Wanda Gertz

Infobox Person
name = Wanda Gertz


caption = ps. "Lena"
birth_date = birth date|1896|4|13|mf=y
dead=dead
birth_place = Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
death_date = death date and age|1958|11|10|1896|4|13|mf=y
death_place = London, Great Britain

Wanda Gertz codename: Lena, Kazik (b. April 13, 1896 in Warsaw - November 10, 1958 in London, Great Britain) was a Polish major and soldier of the Armia Krajowa.

Wanda was a soldier in Piłsudski's Polish Legions from 1914 until 1916, and later in the Polish Army, where she was commander of a Volunteer Women's Battalion in Wilno.

After the start of the Second World War, she participated in the defense of Warsaw during the Polish Defensive War of 1939. In 1939 she became a member of the SZP (Polish Victory Service), then of the ZWZ-AK.

In 1942-1944 she organised and was commander of the "DYSK" (an initialism for "Dywersja i Sabotaż Kobiet" or "Women's sabotage unit"). After the Warsaw Uprising until 1945, she was a prisoner of war in the POW camps at Lamsdorf, Muhlberg, Altenburg, Molsdorf and Blankenheim. After the liberation by the US Army, she joined the Polish I Corps in the West and stayed there until her death.

She died on November 10, 1958 in London and her ashes were transported to Poland and buried in Warsaw.

Works

* "W pierwszym pułku artylerii - Służba Ojczyźnie", Warsaw, 1929

Awards

* Virtuti Militari, V class
* Polonia Restituta
* Krzyż Walecznych, five times
* Krzyż Niepodległości, with Swords
* Krzyż Zasługi z Mieczami, Golden with Swords

External links

* [http://www.polishresistance-ak.org/12%20Article.htm M. Ney Krwawicz, Women Soldiers of the Polish Home Army]