Kazimierz Leski

Kazimierz Leski, "nom de guerre" Bradl (June 21, 1912 – May 27, 2000), was a Polish engineer, co-designer of Polish submarines "ORP Sęp" and "ORP Orzeł", a fighter pilot, and an officer of the World War II Home Army's intelligence and counter-intelligence. He is credited, during World War II, with at least 25 journeys across German-held Europe, usually in the uniform of a Wehrmacht Major General.

After the war, he was imprisoned by the communist authorities of the People's Republic of Poland. He spent seven years on death row before being rehabilitated in 1956. Thereafter he resumed his career as an engineer.

Life

Early life

Kazimierz Leski was born June 21, 1912, in Warsaw. His father, Major Juliusz Leski, had been an engineer and a pioneer of Poland's arms industry. Among other things, he founded the Pocisk munitions works in Warsaw, the explosives factories at Rembertów and Boryszew, and the predecessor of the PZL works at Okęcie.] following the Polish-Bolshevik War. However, he fell out of grace after the May Coup d'Etat in Poland, when he remained loyal to the government. Because of that Kazimierz had to work as a railway worker in order to be able to pay for his studies at the Wawelberg and Rotwand College in Warsaw. He was also able to get a simple job in the foundry of the Pocisk munitions works. To be able to study professional books, he learned English, Russian and German, abilities that proved invaluable in his later life. Early in his life he also learned French.

Engineer

Immediately upon graduating in 1936, he was offered a job at the Nederlandsche Vereenigde Scheepsbouw Bureaux design bureau (NVSB) in The Hague. The company was the leading design bureau in the Netherlands, working for all the major naval shipyards in the country. Initially working as a draughtsman, Leski learned the Dutch language, which allowed him to rise quickly through the ranks of the design bureau. His career in the Dutch shipbuilding industry was significantly sped up by the fact that Holland won a contract for construction of two modern Orzeł class submarines for the Polish Navy. He started additional studies at the Maritime Faculty of the Delft University of Technology and became one of the heads of the Submarine Division of the NVSB, responsible for the comparison of the projects with the supplied machinery. After he patented a new mounting for the ballast tank funnels, he was promoted and became an independent specialist. Soon afterwards Leski became the head designer for the Orzeł class submarines: the future ORP Orzeł and ORP Sęp, as well as the deputy to the lead constructor Niemeier.

After the works on the ship series were complete, Leski decided to return to Poland, where he joined the Polish Army and graduated from his third school : the NCO Aviation School in Dęblin.

War begins

Mobilized prior to the 1939 German invasion of Poland, he joined the Polish Air Force. On September 17, 1939, his Lublin R-XIII F plane was shot down by the Soviets, and Leski was badly injured. Soon after, he was taken prisoner of war by Soviet soldiers but managed to escape and reach Lwów. From there he crossed the new Soviet-German "border of peace" and in October 1939 moved to Warsaw, where he joined an underground organization, "Muszkieterowie" ("The Musketeers").

The organization, which was later integrated into the Home Army ("Armia Krajowa"), was an "en cadre" military organization primarily focused on intelligence. Thus Leski — still suffering from wounds received in September 1939 and unfit for front-line service in the Forest Units — became a leading intelligence officer with the Musketeers and later with the Home Army.

His most important achievements included a complete list of German military units, their insignia, numbers and dispositions. He and his cell also prepared detailed reports on the logistics and transport of German units bound for the Eastern Front, and on the state of bridges, railways and roads in German-held Europe. Leski's unit also began developing a communications network spanning German-occupied Europe from Poland to Portugal, France and finally the Polish Government in Exile in the United Kingdom.

Disguises

In 1941 Leski made his first trip as a courier to France. In his first trip, he posed as a Lieutenant of the Wehrmacht. However, he decided to "promote himself" to the rank of "Generalmajor" for all other trips in order to be able to travel first class, as his wounds made it impossible for him to travel in crowded, third-class railway carspl icon cite journal | author =ELEM | year =2000 | month =October | title =Kazimierz Leski | journal =Gazeta Wyborcza | issue =255 | pages = | url =http://szukaj.gazeta.pl/archiwum/1,0,1257893.html?kdl=20001031GW&wyr=%2522Kazimierz%2BLeski%2522%2B%2B%2B | accessdate =2006-10-20 ] . On another occasion he visited the field staff of Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt. Apart from his service in the intelligence and counter-intelligence, he also took over a cell focused on smuggling information and people in and out of German prisons in occupied Poland, notably the infamous Pawiakpl icon cite book | author =Regina Domańska | coauthors = | title =Pawiak - kaźń i heroizm (Pawiak: slaughter and heroism) | year =1988 | editor = | pages =138 | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Książka i Wiedza | location =Warsaw | id =ISBN 83-05-11813-4 | url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN8305118134&id=oXsNAAAAIAAJ&q=Kazimierz+Leski&dq=Kazimierz+Leski&pgis=1 | format = | accessdate = ] .

