„The Polish contribution in the overall intelligence IN WW2 is enormous. I don’t want to say we are the best intelligence service. However, we belonged to the world’s top intelligence services. We were present in all parts of the world, even in the Philippines. We introduced an immeasurably large contribution into the common capital. It has not yielded any profits, but we are not to blame. Let history point to those who are guilty,” wrote Lt-Col. Witold Lagenfeld in his note regarding the role of Polish intelligence before and during the World War II.

 

Witold Lagenfeld was a Polish Army intelligence officer. Before the outbreak of WW2, he worked for the Second Department of the Polish General Staff responsible for military intelligence, counterintelligence, cryptography, analysis of foreign military forces, and foreign affairs of the Polish Army. He continued his duty in intelligence following the 1939 defeat of Poland, as an officer of the Polish Armed Forces in the West. As a major figure in the Polish Army intelligence, he took part in the preparations for the 1944 Allied landing in Normandy.

 

„Before the war Polish intelligence, as the intelligence of a poor country, in recruiting personnel looked for quality, not quantity. Polish intelligence ranked very high on the international market. British air raids during the war relied on the work of the II Bureau; the information regarding V1 and V2 – was a result of Polish work, and so was Bismark,”. Writing about “Bismark” the author refers to the German battleship Bismarck which was located and later sunk because of the contribution of the Polish intelligence station “M” in Madrid.

 

In the following paragraphs Lagenfeld describes the activity of the Polish intelligence following the 1940 fall of France. „Those few experienced fellows at HQ were overburdened and looked like ghosts. There was no way they could take a vacation. The intelligence was run through a radio communication centre, 10 large correspondence stations and several monitoring stations. Communication was maintained through couriers and airplanes. One of the intelligence stations had more than 1400 members in the network”.

 

Here is another interesting paragraph: „The invasion in Africa was prepared by us. The clandestine influence (disinformation) regarding the Japanese was conducted for four full years. The Chief of the American Staff told gen. Sikorski that he didn’t want even five Polish divisions, he wanted Polish intelligence”. Writing about Africa the author had in mind the 1942 “Operation Torch”, the Allied landing in French North Africa.

 

The last paragraph gives the reader a summary of the Polish intelligence work in WW2. “After a period of time, thanks to the untiring efforts on the parts of certain units of the II Bureau PGS, Polish intelligence began to rise and eventually joined the group of the world’s leading intelligence services where it remained until the end of its existence, that is until the end of WW II”.

 

After the war, Witold Lagenfeld was deprived of Polish citizenship by the communist authorities in Poland. It was restored in 1971, three years after his death. He died in Yonkers, a suburb of New York City. The notes were published in a book called “Polish-British Intelligence Cooperation During World War II” which is the result of the work of the Polish-British Historical Commission. Its primary task was to identify and evaluate surviving documents concerning the activities of Polish intelligence during WW2. As part of the Commission's work, Polish researchers found many previously unknown files.

 

 

Source: Institute of National Remembrance Facebook post

​

​