Virtual Lecture: Air Power and the Irregular Warfare of the Polish Resistance in the Second World War
30 October 2025
On Thursday 30 October 2025 at 6pm, Dr Marcin Wilczek will consider the connections between Air Power and the irregular warfare of the Polish Resistance during the Second World War. This lecture will be hosted virtually via Crowdcast.
Talk Outline
The proposed lecture would briefly outline two aspects, essential for understanding the relationship between one of the largest Second World War-era armed resistance movements (the Polish Home Army) and broadly defined air power.
The first part of the lecture would focus on the aid provided by Allied military aviation (mainly the Royal Air Force and the Polish units formed within their structures) to the underground organisation in Poland. This included logistic support and maintaining communication between the country and the Government in Exile, both pivotal for organising and running the resistance movement.
The second addressed issue would be the role envisioned for aviation in the Polish resistance’s plans for the final phases of the War, during a “general uprising”, when guerrillas were to confront German forces in an open combat. Although such a scenario never materialised and the concepts remained largely hypothetical, analysis of the events of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 allow for drawing conclusions on feasibility of some of these plans.
The information presented may enable the audience to view the aerial operations not as separate undertakings supporting the underground movement but as an integral element of the complex irregular warfare waged by Polish guerrillas and partisans, and the airspace as yet another domain of the that warfare.
About Dr Marcin Wilczek
Marcin Wilczek obtained a master’s degree in history from the University of Warsaw and a PhD from the Polish Academy of Sciences, where he defended his dissertation on the early Cold War-era development of the Polish munitions industry. He has collaborated with renowned Polish publishers, writing articles on military history, and has extensive experience in archival research. As an independent researcher, he is particularly interested in the armed conflicts of the 20th century, including both their conventional and unconventional aspects, and the links between the military, economy and politics. He serves as a non-resident subject matter expert in Polish military history for the US Army University Press and is a member of the Society for Military History. Dr Wilczek is also a graduate of the officer training course at the Wrocław Military University of Land Forces and a reserve infantry officer of the Polish Army.
