Stefan Rowecki
Stefan Paweł Rowecki
An underground commander who grasped Tempest's political conditions
When the Home Army was established in 1942, he became commander of the unified underground force.
Stefan Rowecki was a Polish professional officer and the first commander of the Home Army, who helped turn scattered resistance groups under German occupation into a unified underground force. He developed plans for a rising under the contradictory conditions of German retreat and an advancing Soviet army, and advanced the general-uprising concept after the Home Army was formed in 1942. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1943, he rejected German offers of anti-Soviet cooperation and was murdered at Sachsenhausen shortly after the Warsaw Uprising began.
Career timeline
- 1914–1917Officer in the 1st and 5th Infantry Regiments of the Polish Legions in World War I
- 1919–1920Polish Army staff officer in the Polish–Soviet War
- 1923–1926Head of the scientific section at the Military Institute and founder-editor of Przegląd Wojskowy
- 1930–1935Commander of the 55th Poznań Infantry Regiment
- 1939–1940Commander of the Warsaw Armoured Motorized Brigade and senior leader of SZP-ZWZ
- 1940–1942Commander of the Union of Armed Struggle, preparing its transformation into the Home Army
- 1942–1943First commander of the Home Army, developing plans for a general rising and Operation Tempest
- 1943–1944Arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Sachsenhausen