Researcher Tomasz Muskus found the spy base had been positioned inside a the distinguished English boys’ school St. Paul’s in Hammersmith, north London.
Tomasz Muskus
The secret WWII headquarters of Poland’s intelligence and counterintelligence providers in London have been uncovered by a Polish historical past fanatic working in the UK.
Researcher Tomasz Muskus found the spy base had been positioned inside a prestigious English boys’ school in Hammersmith, north London, after his curiosity was piqued by a documentary about Poland’s WWII army spy boss Colonel Stanisław Gano.
As the chief of the Second Department of the Supreme Commander’s Staff in London in 1941, Poland’s WWII army spy boss Colonel Stanisław Gano is reported to have created the perfect Allied intelligence community not solely in occupied Europe, but in addition in the United States, South America and North Africa.
As the chief of the Second Department of the Supreme Commander’s Staff in London in 1941, Gano is reported to have created the perfect Allied intelligence community not solely in occupied Europe, but in addition in the United States, South America and North Africa.
His group of Polish intelligence was deemed so fashionable that it was later tailored by different intelligence businesses.
The documentary confirmed a re-enactment of Polish troopers burning secret recordsdata which in 1945 British intelligence had demanded be handed over.
The documentary about WWII secrets and techniques confirmed a re-enactment of Polish troopers burning secret recordsdata which in 1945 British intelligence had demanded be handed over.
Fearing the paperwork would fall into the palms of the Russians, Gano as a substitute received his males to destroy all recordsdata with particulars of brokers and operations.
The documentary by historian Bogusław Wołoszański additionally talked about that the occasions had taken place on the web site of what was then the distinguished boys’ school St. Pauls.
The school constructing was demolished in 1968 and solely the headmaster’s home and the gatekeeper’s lodge nonetheless exist. The headmaster’s previous home is now a resort.
Muskus instructed TFN: “Since the school constructing has not existed for over 50 years, it was forgotten about.
“Only the headmaster’s home and the gatekeeper’s lodge from the previous school nonetheless exist.
“The English forgot that it was an necessary place for them, and of course no-one was in discovering the precise location of the Polish intelligence headquarters.”
Allied army planners on the school.
Dr Andrzej Suchcitz from the Sikorski Institute in London instructed TFN: “The Polish Intelligence Service had been based mostly at St. Paul’s School in Hammersmith in the direction of the tip of the conflict and simply after, earlier than that they had been on the Rubens Hotel.
“They left simply after the tip of the conflict when the boys got here again and the school reopened.
“The British authorities requisitioned buildings for the conflict effort, and in this case half of the St. Paul’s School was assigned to the Poles.”
Tomasz Muskus mentioned: “The English forgot that it was an necessary place for them, and of course no-one was in discovering the precise location of the Polish intelligence headquarters.”
During World War II, the schoolboys had been evacuated from the constructing, which dated again to 1884, and it was taken over by the military, changing into the headquarters of the twenty first Army Group, whose commander was Marshal Bernard Montgomery, who was a former pupil of the school.
In addition to housing Polish intelligence, the constructing was additionally used to attract up plans for Allied operations on the Western Front, together with the touchdown in Normandy on June 6, 1944.
The ultimate invasion plan was offered to American General Dwight Eisenhower and different Allied commanders in the presence of British King George VI and Prime Minister Winston Churchill on May 15, 1944.
The buildings had been returned to St Paul’s in September 1945. Schoolboys pictured eradicating D-Day planning maps from classroom partitions.
The school constructing was demolished in 1968 when it moved and since then reminiscence of the Polish spy base has been misplaced.
The headmaster’s home is now a resort and inside a TV performs a movie about how D-Day was deliberate there.
Part of the previous school web site is now a park. John Bridges, who heads the Friends of St. Paul’s Park Society, instructed PAP that for years, because the demolition of the school constructing, the world had been fully uncared for and even native residents had been unaware of the historic occasions that came about there.
Muskus says that different operations had been additionally deliberate in the constructing, together with Operation Market Garden in occupied Holland, which aimed to seize bridges over the Rhine River.
Although a plaque on a bench commemorates the roll of the school throughout WWII, there is no such thing as a point out of Poland’s Intelligence Services.
“General Stanisław Sosabowski, commander of the first Independent Parachute Brigade, which took half in the touchdown, most likely additionally participated in the conferences,” he mentioned.
However, because the Market Garden operation, in contrast to the touchdown in Normandy, ended in a heavy defeat for the Allies, this side was omitted on the plaques in the previous school.
The school buildings had been returned to St Paul’s in September 1945.
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WWII,
London,
Winston Churchill,
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intelligence service,
Tomasz Muskus,
Stanisław Gano,
Hammersmith,
Bogusław Wołoszański,
Andrzej Suchcitz,
Sikorski Institute,
Bernard Montgomery,
Dwight Eisenhower,
King George VI,
Operation Market Garden,
Stanisław Sosabowski
