Wawelberg Group - The Group

The Group

The Group's deputy commander was Lt. Edmund Charaszkiewicz. Puszczyński recruited, from among his soldiers, two officer cadets (podchorąży), the brothers Tadeusz and Janusz Meissner. All four men would later be decorated with the Virtuti Militari, 5th class, on June 27, 1922. Puszczyński divided his men into four teams — A, G, U and N. These designations came from the initial letters of the Polish phrase Akcja Główna Unieruchomienia Niemców ("Main Operation to Immobilize the Germans"). All the agents were armed, wore civilian clothes, and were provided with money.

The men of the Wawelberg Group knew that, to overcome German military superiority in the area, they had to cut the rail and telegraph links between Upper Silesia and Germany. Therefore the teams were deployed about the western part of Upper Silesia, ready to attack. Team G, 13 men commanded by Lt. Włodzimierz Dąbrowski, was deployed near Gogolin and ordered to watch the rail line between Krapkowice and Prudnik. Team U, 10 men commanded by Lt. Edmund Charaszkiewicz, was deployed on the border between Głubczyce and Prudnik counties, to keep an eye on the rail lines Głogówek – Racławice Śląskie – Prudnik, and Głubczyce– Racławice Śląskie.

Puszczyński — "Wawelberg" — himself, with a small team (including former German Army sapper Wiktor Wiechaczek and miner and explosives expert Herman Jurzyca), deployed in the deep rear of the German positions, at the village of Szczepanowice (German: Sczepanowitz), some five kilometers west of Opole (since 1936, it is a district of Opole). Their task was to blow up the crucial 200-meter-long Oder River rail bridge.