Tadeusz Chciuk-Celt, 1916-2001, was posthumously awarded the Commander's Cross and Star of the Order of Reborn Poland (Krzyz Komandorski Orderu Odrodzenia Polski z Gwiazda) on September 5th, 2008 in a ceremony at the Polish Consulate-General in Munich. The medal and award were presented by Madame Consul General Elzbieta Sobotka to the honoree's youngest son, Jan Chciuk-Celt. For a detailed account in Polish, please click here .
This is what Tadeusz looked like back in the 1940s. He had just returned to London from his second parachute mission into occupied Poland -- the only man to survive two missions. That was the mission where they brought the major parts of an intact V-2 rocket to the Allies -- a vital intelligence coup. The flight that dropped him into Poland on the 4th of April, 1944 was Operation Salamander, named after one of the code names used for Joseph H. Retinger, who parachuted in at age 56 without even going to parachute training school. The return trip, on which Tadeusz and Mr. Retinger were picked up by an RAF plane, was called Operation Wildhorn III. Click here for a full account of the Wildhorn operations. Using the pen name Marek Celt, he wrote By Parachute to Warsaw , published in London in 1945 by Dorothy Crisp & Co. (Good luck finding a copy!)
Here are three excerpts from that book:
A much more detailed account of his second mission to Poland was published in January, 2007. (Z Retingerem do Warszawy i z Powrotem, LTW, 2006, ISBN 83887 36884.) It's only available in Polish right now, but I have personally completed a translation into English, and am currently trying to line up a publisher. It's a book that deserves a wider audience, and that means the English-speaking world.
Click here to read about Operation "Jacket," Tadeusz's first parachute mission into German-occupied Poland.
Once again using the pen name Marek Celt, Tadeusz wrote three books in Polish about his wartime exploits. They are distributed by Flying Heart and can be seen in the Catalogue .
Tadeusz as a child barefooted with his sister and three brothers, Drohobycz, around 1920.
Take a look at a family portrait from 1923, with Tadeusz on the left.
"Dzidek" was a handsome teenager.
Tadeusz and Bela Varga in Budapest, 1942
Tadeusz Chciuk-Celt at his desk at Radio Free Europe around 1960
Read what Tadeusz Kisielewski had to say about Tadeusz Chciuk-Celt.
Read what Andrzej Pomian had to say about Tadeusz Chciuk-Celt.
Polish language Flying Heart page
updated September 24th, 2008 by Jan Chciuk-Celt
