Operation Most III
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Operation Most III (Polish for Bridge III) or Operation Wildhorn III (in British documents) was a World War II operation in which Poland's Armia Krajowa provided the Allies with crucial intelligence on the German V-2 rocket.
From November 1943, the Polish intelligence of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) obtained some parts of the V-2 rocket, tested in central Poland. Their number increased from April 1944, when numerous test rockets were falling near Sarnaki village, in the vicinity of the Bug river, south of Siemiatycze. Parts of the rocket were secured by the AK, then analyzed in its secret laboratories in Warsaw. The analysis was performed by professor Janusz Groszkowski (radio and guidance), Marceli Struszyński (fuel), Antoni Kocjan, and others.
On the night of July 25 and July 26, 1944, some 50 kg most important parts of the captured V-2, as well as the final report, analyses, sketches and photos, were transported to Brindisi by a RAF plane Douglas Dakota, that landed secretly in Poland, on a meadow between Jadowniki Mokre and Wał-Ruda villages, near Żabno, at the Dunajec and Wisła rivers junction. It was the third operation of the British plane landing in an occupied Poland, hence its name. Pilots were George Culliford, a New Zealander, and Kazimierz Szrajer, a Pole. The plane flew from Brindisi. It also transported four special opperations officers ("cichociemni") to Poland and took five passengers back, among them Tomasz Arciszewski, and Jerzy Chmielewski (one of most active Intelligence agents, working upon V-1 and V-2). An improvised airfield, protected by the Home Army and Bataliony Chłopskie partisans, had a codename "Motyl" (Butterfly). The operation was extremely dangerous, due to German presence in nearby villages. There appeared problems with take-off, because a landing gear sunk in a swampy meadow. The crew was just about to abandon and destroy the plane, but finally, with a help of partisans, the plane managed to take off at the third attempt. In late July 1944, V-2 parts were delivered to London.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Ordway, Frederick I., III. "The Rocket Team". Apogee Books Space Series 36 (pgs 158, 173)
- (Polish) Michał Wojewódzki, Akcja V-1, V-2, Warsaw 1984, ISBN 83-211-0521-1
- McGovern, James. "Crossbow and Overcast". W. Morrow: New York, 1964. (pg 71)
