War Begins
Mobilized prior to the 1939 German invasion of Poland, he joined the Polish Air Force. On September 17, 1939, his Lublin R-XIII F plane was shot down by the Soviets, and Leski was badly injured. Soon after, he was taken prisoner of war by Soviet soldiers but managed to escape and reach Lwów. From there he crossed the new Soviet-German "border of peace" and in October 1939 moved to Warsaw, where he joined an underground organization, Muszkieterowie (the "Musketeers").
The organization, which was later integrated into the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), was an en cadre military organization primarily focused on intelligence. Thus Leski– still suffering from wounds received in September 1939 and unfit for front-line service in the Forest Units– became a leading intelligence officer with the Musketeers and later with the Home Army.
His most important achievements included a complete list of German military units, their insignia, numbers and dispositions. He and his cell also prepared detailed reports on the logistics and transport of German units bound for the Eastern Front, and on the state of bridges, railways and roads in German-held Europe. Leski's unit also began developing a communications network spanning German-occupied Europe from Poland to Portugal, France and finally the Polish Government in Exile in the United Kingdom.
Read more about this topic: Kazimierz Leski
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