Adolf Pilch Adolf Pilch ( 22 May 1914 , in Wisła – 26 January 2000 , in London ) was a Polish resistance fighter ( codenames " Góra " and " Dolina " ) . He became part of the Polish special forces ( " cichociemni " ) trained in the United Kingdom , and was parachuted into occupied Poland on February 17 , 1943 . There , as a member of the Armia Krajowa Polish resistance , he organized a cavalry partisan unit in the Nowogródek area , and broke through to the Kampinos forest near Warsaw , taking control of this area . At its height of operations his unit consisted of up to 1000 men . Between June 3 , 1943 and January 17 , 1945 , his partisans fought in 235 battles . Life . Adolf Pilch was born in Wisła . He attended the school for Polish officer cadet s ( " podchorąży " ) , and was assigned to the 26th Infantry Division . He was not , however , mobilized during the German invasion of Poland ; he would escape the country through Hungary and Yugoslavia and join the recreated Polish Army in France . In France he was assigned to the Polish 3rd Infantry Division in France . He fought in the Battle of France , and then managed to join the Polish Army in the United Kingdom . He was assigned to Polish special forces , the " cichociemni " unit , which was a Polish division of the Special Operations Executive ( SOE ) . After training , he was parachuted into occupied Poland on the night of the 16 / 17 February 1943 . Under the nom - de - guerre " Góra " he was assigned to the Polish resistance Armia Krajowa Białystok district , and soon afterwards to the Nowogródek ( Navahrudak ) district . For the next few months he fought with the Polish partisans against the Nazi German forces and their auxiliary Belorussian collaborator units in the vicinity of the Naliboki forest . The unit under his command grew from a meager few dozens to close to 1 , 000 men by the end of that year . After Soviet partisans became hostile towards Polish units loyal to the Polish government in exile , the Soviets dealt several blows to the Poles , arresting most of the local Polish commanders . In December 1943 Pilch reorganized the Polish partisans in the Nowogródek area . He made a controversial decision to accept a ceasefire with the Germans , and concentrated solely on engaging the Soviet partisans . The ceasefire with the Germans had been criticized by the high command of the Armia Krajowa , which ordered Pilch to renounce it ; he however chose to ignore those orders . In June 1944 his unit , numbering about 1 , 000 men , retreated west in face of the Soviet Operation Bagration . At that time , Pilch negotiated an agreement with the command of the Armia Krajowa , which accepted him back into its ranks in return for the end of the ceasefire between Pilch forces and the Germans . He continued fighting in the ranks of the AK against the Germans , primarily in the Kampinos forest area , supporting the Warsaw Uprising . On the night of September 2 , 1944 , his partisan group carried out a successful attack on formations of SS RONA stationed in the village of Truskaw . The SS battalions were defeated and scattered ; 250 SS soldiers were killed and 100 wounded , while " Dolina " ' s unit suffered only ten killed and ten wounded . Eventually the advancing Soviet forces forced him to escape west once more . In January 1945 he made his way again to the United Kingdom , where he would settle permanently , unable to return to communist - controlled Poland . An activist in the Polish Underground Army ' s Ex - Servicemens ' Association in the United Kingdom , he was finally able to visit Poland after the fall of communism in 1990 . During his time as a member of the resistance , Pilch fought in more than 200 engagements , most of them victorious , and received the Polish military honor the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari , in addition to several lesser medals ( such as four Crosses of Valor ) . He wrote memoirs of his life as a partisan , " Partyzanci trzech puszcz " ( 1992 ) . His funeral was held in Wandsworth , London .