Augustyn Träger Augustyn Träger ( born August 25 , 1896 in Kalnica Dolna - died , April 22 , 1957 in Bydgoszcz ) , codenames " Sęk " ( Knot ) and " Tragarz " ( Moving Man ) , was a Polish - Austrian soldier during World War I and an intelligence officer in interwar and German - occupied Poland . Along with his son , Roman Träger , he played an important role in obtaining intelligence on the German V - 1 and V - 2 missiles which were being tested on the island of Usedom in Pomerania . He passed the information along to the Polish resistance organization Home Army , which then in turn passed it on to the Allies in London . This led to the Allied bombing of Peenemünde in Operation Hydra in 1943 . Early life and interwar period . Augustyn was born to Joseph Träger , originally from Austria , and Helana née Nowicka , in what was then part of the Austrian Partition of Poland . He initially fought in the Austrian Army during World War I and then joined Piłsudski ' s Polish Legions . During the interwar period , Augustyn became an agent of the military intelligence section of the Polish army . He was originally based in Bydgoszcz , where he worked as a merchant . World War II . Initially , right after the Nazi invasion of Poland , Träger became a member of the Polish anti - Nazi resistance group Miecz i Pług ( " Sword and Plough " ) ( MiP ) in Pomerania . He acquired German citizenship on the basis of his Austrian background while at the same time he became the head ( " starosta " ) of the intelligence section of the MiP , and also indirectly of the Home Army . In July 1943 , Augustyn participated , as an official representative of MiP , in a meeting with members of another anti - Nazi formation active in Pomerania , the Pomeranian Griffin . An agreement was reached to partially merge the two groups . Early in 1943 , Augustyn ' s son , Roman , who was also a spy of the Polish Underground State obtained extensive information on the tests being carried out by the Germans of new Wunderwaffe ( " Wonder Weapons " ) under the direction of Wernher von Braun on the island of Usedom , where Roman was stationed as a Wehrmacht soldier . Roman compiled detailed reports and passed them on to his father . In May 1943 , Augustyn made his way clandestinely from Pomerania to Warsaw where he met with his contacts in the Home Army ( specifically , intelligence department , " Lombard " ) and transferred Roman ' s reports to them . The Home Army passed the reports on to the Polish government - in - exile in London which shared them with British intelligence . This led to the bombing raid on Peenemünde on the night of August 17 , 1943 . Beginning in the Spring of 1943 , the Miecz i Pług organization had been infiltrated by Gestapo and the Home Army began suspecting some of its leaders of collaboration with the Germans . As a result , in September 1943 , on the orders of the Home Army , two of MiP ' s leaders were executed , and the organization for all practical purposes was dissolved . However , Träger ' s intelligence unit was reconstituted within the structures of the Home Army , with most of its former MiP members , as a group codenamed " Bałtyk - 303 " ( Baltic - 303 ) , which was part of a wider intelligence network " Bałtyk " , associated with Home Army ' s " Lombard " , responsible for investigating and recording German activities around Bydgoszcz , Szczecin and Police . Towards the end of the war , Träger returned to Bydgoszcz where he continued his work as an intelligence agent . Post war . After the war , in July 1945 , he was arrested by the NKVD and imprisoned by the Polish secret police , as part of a general communist reprisal against former soldiers of the Home Army , and other anti - Nazi ( but non - communist ) resistance groups . He was released from prison in 1946 . He died in Bydgoszcz in April 1957 and is buried in the Cemetery of Saint Wincenty à Paulo , in the city . The Trägers ' contribution to the fight against Nazi Germany was for a long time ignored in People ' s Republic of Poland , as official communist propaganda tried to minimize the role of the Home Army and other non - communist groups in fighting the Nazis . It was only in the 1970s , after some limited political and social reforms , that a commemorative plaque for both father and son was finally put up , at the kamienica in Wełniany Rynek ( " Cotton Market " ) where Augustyn lived during the war .