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Tadeusz Pełczyński

February 04, 2023

Tadeusz Walenty Pełczyński (codenames: Grzegorz, Adam, Wolf, Robak; Warsaw, 14 February 1892 – 3 January 1985, London) was a Polish Army major general (generał brygady), intelligence officer and chief of the General Staff's Section II (the military intelligence section).[1]

Colonel (Pułkownik) Tadeusz Pełczyński, ca. 1938

During World War II, he became chief of staff of the Home Army (ZWZ, Armia Krajowa; July 1941 – October 1944) and its deputy commander (July 1943 – October 1944).

Early life and education

Tadeusz Pełczyński was the son of Ksawery Pełczyński, a Sanniki sugar-mill technician, and Maria, née Liczbińska, a teacher, and was a great-grandson of Michał Pełczyński, a general in the Army of Congress Poland.

Pełczyński began school in Łęczyca. In 1905 he participated in a school strike connected with Polish efforts to win independence from the Russian Empire. He continued his schooling in Warsaw at the Gen. Paweł Chrzanowski Gymnasium. In 1911 he began medical studies at Kraków University. As a medical student he was a member of the patriotic-gymnastic Sokół organisation and of the "Zet" Polish Youth Association (Związek Młodzieży Polskiej "Zet").[2] He completed a military course conducted by Zygmunt Zieliński, a future Polish Army generał broni (lieutenant general).

Marriage and family

In 1923 Pełczyński married Wanda Filipowska, with whom he had a daughter, Maria, and a son, Krzysztof (Christopher, born 1924, who died during the Warsaw Uprising on 17 August 1944, of wounds sustained on 1 August, the first day of the Uprising).

World War I

 
Second lieutenant (Podporucznik) Tadeusz Pełczyński, ca. 1916

The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 found Pełczyński on vacation near Włocławek. After the area had been occupied by the Germans, he was mobilised by them to work as a medic at a Russian-prisoner-of-war camp.

After his release from German service, in June 1915 he joined the Polish Legions.[2] He served as an officer in the 6th Legions Infantry Regiment (6 Pułk Piechoty Legionów) and commanded a platoon and a company. In July 1917, following the Oath Crisis, he was interned at a camp in Beniaminów.[2] In March 1918, after release from internment, he took up work at a social-services agency (Rada Główna Opiekuńcza) while continuing his involvement with "Zet."

Interwar period

In November 1918 Pełczyński was accepted into the Polish Army and placed in command of a company, then a battalion, of the 6th Legions' Infantry Regiment.[2] In March 1920 he was transferred to the Infantry Officer-Cadet School (Szkoła Podchorążych Piechoty) in Warsaw as a company commander, then a battalion commander. From September 1921 to September 1923 he attended the War College (Wyższa Szkoła Wojenna) in Warsaw.[2] After graduating with a General Staff officer's diploma, he returned to the Infantry Officer-Cadet School as a battalion commander.

In July 1924 he was posted to the Office of the Inner War Council (Ścisła Rada Wojenna). In May 1927 he began service in the Second Department of Polish General Staff (the intelligence section) as chief of the Information Department (Wydział Ewidencyjny). In January 1929 he was appointed chief of Section II. From March 1932 to September 1935 he commanded the 5th Legions' Infantry Regiment (5 Pułk Piechoty Legionów) in Wilno (it was part of the elite 1st Legions Infantry Division), then returned to again head Section II.[2]

As chief of the Second Department of Polish General Staff, Pełczyński, like his predecessor Colonel Tadeusz Schaetzel and like deputy chief Lt. Col. Józef Englicht, was very supportive of Marshal Józef Piłsudski's Promethean project, aimed at liberating the non-Russian peoples of the Soviet Union.[3]

Pełczyński was the longest-serving prewar chief of the Second Department (1929–32, and 1935 – January 1939). In January 1939 he was relieved of this post and placed in command of the 19th Infantry Division (19 Dywizja Piechoty), stationed in Wilno.[2] His tenure as chief of Section II had reportedly been ended by his wife Wanda's political activities against Marshal Edward Śmigły-Rydz and General Felicjan Sławoj-Składkowski.

