Kedyw


Kedyw was a Polish resistance movement in [World War II|Polish] World War II Home Army unit that conducted active and passive sabotage, propaganda and armed operations against Nazi German forces and collaborators.

Operations

Kedyw was created on January 22, 1943, from two pre-existing Home Army organisations: the Union of Retaliation and Wachlarz. Initially, the units were small and town-based. Eventually, as more were formed, some moved into forested areas to begin partisan warfare. Kedyw organized weapon and munition factories, military schools, intelligence, counter-intelligence, field hospitals and a communication network.
File:Warsaw Uprising by Deczkowki - Kolegium A -15861.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Insurgents from the Kedyw's Kolegium A on Stawki Street in the Wola district - Warsaw Uprising 1944
Most members of Kedyw were Boy Scouts from the Polish [Scouting and Guiding Association] and its wartime organisation, the Grey Ranks. Many of the officers were Silent Unseen: special agents trained in the United Kingdom and parachuted into occupied Poland. Selected Kedyw groups carried out operations all over occupied Poland. Notable types of operations included:
Prior to the Warsaw Uprising, most of the Kedyw units in the Warsaw area were moved into the city and grouped into infantry battalions. Notable among them were "Zośka", "Parasol" and "Miotła". After fighting broke out, most of the Kedyw forces joined the Radosław Group. Kedyw units were among the most successful in the Uprising. The boy scouts not only had more experience than many regular soldiers but also had managed to collect more supplies and arms.
Kedyw units first took part in seizing control of Warsaw's Wola district. After two days of heavy fighting in the Powązki Cemetery in which all German attacks were repulsed with heavy casualties, the units withdrew overnight to the city centre and the Old Town, where they regrouped and defended their sectors until the capitulation of the uprising in October 1944.

Commanders