Mieczysław Zygfryd Słowikowski

Mieczysław Zygfryd Słowikowski (* February 25, 1896 Jazgarzew in Warsaw, † July 29, 1989 in London ) nom de guerre Rygor was a Polish officer and head of the Polish secret service in North Africa.

Life

Słowikowski came in 1918 for the Polish Army and was used from 1919 to 1921 in the Polish-Soviet War. In 1925 he completed a higher education in the Polish Army and worked at the Polish Ministry of Defense. Four years he served in the General Staff of Józef Piłsudski. In 1937 he became a diplomat at the Polish Consulate in Kiev in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from his office district was South Russia. During the invasion of Poland Słowikowski was accredited there as Secretary, on 24 August 1939, he heard on the radio the announcement of the Hitler -Stalin Pact.

After the German Wehrmacht and the Red Army occupied Poland in September 1939, Słowikowski fled to southern France where he worked as an officer in the intelligence service of the Polish government in exile in London. After the surrender of Philippe Petain in June 1940, Słowikowski organized with Major Wincenty Zarembski ( Tudor ) in Toulouse a network for evacuation of Polish soldiers from France. In July 1941 Słowikowski was tasked with the development and management of the Polish exile news service in French North Africa named Agency Africa.

The Agency Africa with headquarters in Nouvel Hôtel du Palmier 6, rue Arago in Algiers, dealt with the trade of oats and news, including Major Maksymilian Ciezki aka Mr. Miller operated the transmitter Mathew. Other stations were operated by Major Wincenty Zarembski Tudor and Captain Gwindo Langer aka Luc Whirlwind. The U.S. government held diplomatic relations with the Vichy regime with Robert Murphy and Somerville Pinkney Tuck upright and delivered goods to North Africa, the use of twelve additional Vice - Consuls observed ( the so-called " 12 Apostles "). Słowikowski reported that the delivered fuel was consumed by the German Afrika Korps. The network, which Słowikowski had installed in North Africa reported extensively about the military strength and the locations of the French army in North Africa, which was under the pro-German Vichy regime. The information provided were instrumental for Operation Torch. Robert Murphy later stated that Słowikowskis information of the actual motive for the allied invasion of North Africa have been.

The Polish government in exile decorated Major Słowikowski in August 1943 with the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland in gold with swords. On 28 March 1944, the American General Jacob L. Devers Słowikowski decorated with the U.S. Legion of Merit. The British government awarded him the Order of the British Empire. In September 1944 Słowikowski traveled to the UK where he headed the Polish infantry training center in Crieff until 1947. Later he worked in the UK as a metal worker.