Henryk Flame was born on 15 January 1918 in Fryštát in Zaolzie. At the Bielsko Industrial School, he obtained the profession of aircraft mechanic locksmith. In 1936, he volunteered for the army and enrolled at the Aviation NCO School for Minors in Bydgoszcz. He graduated in 1939 with the rank of corporal pilot, and was then assigned to the 123rd Fighter Squadron of the 2nd Air Force Regiment.

In the defence war, as a pilot of the 123rd Fighter Squadron assigned to the Pursuit Brigade, he defended the skies over Warsaw. On 1 September 1939, in the first air battle of the Second World War, in the vicinity of Zakroczym, Cpl. Flame’s plane was shot at while trying to shield his commanding officer. The pilot was forced to land.

After 17 September, he was shot down by the Russians near Stanisławów, but survived and managed to cross the border into Hungary. There he was interned, but again he was fortunate enough to escape from the camp. Denounced by a Hungarian farmer, he was sent to a German prisoner of war camp. After his release, he returned to his family home in Czechowice, where he founded the Scouting Home Army, which was active in intelligence work and sabotage.

Having been called up to the German army in the autumn of 1943, and facing the risk of his cover being exposed and subsequent arrest, Flame escaped into the forest, together with his subordinates, where he organised an independent partisan unit operating in the Podbeskidzie region. In October 1944, he was sworn in as a soldier of the National Armed Forces (NSZ).

In February 1945, after Czechowice was seized by the Soviets, he revealed himself at the behest of the NSZ command and became the head of the local police station, which he staffed with his own men. In April 1945, Flame escaped with his men into the nearby forests and began to reconstitute partisan units of the NSZ 7th Silesian-Cieszyn District. From then on, he used the pseudonym “Bartek”. From May 1945 to February 1947, he headed the largest unit of anti-communist resistance fighters in the Cieszyn Silesia region, consisting of more than 300 well-armed and uniformed soldiers. The unit carried out about 340 armed raids against the communists. The most famous one took place on 3 May 1946. The unit occupied the town of Wisła, where they organised a two-hour parade on the 155th anniversary of the adoption of the first modern European constitution − the Constitution of 3 May 1791.

As a result of a communist provocation, most of Henryk Flame’s soldiers were transported by secret police officers to the Opole region and murdered there. Their commander, after the communists announced an amnesty, seeing no possibility of further resistance, revealed himself on 11 March 1947 in Cieszyn. He then tried to establish what had happened to his subordinates, and when he learned of their fate, he searched for the site of the communist crime.

The act of “Bartek” revealing himself was a huge success for the communists, overshadowed, however, by the fact that Flame had benefited from the amnesty and was therefore granted immunity. According to them, he should bear the punishment, so another provocation was prepared.

The assassination of Henryk Flame was carried out on 1 December 1947 in Zabrzeg near Czechowice. The assassin was a local policeman, Rudolf Dadak, who was never tried for his crime.

Tadeusz Płużański

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