World War II

 
Tadeusz Pełczyński, ca. 1945

Pełczyński may have made his greatest contribution to Allied victory in World War II well before the opening of hostilities, when he proposed giving Polish knowledge of the German Enigma machine to the French and British. According to Colonel Stefan Mayer, "From Gen. Pełczyński, now resident in Great Britain, I know that... he suggested [to the chief of the Polish General Staff, General Wacław Stachiewicz] that in case of [impending] war the Enigma secret... be used as our Polish contribution to the common... defence and divulged to our future allies. [Pełczyński] repeated [this] to Col. Józef Smoleński when in [the] first days of January 1939 [Smoleński] replaced [him] as... head of [Section II]. That was the basis of [Lt. Col. Langer]'s instructions... when he... represent[ed] the Polish side at the [Paris] conference... in January 1939 and then in Warsaw in July 1939.[4]

The Poles' gift, to their British and French allies, of Enigma decryption at Warsaw on 26 July 1939, just five weeks before the outbreak of the war, came not a moment too soon, as it laid the foundations for later British cryptographic breakthroughs that produced the Ultra intelligence that was a key factor during the war. Former Bletchley Park mathematician-cryptologist Gordon Welchman later wrote: "Ultra would never have gotten off the ground if we had not learned from the Poles, in the nick of time, the details both of the German military... Enigma machine, and of the operating procedures that were in use."[5]

After the outbreak of war, from 5 September 1939, Pełczyński commanded a force in the rears of the invading German Wehrmacht.

After the conclusion of the September Campaign, he went to Warsaw to take up underground work with the Service for Polish Victory (Służba Zwycięstwu Polski), then with the Union for Armed Resistance (Związek Walki Zbrojnej, or ZWZ) and the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, or AK).[2]

From July 1940 to April 1941 he commanded the Lublin ZWZ district. As the local Gestapo were closing in, he returned to Warsaw and accepted the post of chief of staff of ZWZ (July 1941). From July 1943, he was also Home Army deputy commander. In November 1943, he was promoted to major general (generał brygady).[2]

He commanded sabotage operations carried out by Kedyw units against the German war machine (including disruption of several rail lines). He took part in the decision to begin the Warsaw uprising.[2]

Five weeks into the Warsaw Uprising, on 4 September 1944, Pełczyński was gravely wounded when the PKO savings-bank building on Świętokrzyska Street was bombed, and as a result he could no longer carry on the duties of Home Army chief of staff.

After the suppression of the Uprising, Pełczyński was imprisoned by the Germans at the Langwasser camp, then at Colditz.[2]

Later years

Following his liberation by the Allies in 1945, he made his way to London in England.[2]

Decorations

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Edmund Charaszkiewicz, "Referat o zagadnieniu prometejskim" ("Report on the Promethean Question"), in Zbiór dokumentów ppłk. Edmunda Charaszkiewicza (A Collection of Documents by Lt. Col. Edmund Charaszkiewicz), p. 68.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Charaszkiewicz, p. 68.
  3. ^ Andrzej Grzywacz et al., introduction to Zbiór dokumentów ppłk. Edmunda Charaszkiewicza (A Collection of Documents by Lt. Col. Edmund Charaszkiewicz), p. 15.
  4. ^ Władysław Kozaczuk, Enigma, p. 64.
  5. ^ Gordon Welchman, The Hut Six Story, p. 289.

