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Roman Garby-Czerniawski (6 February 1910 – 26 April 1985) was a
Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mi ...
captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
and Allied
double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organ ...
during World War II who used the code name Brutus.


Early life

Czerniawski graduated in the late 1930s from the Wyższa Szkoła Wojenna (WSWoj), a military academy at
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...
in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
.


World War II

As a former officer of the
Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mi ...
, he volunteered to create an Allied
espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...
network in France in 1940. He set it up with
Mathilde Carré Mathilde Carré (30 June 1908 –30 May 2007), née Mathilde Lucie Bélard and known as "La Chatte", was a French Resistance agent during World War II who betrayed and turned double agent. Early life Carré was born in Le Creusot, Saône-et ...
who recruited the agents since some French declined to work for a Pole. The network was codenamed '' Interallie''. Czerniawski was evacuated to Britain to be examined by Polish intelligence, and met General
Władysław Sikorski Władysław Eugeniusz Sikorski (; 20 May 18814 July 1943) was a Poles, Polish military and political leader. Prior to the First World War, Sikorski established and participated in several underground organizations that promoted the cause for P ...
and was presented with the
Virtuti Militari The War Order of Virtuti Militari (Latin: ''"For Military Virtue"'', pl, Order Wojenny Virtuti Militari) is Poland's highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war. It was created in 1792 by Polish King Sta ...
. He was returned to France by parachute in November 1941. On 17 November 1941, the
Abwehr The ''Abwehr'' ( German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the '' Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. ...
group of
Hugo Bleicher Hugo Bleicher (1899–1982) was a senior non-commissioned officer of Nazi Germany's Abwehr who worked against French Resistance in German-occupied France. Early life and World War I Hugo Ernst Bleicher was born in Tettnang on 9 August 1899. He ...
arrested Czerniawski and then Carré. The network had been uncovered because of the lack of proper operational security within the organisation, and many other members of the Interallie were picked up after Carré had agreed to co-operate with the Germans in return for her life. Czerniawski and others were imprisoned. After having been offered safety by the Germans, he was sent to England as an agent, but he made himself known to the British authorities. He was debriefed by the British
MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
and Polish authorities about the security lapses of his organisation in France. He was then employed as a
double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organ ...
by
MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Go ...
and used the codename "Brutus" (after
Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC), often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Serv ...
,
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
's friend and assassin) under their
Double Cross System The Double-Cross System or XX System was a World War II counter-espionage and deception operation of the British Security Service (a civilian organisation usually referred to by its cover title MI5). Nazi agents in Britain – real and false – ...
. His strong anti-Soviet attitude, manifested in his denouncing in a pamphlet that he authored of a Polish officer who attended an official reception at the Soviet embassy, led to doubts about his suitability. For that act of mutiny against the Polish authorities, he was arrested and imprisoned. MI5 produced a cover story that he had been detained in a sweep of "anti-Bolshevik" Poles. A Polish court-martial found him guilty of gross insubordination, but to keep the matter quiet, it sentenced him to only two months imprisonment. After his release from prison, Czerniawski was unrepentant to his handlers. MI5 doubted his reliability and thought him to be fickle and liable to meddle, and MI5 also harboured concerns that the Germans would be suspicious about his arrest and swift release. He was no longer permitted to operate the radio himself, and he was used only for the distribution of low-grade information ("chicken feed"). Initial German suspicions faded, and in December 1943, the British decided to use Brutus for distribution of important deception information. Therefore, he played a major part in the Allied deception prior to the D-Day landings in
Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
in 1944 as one of the primary agents passing false information as part of Fortitude South, the deception plan aimed at convincing Germany that the Allies would invade Europe in the
Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, "strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...
area across the English Channel from southeast England.


Postwar

After the war, he stayed in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Nor ...
and wrote ''The Big Network'', which was published in 1961. Czerniawski died in London on 26 April 1985 at the age of 75. He was buried in
Newark-on-Trent Newark-on-Trent or Newark () is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yo ...
in the area of Newark Cemetery for
RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
burials.


References


Sources

* Andrzej Pepłoński, ''Wywiad Polskich Sił Zbrojnych na Zachodzie, 1939–1945'' (Polish Armed Forces Intelligence in the West, 1939–1945),
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...
, 1995. * Stanisław Żochowski, ''Wywiad polski we Francji 1940–1945'' (Polish Intelligence in France, 1940–1945),
Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of ...
, 1994, . *
John Cecil Masterman Sir John Cecil Masterman OBE (12 January 1891 – 6 June 1977) was a noted academic, sportsman and author. His highest-profile role was as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, but he was also well known as chairman of the Twenty Co ...
, ''The Double-Cross System in the War of 1939–1945'',
Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universit ...
, 1972. * *


External links


Biografia na stronie www.polishairforce.pl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Czerniawski, Roman 1910 births 1985 deaths Polish Army officers Polish spies Double agents Double-Cross System World War II spies for the United Kingdom World War II spies for Poland Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom