An ace of intelligence who, disguised as a Wehrmacht general, stole the secret plans of the Nazis. Pilot, engineer, inventor, polyglot. Spy. One of the best in his profession. Kazimierz Leski's biography is so colorful and moving that it could form the basis of one of the novels from the James Bond series of adventures. The Polish super soldier was a master of camouflage who, in the name of the nation's freedom, was not afraid to risk his own life. Many times.
Master of the various fields
A Renaissance man living in the 20th century. Many talents. In Leski's biography, we can find information that a native of Warsaw, born in June 1912, was able to find himself in almost any situation. When he was in his twenties, he started working in the Dutch shipbuilding office in The Hague. Initially, he worked as an ordinary draftsman, and with time he graduated from the prestigious Polytechnic University in Delft, the oldest and largest in the country. Before that, he was trained at the Higher School of Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering in Warsaw.
The mathematical mind - a logical way of reasoning - allowed Leski not only to master the secrets of military engineering, but also to quickly understand the grammatical principles of foreign languages. The future national hero was fluent in Dutch, German, French, Russian and, of course, English. He could get along with almost everyone, virtually anywhere. Today he could be considered a citizen of the world. He could also convince. And manipulate. He was a born agent after all.
Leski was characterized by both intelligence and engineering creativity - he belonged to the team supervising the work on the modern submarines ORP Sęp and ORP Orzeł - fortitude, but also sports talents. He practiced boxing and skiing, he was passionate about cycling. He needed endurance for the intelligence operations in which Bradl specialized over the years. This operating pseudonym was most often used by Kazimierz Leski.
The story of Leski still arouses a lot of emotions and is an inspiration
War chameleon
Bradl's sporting and linguistic talents would also include incredible acting skills . Kazimierz Leski was able to change identities depending on the situation. A war veteran, a distinguished participant in the Warsaw Uprising, knew how to play the role of ordinary inhabitants of various countries - often transforming into a railway worker to facilitate transport - but also to convey the character of high-ranking representatives of the enemy troops with full conviction. One of the false identities of the Polish ace was the German general Julius von Hallman.
It was as Hallman that Leski managed to steal the plans of the Nazi fortifications known as the Atlantic Wall . The system of huge fortifications, stretching for almost 4,000 kilometers along the western shores of Europe, was to guarantee the German army an effective defense against a possible Allied invasion. Thanks to the daring actions of Briel, who won the Nazis' trust as an authority in the field of engineering and construction, the plans could be used under the offensive of the allies of occupied Poland. Who knows how, for example, Operation Overlord would have fared without Leski's help, and whether the already extremely difficult landing in Normandy would have been successful ...
Leski could be called an agent with almost a hundred faces. Bradl, Leon Juchniewicz, Karol Jasiński, Juliusz Kozłowski, the aforementioned general Julius von Hallman, but also general Karl Leopold Jansen, Jules Lefebre ... number "37" or simply Pierre. These were the names and surnames of the people who played the role of this war chameleon. Eventually the time came that he became one of the Musketeers.
One of the musketeers
At the beginning of World War II, Bradl was included in the structures of one of the many underground organizations in the occupied homeland. Soon he even became the head of the Musketeers' counterintelligence unit, as it was called the deeply secretive, and at the same time one of the most important groups of freedom fighters. The leader of the organization was a certain Stefan Witkowski, pseudonym "Inżynier", who referred to special contacts with the community of General Władysław Sikorski.
The tasks of the Musketeers were based on the precise determination of communication routes and logistic structures in the occupied capital. The materials were then sent to representatives of the Polish government-in-exile. Leski, and the rest of his companions - including Stefan Dembiński, pseudonym "Antoni" or Major Wincenty Mischke, pseudonym "Henryk" - even had contacts in British intelligence. It is worth realizing that was also active in the intelligence network at around the same time by Ian Fleming, James Bond's literary father.
Bradl's espionage missions and subversive actions could become the subject of a series of best-selling novels. The dramatic potential contained in the biography of the Polish agent was sensed by native comic artists who dedicated the "Bradl" series to Leski. Tobiasz Piątkowski, who is responsible for the script, and Marek Oleksicki, the author of the illustrations, decided that it would be a story in the mood of dark crime noir
Based on the fate of one of the participants of the Warsaw Uprising, the aforementioned duo developed a moving story that fascinates with its intrigue, unconventional heroes and terrifies with the terror of war. The pages of the ever-appearing series manage to reflect the special atmosphere of the occupied city - forbidden art, still vivid emotions, hidden desires ... for political games and fighting on various fronts. "Bradl" is a completely captivating spy story with elements of a moral romance and a full-fledged thriller.
Leski's comic book story is kept in a noir atmosphere
A legendary spy and an echo of controversy
Leski's life was extremely colorful, as we learn from the agent's personal testimony. In "Życie improperly diversified", the Polish military shares pictures of everyday war life, revealing the backstage of the AK intelligence and counterintelligence operations. Referring to his own memories and those of his comrades in arms, he tries to reconstruct the turbulent reality of the 20th century.
In the research of contemporary historians, there are also voices expressing doubts as to the crystalline character of the nation's hero . Because although Leski's deadly intelligence missions cannot be overestimated, with time, controversies also began to emerge. One of them is related to a trial conducted in the 1950s, when Bradl was officially acquitted of the charge of acting against the communist authorities. The man admitted that he was investigating the activities of the Musketeers for the Union of Armed Struggle .
Kazimierz Leski was a born spy
The fact is, however, that in communist Poland, Leski was tried, he served a several-year sentence, which he had to spend in custody. In 1957, however, he was finally rehabilitated. He spent the autumn of his life working in the shipbuilding industry and then as a researcher who developed patents. He started a family. He was awarded the Cross of Valor and the Order of War of the Virtuti Militari, and was recognized as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. He died on May 27, 2000 - his grave is located in Stare Powązki. We will probably never learn all the facts from the life of Polish James Bond . But isn't this, among other things, the charm of spy stories?