References

  • Edmund Charaszkiewicz, Zbiór dokumentów ppłk. Edmunda Charaszkiewicza (A Collection of Documents by Lt. Col. Edmund Charaszkiewicz), opracowanie, wstęp i przypisy (edited, with introduction and notes by) Andrzej Grzywacz, Marcin Kwiecień, Grzegorz Mazur, Kraków, Księgarnia Akademicka, 2000, ISBN 83-7188-449-4.
  • Edmund Charaszkiewicz, "Referat o zagadnieniu prometejskim" ("Report on the Promethean Question"), in Zbiór dokumentów ppłk. Edmunda Charaszkiewicza (A Collection of Documents by Lt. Col. Edmund Charaszkiewicz).
  • Andrzej Grzywacz et al., introduction to Zbiór dokumentów ppłk. Edmunda Charaszkiewicza (A Collection of Documents by Lt. Col. Edmund Charaszkiewicz), pp. 5–27.
  • Tadeusz Kryska-Karski and Stanisław Żurakowski, Generałowie Polski Niepodległej (The Generals of Independnent Poland), 2nd ed., Warsaw, Editions Spotkania, 1991, p. 144.
  • Wojciech Baliński, "Gen. bryg. Tadeusz Pełczyński (1892–1985). Przywracani pamięci" ("Major General Tadeusz Pełczyński (1892–1985)—Restored to Memory"), in Polska Zbrojna (Armed Poland).
  • Waldemar Strzałkowski, "Ci, co wierzyli w Polskę. Powrót prochów generała Pełczyńskiego" ("Those Who Believed in Poland: the Return of General Pełczyński's Ashes"), in Polska Zbrojna (Armed Poland), no. 215, 1995.
  • Zbigniew Mierzwiński, Generałowie II Rzeczypospolitej (The Generals of the Second Republic), Warsaw, Wydawnictwo Polonia, 1990, ISBN 83-7021-096-1 (83-7021-141-0), pp. 209–213.
  • Lista starszeństwa oficerów Legionów Polskich w dniu oddania Legionów Polskich Wojsku Polskiemu (12 kwietnia 1917) [Seniority List of Officers of the Polish Legions on the Day of the Polish Legions' Transfer to the Polish Army (12 April 1917)], Warsaw, 1917, p. 18.
  • Władysław Kozaczuk, Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher Was Broken, and How It Was Read by the Allies in World War II, edited and translated by Christopher Kasparek, Frederick, MD, University Publications of America, 1984, ISBN 0-89093-547-5.
  • Gordon Welchman, The Hut Six Story: Breaking the Enigma Codes, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1982.

