Last Sunday afternoon I found myself in the middle of a field in the middle of rural Poland in the mid-afternoon sun. Want to know why? Let me explain…
The Armia Krajowa (Home Army) was responsible for many vitally important acts of espionage and intelligence gathering during WW2. This particular story concerns the hugely important role they played in transferring intelligence and materiel concerning the V2 rocket. One night in May 1944 a V2 landed at Sarnacki on the River Bug and failed to explode. The AK hid the rocket from the Germans and then dismantled it, logged some 25,000 parts and produced detailed reports on all aspects of the weapon. Operation ‘Treczi Most’ was the recovery of the V2 parts, reports and key AK personnel from a site near Tarnow during the night of 25-26 July 1944.
That night, a Dakota of No 267 Sqn left Brindisi in Italy to fly to a landing strip near the village of Wał Ruda prepared and secured by the AK. Impressively, the aircraft landed on time, dropped off a valuable cargo of equipment and agents and prepared to take off back to Italy with another prized shipment. The operation was supposed to last some 8 minutes. Unfortunately the aircraft became bogged down in the marshy field. Believing that the brakes may have seized, the crew severed the hydraulic brakes only to find the aircraft would not move. Running out of time and in fear of being discovered by the 100 or so German troops that were only 1 km away from the site, the crew finally managed to free the aircraft, and take off with a minute to spare some 1 hr and 20 minutes later. However, the lack of hydraulic fluid meant that they could not raise the undercarriage – and would not be able to get back to Italy. Amazingly, they managed to fill the reservoirs with any fluid they could muster – and just cleared the Tatry mountains in time…and got back to Brindisi!
Every year the people of Wał Ruda and the surrounding ‘Gmina’ mark the anniversary of this intrepid story. And this year was no exception, other than that it was the first time the Embassy had been represented at the celebrations. Guest of Honour was Zdzisław Baszak – who at 95 years old is still as sparky as ever. He was the second in Command of the AK unit that prepared and organised the landing site and told all how nervous he was that night. The day before German aircraft had positioned themselves on the very site – only to depart soon after. And he told how 400 local volunteers and townspeople supported the entire Operation and ensured its success and importantly – that the Germans were kept away.
And so that is why I found myself last Sunday in the very spot where all this happened 71 years ago thinking…… ‘what a fantastic story and what a great privilege to be able to commemorate and celebrate such an important piece of Polish and Allied history’.