Capt Stanisław Michnowski passed away at the age of 104. The veteran participated in the September campaign and was a member of the Home Army and a Warsaw insurgent. The former uniformed officer was also the longest-living founder of Gazeta Polska.
Capt. Michnowski was born on the eve of Poland’s regaining of Independence, exactly on 10 November 1918. The ‘Peer of Independence’ fought for Poland during the German occupation in 1939 and 1939 as a White Eagle soldier in the Home Army.” “He has always served his fellow man, professing the most sacred for Poland motto and principle: God, Honour, Homeland,” said the head of the Office of Veterans and Repressed Persons Affairs Jan Józef Kasprzyk on Capt. Michnowski’s 100th birthday.
“What I could, I tried to do”.
“God’s grace and mercy made me do what I could modestly, though I tried, it is true. But I do not deserve as much as the previous generation that won Poland in 1918.”
said Capt. Michnowski on the day of the aforementioned ceremony.
Biography of the hero:
Stanisław Michnowski was born on November 10, 1918, in Skarżysko-Kamienna. In 1937, he was admitted to the Electrical Department of the Warsaw University of Technology. He received preliminary military training in high school and later as a member of the Academic Legion during his studies.
When World War II broke out, he joined the volunteer military units led by Colonel H. Kulesza in Łuck. He was assigned to a cyclist unit and after a brief training in Targowica, he participated in battles against the Germans in Kamionka Strumiłowa. Later, he took part in the Battle of Rawa Ruska, during which his unit was scattered.
He returned to his hometown Skarżysko and in October 1939, he joined the underground organization “White Eagle” (“Orzeł Biały”). He served as a liaison, transporting reports and orders. After arrests, which resulted in the death of his brother Wojciech, he went into hiding for several months. In January 1942, he joined the organization “Independent Poland” (“Polska Niepodległa”), which was soon incorporated into the Home Army (AK).
After taking the oath, he adopted the pseudonym “Marian.” He underwent military training in a secret officer cadet course, achieving the rank of senior rifleman officer cadet. His task was to observe the movement of German troops and gendarmerie and to seize control of the front-line relay station of the telephone line in Skarżysko. After arrests, he had to leave Skarżysko.
In April 1944, he arrived in Warsaw and joined the 10th Company “Kordian” in Ursus. He participated in the production of hand grenades, disarmed Volksdeutsche, and transmitted information from intercepted communications. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, he fought in the Sękocińskie Forests in a company led by Marian Krawczyk, codenamed “Janos” in the 7th District of the Home Army “Obroża.” He operated there until December 15, 1944, after which he returned to Skarżysko.
In the autumn of 1945, he resumed his studies at the Electrical Department of the Warsaw University of Technology. From 1954 until his retirement in 1990, he worked at the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), where he also led the Laboratory of Atmospheric Electricity. He obtained his doctorate in 1972 and the title of associate professor in 1984. From 1969, he was involved in the International Committee on Atmospheric Electricity, later known as the International Commission on Atmospheric Electricity (ICAE) under the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy; in 2014, he was honored as an honorary member of ICAE.
For many terms, he was a member of the Polish Committee for Lightning Protection. He was also the founder of the Division of the Physics of the Earth’s Interior and Near-Earth Space of the Polish Geophysical Society, which he directed for many years. Throughout his career, he expanded the geophysical observatory in Świder, organized research stations in Spitsbergen, and two atmospheric electricity stations in Vietnam. He authored over 120 scientific publications and several monographs.