Quick Facts
Biography
Andrzej Kowerski ([ˈandʐɛi̯ kɔˈvɛrski]; Łabunie, Zamość County, Lublin Province, eastern Poland, 18 May 1912 – 8 December 1988, Munich) was a Polish Army officer and SOE agent during World War II. From 1941 he used the nom de guerre "Andrew Kennedy."
Life
Before the war Kowerski lost a part of one leg in a hunting accident.
During the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Lieutenant Kowerski fought gallantly as a member of Poland's 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade, commanded by Col. Stanisław Maczek, winning his country's highest military decoration, the Virtuti Militari.
When Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland on September 17, forcing Poland's government to evacuate south into Romania, Kowerski and his "Black Brigade" (so called after their black leather jackets) evacuated to neighboring Hungary. There he was involved in covert activities, exfiltrating interned Polish, and other Allied, military personnel out of Hungary.
When Kowerski subsequently worked for British Intelligence and the Special Operations Executive, he was given the cover name "Andrew Kennedy." Having lost part of a leg in a prewar hunting accident, he became the first disabled man to complete SOE's parachute training. (His lover, Krystyna Skarbek, aka Christine Granville, was the first woman to pass the same course.)