To Live Well is to Hide Well

To Live Well is to Hide Well - the real James Bond

'To Live Well is to Hide Well' is a chilling true-life story that chronicles the life and times of my father, Bronislaw Urbański, a Polish Intelligence Officer, involved with MI6, OSS, a saboteur, assassin and much more.

The title of the book encapsulates the simple mantra by which Bronislaw lived – 'To Live Well is to Hide Well'. Simply put, his life depended on it.

His story begins in war-torn Poland, but like the war itself crosses many borders in pursuit of a single goal – to rid Poland from the tyranny of NAZI Germany and also Soviet domination.

My father's military life begins with the Polish Intelligence (German Counter-Intelligence) section in the very early 1930s. Then later in early 1939 he begins his collaboration with British Military Intelligence (MI6) as well and he is also given his British MI6 partner ) an explosives expert, Bronislaw called him affectionately 'Tedda' or 'Teddy' as we may say in English.

Just before the end of the war in 1945 he follows Patton's Army; he is used by the U.S. as a Polish but also US guard in West Germany and aligns with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) which in 1947 became the CIA (a stressful challenge to the US).
Amazingly some documents of Bronislaw's and Piotr's exploits survived destruction by the British War Office and Bronislaw himself. Allegedly against orders Piotr kept his records, and this small but remarkable collection of documents includes one signed by Winston Churchill that empowered them to carry out missions in Europe and help train Allied personnel.

British WW2 researcher Stuart Egerton had access to Piotr's diary, one entry of which says of Bronislaw '...he was seen as the perfect gun for hire – a killing machine - by the Poles and Allies in general'.

Controlling his every move immediately after his Stalag VB (farm) escape, was another spy, Krystyna Skarbek (aka Christine Granville) who was attached to Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) and a 'Director' of operations with the Polish 'Musketeers'. This was a secret World War 2 organization whose purpose was to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe.

'Krystyna Skarbek an Agent with Many Faces' (J. Larecki Warsaw 2008) and 'The Spy Who Loved' (C. Mulley 2012, Pan Macmillan) played a huge part in my father's life as she weaves a thread of influence throughout his life. She weaves a trail before, during and even long after WW2.

Bronislaw also played a role in another decisive moment in the fight against the NAZI's. As most readers will know, the 'Enigma' was a cipher device used by NAZI Germany's military command to encode strategic messages before and during World War 2.

What many do not know is that the 'Enigma' code was first broken by the Poles, under the leadership of Maksymilian Ciężki with Polish mathematicians especially with the likes of Marian Rejewski, in the very early 1930s.

As Britain and Poland became aware of the NAZI plan of 'Fall Wiess' in early April 1939, hurriedly Poland gives their secrets to Britain. The 'Enigma' and its 'Bomba' were handed to them who then set up a secret code-breaking group known as 'Ultra' under mathematician Alan M. Turing in 'Bletchley Park' England.

The handover of those files took place in the Poland's Pyry Forest, near Warsaw, including officers from Britain's MI6, on the 25th of July 1939. Including Maksymilian Ciężki, the 3 mathematicians, Bronislaw, Piotr Ryback, and others: took charge of documents and devices that would ultimately shorten the war. Bronislaw's mission once this was done was to escort the British Intelligence delegates safely via Romania and thus finally and safely to England only after their August mission fails to broker a deal for peace with Stalin.