Warsaw Uprising

At the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, Kazimierz Leski was not commissioned. However, with a group of volunteers he formed an infantry battalion, "Miłosz", and became commander of its first company, "Bradl".Named after Leski's nom-de-guerre. Throughout the war, he used several dozen false names and pseudonyms] The unit fought with distinction in the area of Triple Cross Square in the Warsaw City Center. For his gallantry, Leski was promoted to captain and awarded several decorations, including the Silver Virtuti Militari, the Gold and Silver Crosses of Merit with Swords, and three Crosses of Valor.

After the Uprising's capitulation, Leski managed to escape from a column of prisoners and, pretending to be a civilian, returned to the underground.pl icon cite web | author= | title=Kazimierz Leski: honorowy obywatel Warszawy | publisher=City of Warsaw | year=2005 | work=Official website of the city of Warsaw | url=http://www.um.warszawa.pl/v_syrenka/miasto/obywatele-19.htm | accessdate=2006-10-19 ] He became commander of the Home Army Western Area and later the chief of the Armed Forces Delegation for Poland.

Communist prison

After the communist takeover of Poland he gradually dismantled his underground net and moved to Gdańsk. A member of the Wolność i Niezawisłość anti-communist resistance, under the false name "Leon Juchniewicz" he became the first managing director of the demolished Gdańsk Shipyard. Among his tasks was the reconstruction of the shipyard which had been devastated by Allied air raids and by withdrawing Germans. In August 1945 he received the highest civil award of the communist regime , but later the same day was arrested by the secret police, who had discovered his true identity. Charged of attempting to overthrow the regime, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The sentence was later changed to six years. However, in 1951 he was not released. Instead, he was charged with cooperating with the German occupation forces and held in prison, where he was brutally tortured and held in solitary confinement for several years.

Rehabilitation

Finally, after the deaths of Stalin in 1953 and Bierut in 1956, Kazimierz Leski was set free and rehabilitated soon afterwards. Despite that, he could not find a job, as the new communist authorities of Poland still viewed former soldiers of the Home Army as suspect. Initially a clerk in the PWT publishing house, he had to give up work in the shipbuilding industry. Finally he became a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Awarded a Doctorate, for political reasons he was prevented from earning the rank of professor for his work on computer analysis of natural language codes. Despite that, he continued his scientific career, published 7 books and more than 150 other works. He also patented a number of inventions.

Largely unknown to the wider public, in 1989 – after the victory of Solidarity and fall of the communist regime in Poland – he published his memoirs, which immediately became a best-seller. For the book he received a number of prizes, among them the Polish PEN Club Prize and the Polish Writers' Society in Exile Award. He died on May 27 2000, and was interred with military honors at Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery.

ee also

*Jan Karski
*Jan Nowak-Jeziorański
*Krystyna Skarbek (was in contact with the "Musketeers" organization)
*List of Poles

Notes

References

* cite book | author = | coauthors = | title =Życie niewłaściwie urozmaicone: wspomnienia oficera wywiadu i kontrwywiadu AK (Life Improperly Diversified: Memoirs of an officer of the intelligence and counter-intelligence of the Home Army) | year =1989 | editor = | pages =600 | publisher =Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN | location =Warsaw | id =ISBN 83-01-08351-4
* cite web | author=Cpt. Stanisław Wielebski | title=Kazimierz Leski | publisher= | year=2003 | work=ORP Orzeł | url=http://www.mdk2.lublin.pl/ORPOrzel/KLeski.html | accessdate=2006-10-19
* cite journal | author = | year =2001 | month =July | title =Kazimierz Leski | journal =Gazeta Wyborcza | issue =04/07/2001 | pages =11 | url =http://szukaj.gazeta.pl/archiwum/1,0,1470572.html?kdl=20010704GDG&wyr=%2522Kazimierz%2BLeski%2522%2B%2B%2B | accessdate =2006-10-20

Persondata
NAME= Leski, Kazimierz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Bradl
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Polish pilot, officer, spy, engineer and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH=June 21 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH=Warsaw, Poland
DATE OF DEATH=May 27 2000
PLACE OF DEATH=Warsaw, Poland