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.
Also known as: Stefan Grot-Rowecki
Activities and affiliations
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
Related historical events
- 1914–1918First World WarPolish Legions infantry officerHe served in the 1st and 5th Infantry Regiments of the Polish Legions in the First World War.
- 1919–1921The Soviet-Polish WarPolish Army staff officerHe served as a Polish Army staff officer in the Polish-Soviet War in 1919–1920.
- 1944.08–10Warsaw UprisingArchitect of Operation TempestHe conceived Operation Tempest, weighing German withdrawal and Soviet entry, and understood its political aims.
Operation Tempest and the Response to the Soviet Advance
In February 1943, as the Red Army appeared increasingly likely to enter Poland while German forces remained strong, Rowecki revised the plan for a national rising against the German occupation into three stages. The first was an armed rising in the east, centered on Lwów and Vilnius, ahead of the Soviet advance; it would be followed by armed struggle between the Curzon Line and the Vistula, and then a national rising in the rest of Poland. The plan addressed both resistance to German occupation and the question of Poland's political sovereignty after the war. After Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations broke down over inquiries into the Katyn massacre, Rowecki considered that the advancing Soviet army might be not a liberating force but “our allies' ally.” The government-in-exile instructed the Home Army to remain underground and await further orders if Soviet forces entered Poland before relations were restored, but the Home Army commander in the country adopted a different approach. The final Operation Tempest plan, drafted at the end of November 1943, called for tactical cooperation with the advancing Red Army while underground Polish civil authorities took power in territory under Allied control. This approach combined military cooperation against Germany with a claim to independent Polish civil authority.