External links

February 04, 2023
tadeusz, pełczyński, tadeusz, walenty, pełczyński, codenames, grzegorz, adam, wolf, robak, warsaw, february, 1892, january, 1985, london, polish, army, major, general, generał, brygady, intelligence, officer, chief, general, staff, section, military, intellige. Tadeusz Walenty Pelczynski codenames Grzegorz Adam Wolf Robak Warsaw 14 February 1892 3 January 1985 London was a Polish Army major general general brygady intelligence officer and chief of the General Staff s Section II the military intelligence section 1 Colonel Pulkownik Tadeusz Pelczynski ca 1938 During World War II he became chief of staff of the Home Army ZWZ Armia Krajowa July 1941 October 1944 and its deputy commander July 1943 October 1944 Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Marriage and family 3 World War I 4 Interwar period 5 World War II 6 Later years 7 Decorations 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 External linksEarly life and education EditTadeusz Pelczynski was the son of Ksawery Pelczynski a Sanniki sugar mill technician and Maria nee Liczbinska a teacher and was a great grandson of Michal Pelczynski a general in the Army of Congress Poland Pelczynski began school in Leczyca In 1905 he participated in a school strike connected with Polish efforts to win independence from the Russian Empire He continued his schooling in Warsaw at the Gen Pawel Chrzanowski Gymnasium In 1911 he began medical studies at Krakow University As a medical student he was a member of the patriotic gymnastic Sokol organisation and of the Zet Polish Youth Association Zwiazek Mlodziezy Polskiej Zet 2 He completed a military course conducted by Zygmunt Zielinski a future Polish Army general broni lieutenant general Marriage and family EditIn 1923 Pelczynski married Wanda Filipowska with whom he had a daughter Maria and a son Krzysztof Christopher born 1924 who died during the Warsaw Uprising on 17 August 1944 of wounds sustained on 1 August the first day of the Uprising World War I Edit Second lieutenant Podporucznik Tadeusz Pelczynski ca 1916 The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 found Pelczynski on vacation near Wloclawek After the area had been occupied by the Germans he was mobilised by them to work as a medic at a Russian prisoner of war camp After his release from German service in June 1915 he joined the Polish Legions 2 He served as an officer in the 6th Legions Infantry Regiment 6 Pulk Piechoty Legionow and commanded a platoon and a company In July 1917 following the Oath Crisis he was interned at a camp in Beniaminow 2 In March 1918 after release from internment he took up work at a social services agency Rada Glowna Opiekuncza while continuing his involvement with Zet Interwar period EditIn November 1918 Pelczynski was accepted into the Polish Army and placed in command of a company then a battalion of the 6th Legions Infantry Regiment 2 In March 1920 he was transferred to the Infantry Officer Cadet School Szkola Podchorazych Piechoty in Warsaw as a company commander then a battalion commander From September 1921 to September 1923 he attended the War College Wyzsza Szkola Wojenna in Warsaw 2 After graduating with a General Staff officer s diploma he returned to the Infantry Officer Cadet School as a battalion commander In July 1924 he was posted to the Office of the Inner War Council Scisla Rada Wojenna In May 1927 he began service in the Second Department of Polish General Staff the intelligence section as chief of the Information Department Wydzial Ewidencyjny In January 1929 he was appointed chief of Section II From March 1932 to September 1935 he commanded the 5th Legions Infantry Regiment 5 Pulk Piechoty Legionow in Wilno it was part of the elite 1st Legions Infantry Division then returned to again head Section II 2 As chief of the Second Department of Polish General Staff Pelczynski like his predecessor Colonel Tadeusz Schaetzel and like deputy chief Lt Col Jozef Englicht was very supportive of Marshal Jozef Pilsudski s Promethean project aimed at liberating the non Russian peoples of the Soviet Union 3 Pelczynski was the longest serving prewar chief of the Second Department 1929 32 and 1935 January 1939 In January 1939 he was relieved of this post and placed in command of the 19th Infantry Division 19 Dywizja Piechoty stationed in Wilno 2 His tenure as chief of Section II had reportedly been ended by his wife Wanda s political activities against Marshal Edward Smigly Rydz and General Felicjan Slawoj Skladkowski World War II Edit Tadeusz Pelczynski ca 1945 Pelczynski may have made his greatest contribution to Allied victory in World War II well before the opening of hostilities when he proposed giving Polish knowledge of the German Enigma machine to the French and British According to Colonel Stefan Mayer From Gen Pelczynski now resident in Great Britain I know that he suggested to the chief of the Polish General Staff General Waclaw Stachiewicz that in case of impending war the Enigma secret be used as our Polish contribution to the common defence and divulged to our future allies Pelczynski repeated this to Col Jozef Smolenski