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Kazimierz Iranek-Osmecki
Kazimierz Wincenty Iranek-Osmecki ('' noms de guerre'' Kazimierz Jarecki, Włodzimierz Ronczewski, Makary, Antoni Heller, Pstrąg; 5 September 1897 – 22 May 1984, London) was an infantry colonel (''pułkownik'') in the Polish Army, and colonel in Poland's Home Army (''AK''). He fought in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, and was responsible for negotiations between the Home Army and the German Wehrmacht. Iranek-Osmecki commanded the Home Army General Staff's Section II (Intelligence and Counterintelligence), and was a ''Cichociemny''. He discovered the German V-1 and V-2 testing facility at Peenemünde. Life Born on September 5, 1897, in the village of Pstrągowa, Austrian Galicia, he attended the Second High School in Rzeszów, joining the Riflemen's Association in 1913. In December 1916, he became a soldier of the Second Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment of the Polish Legions in World War I. After the Oath crisis of 1917, Iranek-Osmecki was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noms De Guerre
A ''nom de guerre'' (, 'war name') is a pseudonym chosen by someone to use when they are involved in a particular activity, especially fighting in a war. In ''ancien régime'' France it would be adopted by each new recruit (or assigned to them by the captain of their company) as they enlisted in the French army. These pseudonyms had an official character and were the predecessor of identification numbers: soldiers were identified by their first names, their family names, and their ''noms de guerre'' (e. g. ''Jean Amarault dit Lafidélité''). These pseudonyms were usually related to the soldier's place of origin (e. g. ''Jean Deslandes dit Champigny'', for a soldier coming from a town named Champigny), or to a particular physical or personal trait (e. g. ''Antoine Bonnet dit Prettaboire'', for a soldier ''prêt à boire'', ready to drink). In 1716, a ''nom de guerre'' was mandatory for every soldier; officers did not adopt ''noms de guerre'' as they considered them derogatory. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virtuti Militari
The War Order of Virtuti Militari (Latin: ''"For Military Virtue"'', ) is Poland's highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war. It was established in 1792 by the last King of Poland Stanislaus II of Poland, Stanislaus II Augustus and is the oldest Military awards and decorations, military decoration in the world still in use. It is awarded in five classes either for personal heroism or, to commanders, for leadership. Some of the heroic actions recognized by an award of the Virtuti Militari are equivalent to those meriting the Commonwealth of Nations, British Victoria Cross and the United States, American Medal of Honor. Soon after its introduction, however, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was destroyed in the partitions of Poland (1795), and the partitioning powers abolished the decoration and prohibited its wearing. Since then, the award has been reintroduced, renamed and banned several times, with its fate closely reflecting the Hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polish Military Organisation
The Polish Military Organisation, PMO (, POW) was a secret military organization that was formed during World War I (1914–1918). Józef Piłsudski founded the group in August 1914. It adopted the name ''POW'' in November 1914 and aimed to gather intelligence and to sabotage the enemies of the Polish people. Piłsudski used it to act independently from his cautious Austro-Hungarian supporters, and it became an important, if somewhat lesser known, counterpart to the Polish Legions. Its targets included the Russian Empire in the early phase of the war and the German Empire later. Its membership rose from a few hundred in 1914 to over 30,000 in 1918. History Intelligence and training The Polish Military Organization (PMO) can be traced to formations of August 1914 or even earlier, but it was officially founded in November 1914 as a merger of two previously existing youth para-military organisations: the Polish Rifle Squads and the Riflemen's Association. Active in the Russian-he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kraków
, officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 (2023), with approximately 8 million additional people living within a radius. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596, and has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life. Cited as one of Europe's most beautiful cities, its Kraków Old Town, Old Town was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, one of the world's first sites granted the status. The city began as a Hamlet (place), hamlet on Wawel Hill and was a busy trading centre of Central Europe in 985. In 1038, it became the seat of King of Poland, Polish monarchs from the Piast dynasty, and subsequently served as the centre of administration under Jagiellonian dynasty, Jagiellonian kings and of the Polish–Lithuan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army, also known as the Imperial and Royal Army,; was the principal ground force of Austria-Hungary from 1867 to 1918. It consisted of three organisations: the Common Army (, recruited from all parts of Austria-Hungary), the Imperial-Royal Landwehr (recruited from Cisleithania) and the Royal Hungarian Honvéd (recruited from Transleithania). In the wake of fighting between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary and the subsequent two decades of uneasy co-existence, Hungarian troops served either in ethnically mixed units or were stationed away from Hungarian regions. With the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the Austro-Hungarian Army was brought into being. It existed until the disestablishment of Austria-Hungary in 1918 following the end of World War I. Common Army units were generally poorly trained and had very limited access to new equipment, because the governments of the Austrian and Hungarian parts of the empire often preferred to ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oath Crisis
