Ronald Clarence Jeffery (6 September 1917 – 24 September 2002), also Józef Kawala, Stanisław Jasiński, Sporn and Botkin, was an English soldier and an agent of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and

Polish intelligence This article covers the history of Polish Intelligence services dating back to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Commonwealth Though the first official Polish government service entrusted with espionage, intelligence and counter-intelligence w ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Jeffery was described by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

as "one of the foxiest devils in Europe".

Biography

Ron Jeffery was born on 6 September 1917 in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, to an English mother and a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

West Coast miner who settled in England after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Jeffery served as a

Lance Corporal Lance corporal is a military rank, used by many armed forces worldwide, and also by some police forces and other uniformed organisations. It is below the rank of corporal, and is typically the lowest non-commissioned officer (NCO), usually equi ...

in the 6th West Kent BattalionRon Jeffery
''Red Runs the Vistula''
(1985), Nevron Associates Publ., Manurewa, Auckland, and was captured during the

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

by the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

in 1940 near

Doullens Doullens (; pcd, Dourlin; former nl, Dorland) is a commune in the Somme department, Hauts-de-France, France. Its inhabitants are called ''Doullennais'' and ''Doullennaises''. Geography Doullens is situated on the N25 road, in the northern ...

. He was transported to the German

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

camp at

Szubin Szubin (german: Schubin) is a town in Nakło County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, located southwest of Bydgoszcz. It has a population of around 9,300. It is located in the ethnocultural region of Pałuki. History The first record o ...

occupied Poland ' (Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2 ...

. Later, Jeffery was moved to

Ostrzeszów Ostrzeszów (german: Schildberg, 1943-45: Schildberg im Wartheland) is a town in central Poland, in Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the capital of Ostrzeszów County. The population in 2006 was 14,536 inhabitants. The town is situated aroun ...

, renamed by Germans to Schildberg, and from there, travelled with other prisoners of war to the camp in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...

, named Litzmannstadt under occupation. He escaped twice from two camps and finally joined up with

Polish underground The Polish Underground State ( pl, Polskie Państwo Podziemne, also known as the Polish Secret State) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Gover ...

members in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. Jeffery spoke three languages;

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, French and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. Soon after his capture, he began to develop a basic understanding of the

Polish language Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...

, which made him very useful to Polish underground fighters. Under forged documents issued under false Polish and German names, Jeffery began to serve as a courier in the Polish underground as a part of several missions to occupied cities such as

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. He was also a member of selective

Kedyw ''Kedyw'' (, partial acronym of ''Kierownictwo Dywersji'' ("Directorate of Diversion") was a Polish World War II Home Army unit that conducted active and passive sabotage, propaganda and armed operations against Nazi German forces and collaborato ...

groups (''patrole''), which carried out executions of Nazi collaborators and traitors sentenced by special

Underground court Underground Court ('' pl, Sądy podziemne'') were World War II underground courts in occupied Poland, organized by the Polish government in exile, Polish Government-in-Exile. The courts determined punishments for Polish people, citizens of Polan ...

s. On 5 May 1943 while undercover in Warsaw Jeffery married a Polish woman, Marysia Kaziu, daughter of a Warsaw doctor. They had two children, Patrycja, known as Punia, born in Warsaw in December 1943, and Martin, born in London in September 1946. Marysia and Patrycja rejoined Jeffery after the war in September 1945: Jeffery believed that she was questioned by

Kim Philby Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963 he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which had divulged British secr ...

on her arrival at Croydon airport, and that Philby had also been one of the two agents who had questioned him soon after his arrival in London in 1944. In late 1943, Jeffery came into contact with

Boris Smyslovsky Boris Alexeyevich Smyslovsky, pseudonyms (Hauptmann) von Regenau and (later) Arthur Holmston (3 December 1897 – 5 September 1988), was a Russian-Finnish general, émigré and anti-communist. He commanded the pro-Axis collaborationist Fi ...

, a German colonel of White Russian origins. Smyslovsky wished to induce the western allies to join a Nazi alliance against the Soviet Union, and was prepared to use Jeffery as a go-between. Smyslovsky arranged for Jeffery to be secretly smuggled via Berlin and Oslo to Stockholm in Sweden, from where he was able to fly to the UK in early 1944. He brought with him reports from the Polish underground to the British government: these included details of the

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...

for which at that time (and until 1990) the Russians placed the blame on the Nazis. His efforts were at first highly regarded but he was subsequently treated with suspicion by many of the British authorities. He was sent back to his previous regiment's former Kent headquarters in Maidstone, where he was obliged to perform only menial duties. Despite his requests, he was not permitted to return to active service on continental Europe in the final months of the war. A disillusioned Jeffery later attributed his treatment specifically to the actions of

and other high-ranking Russian agents entrenched in the British system. After the war, Jeffery migrated from England to New Zealand where he ran a business. There, he compiled his memoirs, ''Red Runs the

Vistula The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...

'', published in 1985 in New Zealand and in Poland in 2006. His story was also the inspiration for the documentary movie ''The Betrayal'' by the New Zealand producer John Anderson in 1996.

Decorations

* Jeffery was awarded the

Armia Krajowa Cross The Cross of the Home Army ( pl, Krzyż Armii Krajowej) is a Polish military decoration that was introduced by General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski on 1 August 1966 to commemorate the efforts of the soldiers of the Polish Secret State between 1939 and ...

. * In 1943, Home Army General

Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski Generał Tadeusz Komorowski (1 June 1895 – 24 August 1966), better known by the name Bór-Komorowski (after one of his wartime code-names: ''Bór'' – "The Forest") was a Polish military leader. He was appointed commander in chief a day bef ...

personally awarded Jeffery the Polish Cross of Valour.

Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Jan Nowak-Jeziorański (; 2 October 1914 – 20 January 2005) was a Polish journalist, writer, politician, social worker and patriot. He served during the Second World War as one of the most notable resistance fighters of the Home Army. He is b ...

in foreword of Polish edition book of Ron Jeffery - "Wisła jak krew czerwona", Wydawnictwo Bellona 2008, * In 1995, the

President of Poland The president of Poland ( pl, Prezydent RP), officially the president of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), is the head of state of Poland. Their rights and obligations are determined in the Constitution of Polan ...

Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the President of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election, Wałęsa became the first democratica ...

, awarded him the Commander of the Order or Merit, one of the highest honours the Polish Government can bestow on a foreigner.

References

External links

Secret service agent and his story
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffery, Ron 1917 births 2002 deaths People from Kent British Army personnel of World War II Recipients of the Armia Krajowa Cross Recipients of the Cross of Valour (Poland) Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland World War II spies for the United Kingdom Unsuccessful candidates in the 1987 New Zealand general election Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment soldiers British World War II prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Escapees from German detention Home Army members Military personnel from Kent

Biography

Decorations

References

Further reading

External links