when in the first days of January 1939 Smolenski replaced him as head of Section II That was the basis of Lt Col Langer s instructions when he represent ed the Polish side at the Paris conference in January 1939 and then in Warsaw in July 1939 4 The Poles gift to their British and French allies of Enigma decryption at Warsaw on 26 July 1939 just five weeks before the outbreak of the war came not a moment too soon as it laid the foundations for later British cryptographic breakthroughs that produced the Ultra intelligence that was a key factor during the war Former Bletchley Park mathematician cryptologist Gordon Welchman later wrote Ultra would never have gotten off the ground if we had not learned from the Poles in the nick of time the details both of the German military Enigma machine and of the operating procedures that were in use 5 After the outbreak of war from 5 September 1939 Pelczynski commanded a force in the rears of the invading German Wehrmacht After the conclusion of the September Campaign he went to Warsaw to take up underground work with the Service for Polish Victory Sluzba Zwyciestwu Polski then with the Union for Armed Resistance Zwiazek Walki Zbrojnej or ZWZ and the Home Army Armia Krajowa or AK 2 From July 1940 to April 1941 he commanded the Lublin ZWZ district As the local Gestapo were closing in he returned to Warsaw and accepted the post of chief of staff of ZWZ July 1941 From July 1943 he was also Home Army deputy commander In November 1943 he was promoted to major general general brygady 2 He commanded sabotage operations carried out by Kedyw units against the German war machine including disruption of several rail lines He took part in the decision to begin the Warsaw uprising 2 Five weeks into the Warsaw Uprising on 4 September 1944 Pelczynski was gravely wounded when the PKO savings bank building on Swietokrzyska Street was bombed and as a result he could no longer carry on the duties of Home Army chief of staff After the suppression of the Uprising Pelczynski was imprisoned by the Germans at the Langwasser camp then at Colditz 2 Later years EditFollowing his liberation by the Allies in 1945 he made his way to London in England 2 Decorations EditGold Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari Cross of Independence Officer s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta Cross of Valor thrice Gold Cross of Merit Home Army CrossSee also EditBiuro Szyfrow Edmund Charaszkiewicz Prometheism List of PolesNotes Edit Edmund Charaszkiewicz Referat o zagadnieniu prometejskim Report on the Promethean Question in Zbior dokumentow pplk Edmunda Charaszkiewicza A Collection of Documents by Lt Col Edmund Charaszkiewicz p 68 a b c d e f g h i j k l Charaszkiewicz p 68 Andrzej Grzywacz et al introduction to Zbior dokumentow pplk Edmunda Charaszkiewicza A Collection of Documents by Lt Col Edmund Charaszkiewicz p 15 Wladyslaw Kozaczuk Enigma p 64 Gordon Welchman The Hut Six Story p 289 References EditEdmund Charaszkiewicz Zbior dokumentow pplk Edmunda Charaszkiewicza A Collection of Documents by Lt Col Edmund Charaszkiewicz opracowanie wstep i przypisy edited with introduction and notes by Andrzej Grzywacz Marcin Kwiecien Grzegorz Mazur Krakow Ksiegarnia Akademicka 2000 ISBN 83 7188 449 4 Edmund Charaszkiewicz Referat o zagadnieniu prometejskim Report on the Promethean Question in Zbior dokumentow pplk Edmunda Charaszkiewicza A Collection of Documents by Lt Col Edmund Charaszkiewicz Andrzej Grzywacz et al introduction to Zbior dokumentow pplk Edmunda Charaszkiewicza A Collection of Documents by Lt Col Edmund Charaszkiewicz pp 5 27 Tadeusz Kryska Karski and Stanislaw Zurakowski Generalowie Polski Niepodleglej The Generals of Independnent Poland 2nd ed Warsaw Editions Spotkania 1991 p 144 Wojciech Balinski Gen bryg Tadeusz Pelczynski 1892 1985 Przywracani pamieci Major General Tadeusz Pelczynski 1892 1985 Restored to Memory in Polska Zbrojna Armed Poland Waldemar Strzalkowski Ci co wierzyli w Polske Powrot prochow generala Pelczynskiego Those Who Believed in Poland the Return of General Pelczynski s Ashes in Polska Zbrojna Armed Poland no 215 1995 Zbigniew Mierzwinski Generalowie II Rzeczypospolitej The Generals of the Second Republic Warsaw Wydawnictwo Polonia 1990 ISBN 83 7021 096 1 83 7021 141 0 pp 209 213 Lista starszenstwa oficerow Legionow Polskich w dniu oddania Legionow Polskich Wojsku Polskiemu 12 kwietnia 1917 Seniority List of Officers of the Polish Legions on the Day of the Polish Legions Transfer to the Polish Army 12 April 1917 Warsaw 1917 p 18 Wladyslaw Kozaczuk Enigma How the German Machine Cipher Was Broken and How It Was Read by the Allies in World War II edited and translated by Christopher Kasparek Frederick MD University Publications of America 1984 ISBN 0 89093 547 5 Gordon Welchman The Hut Six Story Breaking the Enigma Codes New York McGraw Hill 1982 External links Edithttp www powstanie warszawskie 1944 ac pl biog pelczynski htm Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Tadeusz Pelczynski amp oldid 1060309850, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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