Jan Piwnik
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| This article is part of the series: Polish Secret State  History of Poland |
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| Jan Piwnik | |
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 Ponury (centre) and his colleagues in their camp at Wykus |
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| Nickname | Ponury |
| Place of birth | Janowice, Poland |
| Place of death | Jewłasze, USSR |
| Years of service | 1939 |
| Rank | Major |
| Awards |   |
Jan Piwnik (1912-1944; nom de guerre Ponury, Donat) was a Polish World War II soldier, a cichociemny and a notable leader of the Home Army in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains area.
[edit] Biography
Jan Piwnik was born August 12, 1912 in the village of Janowice near Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. In 1933 he graduated from a reserve NCO artillery school in Włodzimierz Wołyński. In 1935 he joined the Polish police, where he served as an officer. Mobilized in 1939, in the Polish Defensive War he commanded a motorized unit of the police. After the Soviet aggression, on September 23 he and his unit crossed the Hungarian border, where they were interned.
Piwnik managed to escape from the internment camp and in November of 1939 he arrived to Paris, where he reported himself to the Polish Government in Exile. He joined the Polish Army recreated in France at that time and was assigned to the 4th Rifle Brigade (en cadre). After evacuation to Great Britain, following the French defeat, he joined the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade under Gen. Sosabowski.
There Piwnik was informed of creation of the Cichociemni formation, which he joined. After receiving extensive training, he was transported to Poland on November 7, 1941. There he joined the Home Army and served at various posts. In the summer of 1942 he was assigned to head one of the Wachlarz units operating from Równe in Eastern Poland. Arrested by the Gestapo, he managed to escape from the German prison and reached Warsaw. There he was ordered to prepare a mission of extraction of his fellow Wachlarz members from the prison in Pińsk. On January 18, 1943, he successfully stormed the German prison, liberated all the prisoners and hostages and transported them safely to Warsaw.
For his action he was promoted to ensign and in March was assigned to the Radom-Kielce Home Army Area as the commanding officer of all KeDyw forces dislocated there. As the hilly and densely forested terrain was ideal for partisan warfare, Piwnik started to organise a large partisan unit out of many smaller, previously-existing groups. His unit, based in the forests around Wykus, received the name of Home Army Partisan Group "Ponury". One of the most successful units in the area, the Group successfully disrupted German transports and constantly harassed German garrisons. However, in the effect of the German counter-attack his unit suffered heavy losses and was forced to move eastwards, towards the forests near Jeleniów.
In December of 1943 Piwnik was dismissed from command of the partisan units and in February of the following year he was assigned to the Nowogródek Home Army Area, where he formed a small partisan unit. After the start of the Operation Tempest, his unit was reformed into the VII battalion of the 77th Home Army Infantry Regiment and took part in many successful actions behind the German lines. He was killed in action in a successful attack against a German troops near the village of Jewłasze near Vilnius on June 16, 1944. Jan Piwnik was posthumously promoted to the rank of Major.
For his actions, he was twice awarded the Krzyż Walecznych and the IV Class Virtuti Militari medal. After the war, his life became part of popular culture of the Świętokrzyskie area. In July of 1988 his body was exhumed and transferred to a crypt in the Cystertian monastery in Wąchock.
[edit] Trivia
Barbara Piwnik, a notable Polish judge and former Minister of Justice, is Jan Piwnik's niece.
