Roman Träger

Roman Träger (March 17, 1923, in Beuthen (present-day Bytom) – March 21, 1987, in Bydgoszcz), codename "T2-AS" (for "Trager Junior-Ace"), was a Polish soldier and intelligence officer during the Nazi occupation of Poland.

He was the son of Augustyn Träger, who was also active in espionage against the Germans. Roman's biggest accomplishment was the compilation of reports about the German factory and testing facility of V-1 and V-2 rockets on the island of Usedom. After these reports were given to the Polish Armia Krajowa (Home Army), who in turn passed them on to British intelligence in London, the Allies bombed Peenemünde in Operation Hydra in 1943, killing two V-2 rocket scientists and delaying V-2 test launches by seven weeks.

Early life Roman was born on 17 March 1923 in Beuthen (present-day Bytom) as son of Augustyn Träger. Before the war the Träger family, of Austrian origins on Roman's grandfather's side, lived in Bydgoszcz.

Roman passed his reports on to his father who, in May 1943 traveled to Warsaw where he submitted them to the intelligence unit of the Home Army, codename Lombard. The reports were sent on to the Polish government in Exile in London and given to British Intelligence. The information provided by Roman, including a map of the facilities made by him, which indicated the objects which should be bombed, led the British to carry out a bombing raid on Peenemünde in August 1943 (see also Operation Crossbow). 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 (Wool Market) where Augustyn lived during the war.