Wiktor Michałowski
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Wiktor Michałowski
Wiktor Michałowski (1895-1967) was a Polish Army officer who worked at the interbellum Polish Cipher Bureau's German section, ''B.S.-4''. Reportedly he participated, as a lieutenant, in the initial, unsuccessful Polish attempts to break the German Enigma cipher, along with then-Lieutenant Maksymilian Ciężki and civilian civil engineer Antoni Palluth. From 1936, Captain Michałowski was an Enigma-intelligence contact of Major Jan Leśniak of the Polish General Staff's German Office. After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, then-Major Michałowski made his way to France, where he became part of PC Bruno's Polish ''Team Z'', which broke German ciphers, including Enigma. After France's capitulation to Germany in June 1940, he served with his Polish cryptologist comrades at Polish intelligence ''Station 300'' (French codename: "Cadix") near Uzès in southern, Vichy France's "Free Zone." After Germany occupied Vichy France in November 1942, Major Michałowski escaped to ...
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Interbellum
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II (WWII). It was relatively short, yet featured many social, political, military, and economic changes throughout the world. Petroleum-based energy production and associated mechanisation led to the prosperous Roaring Twenties, a time of social and economic mobility for the middle class. Automobiles, electric lighting, radio, and more became common among populations in the first world. The era's indulgences were followed by the Great Depression, an unprecedented worldwide economic downturn that severely damaged many of the world's largest economies. Politically, the era coincided with the rise of communism, starting in Russia with the October Revolution and Russian Civil War, at the end of WWI, and ended with the rise of fascism, particularly ...
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Uzès
Uzès (; ) is a commune in the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Uzès lies about north-northeast of Nîmes, west of Avignon, and southeast of Alès. History Originally ''Ucetia'' or ''Eutica'' in Latin, Uzès was a small Gallo-Roman ''oppidum,'' or administrative settlement. The town lies at the source of the Alzon river, at Fontaine d'Eure, from where a Roman aqueduct was built in the first century AD, to supply water to the city of Nîmes, away. The most famous stretch of the aqueduct is the Pont du Gard, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which carried fresh water over splendid arches across the Gardon river. Jews were apparently settled there as early as the 5th century. Saint Ferréol, Bishop of Uzès, was said to have admitted them to his table. Complaints were made of him to King Childebert I for this issue, whereupon the bishop was required to turn against them, expelling those Jews from Uzès who would not convert to Christianity. Afte ...
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Polish Army Officers
Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwriters * Kevin Polish, an American Paralympian archer Polish may refer to: * Polishing, the process of creating a smooth and shiny surface by rubbing or chemical action ** French polishing, polishing wood to a high gloss finish * Nail polish * Shoe polish * Polish (screenwriting), improving a script in smaller ways than in a rewrite See also * * * Polishchuk (surname) * Polonaise (other) A polonaise ()) is a stately dance of Polish origin or a piece of music for this dance. Polonaise may also refer to: * Polonaises (Chopin), compositions by Frédéric Chopin ** Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53 (, ''Heroic Polonaise''; ) * Polon ... {{Disambiguation, surname Language and nationality disambiguation pages ...
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Cipher Bureau (Poland)
The Cipher Bureau ( Polish: ''Biuro Szyfrów'', ) was the interwar Polish General Staff's Second Department's unit charged with SIGINT and both cryptography (the ''use'' of ciphers and codes) and cryptanalysis (the ''study'' of ciphers and codes, for the purpose of "breaking" them). The precursor of the agency that would become the Cipher Bureau was created in May 1919, during the Polish-Soviet War (1919–1921), and played a vital role in securing Poland's survival and victory in that war. In mid-1931, the Cipher Bureau was formed by the merger of pre-existing agencies. In December 1932, the Bureau began breaking Germany's Enigma ciphers. Over the next seven years, Polish cryptologists overcame the growing structural and operating complexities of the plugboard-equipped Enigma. The Bureau also broke Soviet cryptography. Five weeks before the outbreak of World War II, on 25 July 1939, in Warsaw, the Polish Cipher Bureau revealed its Enigma-decryption techniques and equipment t ...
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Christopher Kasparek
Christopher Kasparek (born 1945) is a Scottish-born writer of Polish descent who has translated works by numerous Polish authors, including Ignacy Krasicki, Bolesław Prus, Florian Znaniecki, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Marian Rejewski, and Władysław Kozaczuk, as well as the Polish–Lithuanian Constitution of 3 May 1791. He has published papers of his own on the history of the World War II era; Enigma decryption; Bolesław Prus and his novel ''Pharaoh''; the theory and practice of translation; logology (science of science); multiple independent discovery; psychiatric nosology; and electronic health records. Life Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, to Józef and Stanisława (SylviaAcknowl ...
