Two years of experience

The Soviet command faced a dilemma: to attack or to assume defence? All the options and every scenario had been thoroughly examined. It was the collective wisdom, the creative work of experienced, seasoned during two years of the war military commanders and staffs, from the front level to the Supreme Command, that helped to adopt the only proper solution. While analyzing intelligence data on the enemy's preparations, fronts, General Staff and the General Headquarters gradually came to the idea of switching to a deliberate defense. That issue had been discussed many times in late March and early April at the State Defence Committee and the General Headquarters. We discussed the issue thoroughly and comprehensively by telephone with Deputy Supreme Commander G. K. Zhukov, who was on the Kursk Salient, at the headquarters of the Voronezh Front. As a result, on April 8th, G. K. Zhukov sent to the Supreme Commander a detailed report assessing the situation, and outlining considerations for the plan of action in the Kursk Salient. More >>>

September uprising

While the Red Army was marching through the north-east Bulgaria to the cheers of the local population, 300km away, in Bulgaria's capital, more important events took place. The government of Konstantin Muravyev, trying to save its control over the country, severed diplomatic relations with Germany and asked the Soviet Union for cease-fire. Yet, those decisions were already hopelessly late. The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers' Party (communists) and the General Revolutionary Staff of the People's Revolutionary Army of Liberation (NOVA) deemed that moment best for the final armed uprising. It took place on 9 September 1944 at 2:00 in Sofia. More >>>

Strike southward

The utter rout of the American battleships in Pearl Harbor furnished Japanese forces' superiority over the joint naval forces of the United States, Great Britain, Holland and Australia in the Pacific Ocean, and enabled the offensive in the south, namely the Philippines, Malaya and, eventually, Dutch East Indies. Therefore, within few hours after the strike on Pearl Harbor, Japanese ships showed up off Malaya and the Philippines, while the fleet coming back from Pearl Harbor attacked American bases on Guam and Wake. Those two islands make somewhat a bridge between Hawaii and the Philippines, and therefore their seizure would break the natural link between the Pacific Fleet and the Asian Fleet. More >>>

Intelligence and counter-intelligence

Miscellaneous intelligence activities, conducted already in the peacetime, are organically linked with the armed struggle, and constitute an important factor in the history of the mankind, and especially its military history. Simultaneously they are a subject very difficult to research, because even after decades it is not always possible to access once secret archives, as well as other trustworthy sources of information. True, there is a plethora of studies and reminiscences published in the post-Second World War era, but way too often they miss proportions and perspective, while sensational stories, real or just imaginary exploits of various "archspies" and "superagents", obscure the meaningful matters. Meanwhile, the cardinal problem of espionage is better described by its other name - intelligence. Collecting and processing information about the enemy - probable in the peacetime and real during the war - is the basic and superior task of the intelligence services around the globe. More >>>

"The Big Three" leave Teheran

The morning of December 2 was dull and grey. It had suddenly turned cold. Gusts of wind were swirling the yellow leaves round the park. At the entrance to the main building of the Soviet Embassy stood three military jeeps. American detectives were scurrying around, their jackets bulging with the automatic pistols hidden under their arms. Everything was ready for the departure of the President of the United States.

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Poland fights on

The first military campaign of the Second World War, lost in September 1939, and quick disintegration of the Polish state brought, apart from destruction and the loss of human lives, a complete surprise to the Polish society, which felt betrayed by the pre-war political régime (so-called sanacja). In that climate the Poles with understanding and hopes received news about creation of the Polish government in exile in France, led by a renown political opponent of the sanacja régime, General Władysław Sikorski, as well as the Polish Army in France under his command. Gradually, the hopes in quick victory of the Anglo-Franco-Polish forces over the Nazi Germany revived. During the first months of the occupation a popular saying "the higher is the sun - the closer is Sikorski", spread from mouth to mouth, expressed the moods and hopes of the Polish society. More >>>

Operation "Pekin"

On Wednesday 30 August 1939 the commander-in-chief of the Polish Navy, Rear-Admiral Józef Unrug, received an unequivocal signal from Warsaw: "Execute Pekin". That signal meant sending three most worthy Polish destroyers - Błyskawica, Grom and Burza - to Great Britain. All three of them had already been readied in the roadsteads of the navy port in Gdynia, but when the signal was received at 12:50, probably none of their crewmen had any inkling what would be the consequences of that order. Nobody probably thought that it meant that three ships and half a thousand sailors would leave Poland at the most critical point of the Germano-Polish political relations. For six months then they had been preparing for defence of the Polish territorial waters, and now they had to abandon them. Only Wicher would be left at the disposal of the Coastal Sea Defence Command.  More >>>