over Poland by balloon! CIA propaganda balloon drops were new to me until I got interested in this book.

cc. Adolf Pilch also said that the book was almost ready to go to print when pressure was put on the cichociemni association's publisher Sheed and Ward in London to stop publication as it contained 'true' stories of the Soviet occupation and repression of Poland which HMG thought could damage its relations with USSR at the time. So the cichociemni association turned to Sheed and Ward division in N.Y. (who could not be silenced by British gov. pressure) to publish the book, which they did. Interestingly the head of Polish affairs in the British government at this time was none other than Kim Philby!

Very interesting! Never knew this about this book, which I only recently found and read. Good book that I’ve made recommendations about elsewhere on this forum.

Regards,
Tony

[Gary J]

An interesting web article concerning Tadeusz Chciuk.

Tadeusz Chciuk's first parachute mission into occupied Poland

Gary J.

[StefanM]

An interesting web article concerning Tadeusz Chciuk.

Tadeusz Chciuk's first parachute mission into occupied Poland

Gary J.

Tadeusz Chciuk-Celt was involved two parachute drops into Poland the second in Operation "Salamander" who role was to escort Dr. Józef Retinger, code named "Salamander," who parachuted into Poland with him at the age of 56. Rettinger was the oldest person to be dropped into Poland and did not undergo parachute training beforehand. He just strapped on a parachute when it was time and out he jumped! Rettinger badly injured his legs on landing. There is much mystery surrounding Rettinger's mission to Poland as he was responslible only to the Polish P.M. After the jump Rettinger was also suffering from night blindness, and according to Stefan Korbonski it was necessary to take him by the arm and lead him like a blind man. Rettinger was an adept political operator with many contacts with the world's most powerful and influential leaders and later went on to found the Bilderberg Group.

Tadeusz Chciuk-Celt spent many years with the CIA funded Radio Free Europe in Munich, Germany where he made his long-term home after the war. His wife still lives there.

[StefanM]

Rettinger, part II


Rettinger was Sikorski's political adviser and was a keen supporter of dialogue with the USSR. IMO It was probably Rettinger was the the architect of Sikorski's proposal for defining Poland's post-war Eastern border along the so-called Curzon line and shifting Poland's western border out to the Oder-Neisse line. A point that is often convieniently overlooked by many Poles is that Sikorski's Curzon/Oder-Neisse border proposal was published and known to the Allies before his death... and that these borders Sikorski proposed were almost exactly the post-war Polish borders that the Allies agreed upon at Tehran and ratified at Yalta!! Therefore had Sikorski lived and had he been at Tehran and Yalta then Sikorski would have agreed to the present shape of post-war Poland with the other Allies—including Stalin!

So IMO if there was any likelihood of Sikorski being 'eliminated' it would have come from right-wing Polish factions (and nowhere else) who were fundementally and vehemently opposed to any dealings or rapprochement with the USSR, especially over borders.