SERVICE OF THE MEMBERS
of the Women’s Military Training
IN WARSAW UPRISING
mjr Wanda Gertz ps. „Kazik”, „Lena”
13 IV 1896 - 10 III 1958
A Major in the Polish Army, commander of the "Lena" company ("Dysk") - "Radosław" group
Her father, Jan, was a participant in the January Uprising. From 1913 to 1915, she was involved in clandestine scouting. Following the outbreak of World War I, she joined The Polish Legions, where she served in male uniform under the name Kazimierz Żuchowicz. In September 1916, she was delegated to organize the Women’s Branch of the Polish Military Organization in Warsaw. In March 1922, she was discharged from the military. She became involved in organizing Women’s Military Training for the Defense of the Country. She participated in the defense of Warsaw in September 1939. In November of the same year, she joined the Home Army (SZP-ZWZ-AK). In May 1942, she assumed the role of Commander of the Women’s Diversion and Sabotage Unit (“Dysk”). She participated in the Warsaw Uprising in the “Radosław” group. After the collapse of the uprising, she was interned in prisoner-of-war camps. She was the commander of all female war prisoners. In the spring of 1945, she stayed in England, then in occupied Germany, where she served as an inspector of Women’s Units in the Home Army. After demobilization, she remained in London, where he passed away on March 10, 1958. Her ashes were brought to Poland and were laid to rest at the Military Cemetery at Powązki. She was posthumously awarded the Cross of Valour five times, the Cross of Independence with Swords, the Order of the Virtuti Militari V Class, and the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Roots of the Women’s Military Training
The first military female formation was the Voluntary Legion of Women (OLK), established in November 1918 in Lviv under the command of Lt Col Aleksandra Zagórska. The volunteers served as guards and in communication services, and also directly participated in combat, demonstrating their bravery. Additional female units were formed in Vilnius, Poznań, Warsaw, and Kraków. By the end of the war, they totalled almost two and a half thousand legionnaires. A few of the legionnaires managed to obtain military education in Officer Cadet Schools. Despite the formal dismantling of the VLW after the end of the Polish-Soviet war, women’s efforts in the defence of Poland did not cease. On December 16-17, 1921, a congress of OLK officers was held in Poznań under the leadership of Captain Wysołuch-Zawadzka, discussing training perspectives and formulating further plans for preparing women for national defence. In 1922, the Social Committee of Women’s Military Training was established, bringing together various women’s organizations. Troop schools for women’s military training were formed, and additionally, troop schools in the grounds of secondary schools from 1925. In 1927, an independent Department of Physical Education and Military Training for Women was established at the State Office of Physical Education and Military Training, led by Lieutenant Maria Witek. From that point forward, with financial resources and legal backing, women’s organizations could fully develop their activities. An organizational structure was built nationwide, creating Regional Commands and their subordinate structures.
The DiSK unit
In April 1942, Wanda “Lena” Gertz received an order from the commander of the Union of Retaliation of the Home Army Main Command to establish a women’s unit for sabotage and diversion tasks. Initially called Disk, an acronym for “dywersja i sabotaż kobiet” – “women’s sabotage and diversion,” it was later renamed Dysk. “Lena” selected several experienced colleagues, known to her from the Polish Military Organisation and the Women’s Military Training, to lead teams in mining, sabotage, communication, and combat intelligence. Women recruited into the unit were initially sent for a three-month specialized training and then to a year-long women’s officer cadet school. Dysk’s sabotage activities included destroying railway tracks and trains heading to the Eastern Front, blowing up bridges and railway culverts, cutting telephone lines, and destroying machinery in German factories. Some of the most famous actions included blowing up railway tracks near Dęblin and Radom as part of the “Railway Retaliation” operation on November 16, 1942, and participation in the Wilanów operation and the attack on Kępa Latoszkowa on September 26, 1943. The explosives used were produced by the unit’s chemists. Besides sabotage and reconnaissance, Dysk’s women conducted operations to eliminate Gestapo agents and informants. They were present three times during the reception of parachute drops of Home Army soldiers. In June 1944, the unit concluded its intelligence-diversion activities and began working on weapons production. During the Warsaw Uprising, Dysk was incorporated into the Radosław grouping as the “Lena” company, and its members performed auxiliary duties throughout the group’s combat operations.
After the war, Wanda Gertz estimated the number of women and girls fighting in the unit at 130.
Archival photographs
- Wanda Gertz / Mariusz Kolmasiak
- For the Future: publication of the Social Committee for the Preparation of Women for National Defense. 1929 No. 2
- Warsaw Uprising – liaison officers of the “Radosław” battalion headquarters – from the left: (probably) “Rysia” Maria Penno, née Lutostańska, and Julia Doktorowicz-Hrebnicka/public domain
- Two women from the Old Town resting after exiting the sewers at the property at 2 Warecka Street. Photo by Joachim Joachimczyk / Warsaw Rising Museum