Henryk Glapiński was born on 28 December 1915 in Częstochowa. In 1937, he graduated from the Feliks Fabiani Gymnasium in Radomsko. He was a member of the Gymnastic Society “Sokół”. In the years 1937–1939, he served in the military, initially at the military academy of the 27th Infantry Regiment in Częstochowa, and from 1938 in Komorów. Before the outbreak of World War II, he was transferred to the 77th Infantry Regiment in Lida.

In September 1939, he was promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant. From October 1939 to May 1940, he was in Lwów and then returned to Radomsko. At the turn of 1941 and 1942, he joined the Home Army and became a platoon commander. In the second half of 1942, Glapiński was appointed as the head of the Home Army “Centre No. 1” for the town of Radomsko, and at the end of June 1944, as the deputy commander of the local Home Army.

He was arrested by the Gestapo in July 1944 and was deported to the German concentration camp Gross-Rosen. He returned to Radomsko in May 1945. He did not accept the Soviet occupation of Poland as liberation. In February 1946, he joined one of the largest anti-communist organizations – the Underground Polish Army (code names “Lasy”, “Bory”) – assuming the nom de guerre “Klinga”. At the beginning of March 1946, he was appointed as the head of the District Command of the Underground Polish Army, code name “Motor” (district of Radomsko), and in mid-March 1946 – the chief commander of the Underground Polish Army Stanisław Sojczyński “Warszyc” appointed him as his adjutant. In April, Glapiński became the commander of the partisan unit of the Society Protection Service “Motor”, operating in the districts of Częstochowa and Radomsko. He was responsible for special military operations. He conducted, among others, attacks on the outposts of the Citizens’ Militia in Silniczka and Kobiele Wielkie, capturing dozens of weapons from the occupiers.

On the night of 19 to 20 April 1946, his unit took part in an attack on Radomsko. While it failed to capture the headquarters of the communist Polish Workers’ Party and the secret police, the Polish soldiers achieved their main objective – they seized the local prison and liberated 57 Polish patriots who were detained and tortured there. During the retreat Glapiński’s unit stopped a vehicle of the pro-Soviet Internal Security Corps, and confiscated 358 sets of uniforms and military equipment. On 20 April, the soldiers of the Underground Polish Army won a battle with the much more numerous Communist forces that were chasing them.

In mid-May 1946, pursuant to an order of Stanisław Sojczyński, he re-established the partisan unit of the Society Protection Service (consisting of 30 persons), which received a new code name – “Warszawa”. From that point on, Glapiński was pursued by Communist henchmen and had to escape increasingly frequent raids. On 8 June 1946, his unit fought a battle near the village of Kamieńsk. On 16 June, “Warszyc” promoted him to the rank of Captain.

He was arrested through the use of deception. An agent of the Communist secret police posing as a liaison of General Władysław Anders offered to help Glapiński in the evacuation to the West. On 31 August 1946, he was arrested in Warsaw by the communist military counter-intelligence and was handed over to the Provincial Public Security Office in Łódź. He was sentenced to death on 17 December 1946 by the District Military Court in Łódź, an illegal tribunal established by the occupiers. According to official data, he was murdered on 19 February 1947, together with Stanisław Sojczyński. The sentence was annulled in October 1992. The remains of Henryk Glapiński “Klinga” have not been found to this day.

Tadeusz Płużański

Coins linked with an article