Kedyw
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Kedyw (short for Kierownictwo Dywersji, Polish Sabotage Command) was a Polish World War II Armia Krajowa unit specializing in active and passive sabotage, propaganda and armed actions against the German forces and collaborators.
Kedyw was created on January 22, 1943, from two already-existing Armia Krajowa units: the Związek Odwetu and Wachlarz. Initially the units were small and town-based. Gradually, more units were created and some of them moved to the forrested areas of Poland to start partisan warfare. Kedyw organized arms and munitions factories, military schools, intelligence, counter-intelligence, field hospitals and communications net.
Most of the members of Kedyw were young boy-scouts from the Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego and its' war-time organization Szare Szeregi. Many of the officers were cichociemni, special agents trained in United Kingdom and parachuted over occupied Poland. Selected groups (patrole) of Kedyw carried over various tasks in all parts of occupied Poland. Among the most notable were:
- sabbotage of railroad net, bridges and roads
- burning the trains and fuel depots
- destruction or damage of arms factories working for the Wehrmacht
- liberation of several hundred prisoners and hostages
- executions of collaborators and traitors sentenced by an underground court
- one of such actions was aimed at Igo Sym, a Polish actor informing the Germans of the Home Army movements
- executions of the most brutal and cruel German members of occupational troops, Gestapo, SS and police
- among those executed were SS and police general Franz Kutschera, killed on February 2, 1944, and SS-Hauptscharfuehrer August Kretschmann, commander of Gęsiówka concentration camp
- Operation Belt
Warsaw Uprising
Before the Warsaw Uprising most of the Kedyw groups in Warsaw area were transferred to the city itself and grouped in infantry batallions. Most notable of them were Zośka, Parasol and Miotła. After the fights broke out, most of the Kedyw forces joined the Radosław group. Kedyw units were one of the most successful in the Uprising. The young boy scouts not only had more experience than many of the regular soldiers, but also managed to gather more supplies and arms.
Kedyw units first took part in seizing control over the Wola area. After 10 days of heavy fights in the Powązki Cemetery in which all of German attacks were pushed back due to heavy casualties, the units withdrew overnight to the city centre and Starówka (the old town), where they regrouped and defended their areas until the capitulation of the Uprising in October.
Commanders
See also:
Categories: Polish history | World War II resistance movements | Military of Poland