Antoni Olechnowicz

Antoni Olechnowicz (13 June 1905 – 8 February 1951) was a Polish military officer. A Lieutenant Colonel of the Polish Army, he took part in the September Campaign. Arrested by the Soviets, he escaped and returned to his native Vilnius, where he soon joined the Polish underground: the Service for Poland's Victory, the Union of Armed Struggle and finally the Home Army. He took part in the Operation Ostra Brama as commanding officer of the East group attacking the city of Vilnius from the direction of Naujoji Vilnia and Belmontas.

After the success of the operation and the arrest of most of the commanders of the Polish forces by the Soviet NKVD, Olechnowicz was one of the few officers to evade capture and assumed the role of the new commanding officer of the Wilno Home Army Area. In the summer of 1945 he evacuated his headquarters to Central Poland. Arrested by the communist authorities, he was sentenced to death in a show trial and buried in an unmarked grave.

During his service in the underground, he used a variety of noms de guerre, including "Meteor", "Kurkowski", "Pohorecki", "Lawicz", "Krzysztof", "Roman Wrzeski" and "Kurcewicz".

Early life and Interwar

Antoni Olechnowicz was born 13 June 1905 in , a small hamlet near Švenčionys, then in the Russian Empire and now in modern Lithuania. He graduated from a local gymnasium in Naujoji Vilnia in 1926 and immediately afterwards joined the Polish Army. A graduate from the Infantry Officers' School, on 15 August 1929 he was promoted to the rank of Second lieutenant and attached to the Vilnius-based 5th Legions Infantry Regiment. A promising NCO, in 1935 he was allowed to join the Higher War School and in 1937 he was promoted to the rank of Captain and attached to the 20th Infantry Division's headquarters.

World War II During the 1939 Invasion of Poland he served as a quartermaster of the 33rd Infantry Division. Taken prisoner by the Soviets in early October, he managed to escape and returned to his native Vilnius, where he soon joined the Polish underground: the Service for Poland's Victory, the Union of Armed Struggle and finally the Home Army. He took part in the Operation Ostra Brama as commanding officer of the East group attacking the city of Vilnius from the direction of Naujoji Vilnia and Belmontas. In contact with the Armed Forces Delegation for Poland, he decided to limit the losses among his men, disband the remaining partisan groups and transfer most of them across the Curzon Line to the areas controlled directly by the new communist authorities of Poland.

After a show trial, Olechnowicz was sentenced to death on 2 November 1949. He was executed on 8 February 1951 at Mokotów Prison. His body was interred in an unmarked grave at the outskirts of the Powązki Military Cemetery.

On 28 February 2014 the Institute of National Remembrance announced, that Olechnowicz's body had been identified following archaeological excavations and a successful identification.