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