Stanisław Tatar

Stanisław Tatar ("nom de guerre Tabor"; 1896-1980) was a Polish general and one of the commanders of the Polish resistance during the World War II.

Biography

Stanisław Tatar was born October 2, 1896. During the Great War In 1915 he was conscripted to the tsarist Russian Army. In 1917 he was transferred to the 1st Polish Corps formed in Russia. Together with the remnants of his unit in November of 1918 he joined the renascent Polish Army.

During the interbellum he remained in the military. Having finished numerous officer courses, in 1934 he became one of the tutors of artillery tactics at the Higher War School ("Wyższa Szkoła Wojenna") in Warsaw. He held that post until 1938.

During the Invasion of Poland he served at various posts, including the command over a military detachment named after him. After the Polish defeat he evaded being captured by the Germans and Soviets and joined the newly-formed Związek Walki Zbrojnej (ZWZ), the biggest resistance organisation, that eventually transformed itself into the Home Army. From 1940 to 1943 he served as the head of the 3rd detachment (Operational) of the general staff. After 1943 he also served as the deputy chief of staff of the entire Home Army. Among his most notable achievements was creation of the plans for Operation Tempest.

In 1944, shortly before the Warsaw Uprising, he was transferred to London, where he assumed the post of deputy commander in chief for home matters. After the end of World War II in 1945 he became the commander of artillery of the 1st Polish Corps in the United Kingdom. After it was disbanded in 1947 he settled in UK. Unlike most of his fellow generals of the Polish Army, he was not deprived of the Polish citizenship by the Soviet-backed communist authorities of Poland and in 1949 he was allowed to return to his country.

Upon his arrival to Warsaw he was arrested by the Soviet NKVD and imprisoned. As a victim of the Generals' Trial (show trial) of 1951 he was sentenced to life imprisonment. After Stalin's death and the start of a period of liberalisation in Poland in 1956 he was liberated and rehabilitated. Tatar died in 1980.

ee also

* History of Poland (1939-1945)
* Home Army
* Operation Tempest