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Władysław Kozaczuk
Władysław Kozaczuk (23 December 1923 – 26 September 2003) was a Polish Army colonel and a military and intelligence historian. Life Born in the village of Babiki near Sokółka, Kozaczuk joined the army in 1944, during World War II, at Białystok. In 1945 he became a Polish Army second lieutenant, and spent the first five years of his service commanding operational units of the Internal Security Corps, fighting the Polish anticommunist underground and then the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. In 1950 he was transferred to the Internal Security Corps Staff in Warsaw. In 1954–55, following the Korean War, Kozaczuk carried out armistice-related duties in Korea. In 1955–58 he served in the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs ('). In 1957–58 he saw duty with the International Control Commission in Vietnam. In 1958–69 he served in Polish military counter-intelligence ('' Wojskowa Służba Wewnętrzna''). According to his family, he found conditions the ...
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Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European islands by area, largest European island, and the List of islands by area, ninth-largest island in the world. It is dominated by a maritime climate with narrow temperature differences between seasons. The island of Ireland, with an area 40 per cent that of Great Britain, is to the west – these islands, along with over List of islands of the British Isles, 1,000 smaller surrounding islands and named substantial rocks, comprise the British Isles archipelago. Connected to mainland Europe until 9,000 years ago by a land bridge now known as Doggerland, Great Britain has been inhabited by modern humans for around 30,000 years. In 2011, it had a population of about , making it the world's List of islands by population, third-most-populous islan ...
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Vichy France
Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the Battle of France, defeat against Germany. It was named after its seat of government, the city of Vichy. Officially independent, but with half of its Metropolitan France, territory occupied under the harsh terms of Armistice of 22 June 1940, the 1940 armistice with Nazi Germany, it adopted Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, a policy of collaboration. Though Paris was nominally its capital, the government established itself in Vichy in the unoccupied "free zone" (). The German military administration in occupied France during World War II, occupation of France by Germany at first affected only the northern and western portions of the country. In November 1942, the Allies Operation Torch, occupied French North Africa, and in response the Germa ...
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PC Bruno
''PC Bruno'' was a Polish– French–Spanish signals–intelligence station near Paris during World War II, from October 1939 until June 1940. Its function was decryption of cipher messages, most notably German messages enciphered on the Enigma machine. ''PC Bruno'' worked in close cooperation with Britain's decryption center at Bletchley Park. History In the early 1930s, French military intelligence acquired operation manuals and sample messages for the German Enigma cipher machine. French intelligence officer Captain Gustave Bertrand supplied this material to Poland's ''Biuro Szyfrów'' ("Cipher Bureau"), which used it as part of their successful effort to break Enigma. In July 1939 the ''Biuro Szyfrów'' gave French and British intelligence all their results. Both countries were expanding their decryption efforts in anticipation of war, and this continued after the war started in September 1939. When Poland was overrun by Germany and the Soviet Union, the key staff of ...
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Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west. The territory has a varied landscape, diverse ecosystems, and a temperate climate. Poland is composed of Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 million people, and the List of European countries by area, fifth largest EU country by area, covering . The capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city is Warsaw; other major cities include Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, and Gdańsk. Prehistory and protohistory of Poland, Prehistoric human activity on Polish soil dates to the Lower Paleolithic, with continuous settlement since the end of the Last Gla ...
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France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlantic, North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and List of islands of France, many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean, giving it Exclusive economic zone of France, one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Metropolitan France shares borders with Belgium and Luxembourg to the north; Germany to the northeast; Switzerland to the east; Italy and Monaco to the southeast; Andorra and Spain to the south; and a maritime border with the United Kingdom to the northwest. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea. Its Regions of France, eighteen integral regions—five of which are overseas—span a combined area of and hav ...
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Jan Leśniak
Jan Leśniak (1898 – 1976 in Vienna) was a Polish military intelligence officer in the Interbellum and World War II. Career Leśniak was from fall 1935 deputy director of the Polish General Staff's Germany, German Office and for a year, from April 1938, its director. Leśniak in 1976 told historian Richard Woytak that, beginning in fall 1935, he received intelligence whose source he had not been informed of and which in fact came from decryption of German Enigma machine, Enigma messages by the Polish General Staff's Biuro Szyfrów, Cipher Bureau. Like British and American officers who would during World War II receive Ultra (cryptography), Ultra intelligence gleaned from Enigma decrypts, then-Major Leśniak began questioning its reliability. "Some of the information was so important, about [German] mobilizations and so on, that... I questioned [it] in '36 [and was told its source] shortly afterwards." Leśniak was apparently initiated into the secret by Colonel Stefan May ...
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