The Oath crisis (; German language, German: ''Eidkrise'') was a World War I political conflict between the Imperial German Army command and the Józef Piłsudski-led Polish Legions in World War I, Polish Legions. Initially supporting the Central Powers against Imperial Russia, Piłsudski hoped for the defeat of one of the Partitions of Poland, partitioning powers—Russia—with the help of the other two partitioning states, Austria-Hungary and Germany. However, after the Russian defeat in 1917 it became clear that the Central Powers were in no position to guarantee the independence of Poland. Despite the Act of November 5th of 1916 and the creation of Kingdom of Poland (1917–1918), Kingdom of Poland, it was apparent that the newly created state would be little more than a puppet buffer-state for Germany, a part of its Mitteleuropa plan. At this point, Piłsudski decided to switch allegiances to gain the support of the Triple Entente, Entente, particularly France and the United K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riflemen's Association
The Polish Riflemen's Association, known as ''Związek Strzelecki'' (in the plural, ''Związki Strzeleckie''), was an organization formed in great numbers prior to World War I. One of the better known associations, ''Strzelec'' (Rifleman), was a Polish paramilitary cultural and educational organization created in 1910 in Lwów as a legal front of the '' Związek Walki Czynnej'' (''ZWC'', Union of Active Struggle). It was somewhat reinstated in Poland in 1991, after the fall of communism. An important part of the Association's mission was training young Poles in military skills. Before World War I, the Riflemen's Association provided military training to over 8,000 people, and its trainees subsequently formed an important part of the Polish Legions in World War I. Prominent members and leaders of the Riflemen’s Association included Józef Piłsudski, Henryk Dobrzański, Kazimierz Sosnkowski, Edward Rydz-Śmigły, Władysław Sikorski, Marian Kukiel, Walery Sławek, Julia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rzeszów
Rzeszów ( , ) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów is the capital of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship and the county seat, seat of Rzeszów County. The history of Rzeszów dates back to the Middle Ages. It received city rights and privileges from King Casimir III the Great in 1354. Local trade routes connecting Europe with the Middle East and the Ottoman Empire resulted in the city's early prosperity and development. In the 16th century, Rzeszów had a connection with Gdańsk and the Baltic Sea. It also experienced growth in commerce and craftsmanship, especially under local Szlachta, rulers and noblemen. Following the Partitions of Poland, Rzeszów was annexed by the Austrian Empire and did not regain its position until it Second Polish Republic, returned to Poland after World War I. Rzeszów has found its place in the group of the most elite cities in Poland, with a growing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Austrian Galicia
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also known as Austrian Galicia or colloquially Austrian Poland, was a constituent possession of the Habsburg monarchy in the historical region of Galicia in Eastern Europe. The crown land was established in 1772. The lands were annexed from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as part of the First Partition of Poland. In 1804 it became a crown land of the newly proclaimed Austrian Empire. From 1867 it was a crown land within the Cisleithanian or Austrian half of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. It maintained a degree of provincial autonomy. Its status remained unchanged until the dissolution of the monarchy in 1918. The domain was initially carved in 1772 from the southwestern part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. During the following period, several territorial changes occurred. In 1795 the Habsburg monarchy participated in the Third Partition of Poland and annexed additional Polish-held territory, that was renamed as '' We ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peenemünde
Peenemünde (, ) is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in north-eastern Germany. It is part of the ''Amt (country subdivision), Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The community is known for the Peenemünde Army Research Center, where the world's first functional large-scale liquid-propellant rocket, the V-2 rocket, V-2, was developed. Geography The village with its seaport is located on the westernmost extremity of a long sand-spit, where the Peene empties into the Baltic Sea, in the northwestern part of Usedom Island. To the southeast it borders on the sea resort of Karlshagen. Peenemünde harbour can be reached by ferry boat across the Peene from Kröslin, liners also run along the Baltic coast to Rügen Island. The local railway station is the northern terminus of the ''Usedomer Bäderbahn'' line to Zinnowitz. Air service for the village is available at the Peenemünde Airfield. Hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
V-2 Rocket
The V2 (), with the technical name ''Aggregat (rocket family), Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range missile guidance, guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Nazi Germany as a "V-weapons, vengeance weapon" and assigned to attack Allies of World War II, Allied cities as retaliation for the Strategic bombing during World War II#The British later in the war, Allied bombings of German cities. The rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line (edge of space) with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944. Research of military use of long-range rockets began when the graduate studies of Wernher von Braun were noticed by the German Army. A series of prototypes culminated in the A4, which went to war as the . Beginning in September 1944, more than 3,000 were launched by the Wehrmacht against Allied targets, first London and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
V-1 (flying Bomb)
The V-1 flying bomb ( "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () name was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was ( hellhound). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and (maybug). The V-1 was the first of the ( V-weapons) deployed for the terror bombing of London. It was developed at Peenemünde Army Research Center in 1939 by the at the beginning of the Second World War, and during initial development was known by the codename "Cherry Stone". Due to its limited range, the thousands of V-1 missiles launched into England were fired from launch sites along the French (Pas-de-Calais) and Dutch coasts or by modified Heinkel He 111 aircraft. The Wehrmacht first launched the V-1s against London on 13 June 1944, one week after (and prompted by) Operation Overlord, the Allied landings in France. At times more than one hundred V-1s a day were fired at south-east England, 9,521 in total, decreasing in n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
