Roman Czerniawski
| Roman Garby-Czerniawski | |
|---|---|
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| Allegiance | Poland |
| Service | Polish Air Force |
| Codename(s) | Brutus |
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| Born | 6 February 1910 |
| Died | 26 April 1985 (aged 75) London, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | Polish |
Roman Garby-Czerniawski (6 February 1910 – 26 April 1985) was a Polish Air Force Captain and Allied double agent during World War II, using the codename Brutus.
Czerniawski graduated in the late 1930s from the Wyższa Szkoła Wojenna (WSWoj), a military academy at Warsaw. As a former officer of the Polish Air Force, he volunteered to create an allied espionage network in France in 1940. He set it up with Mathilde Carré who recruited the agents; some French declined to work for a Pole. This network was code-named Interallie.
Czerniawski was evacuated to Britain to be examined by Polish intelligence and then meet General Sikorski where he was presented with the Virtuti Militari. He was returned to France by parachute in November 1941.
On 17 November 1941 the Abwehr group of Hugo Bleicher arrested Czerniawski and then Carré. The network had been uncovered due to the lack of proper operational security within the organisation, and many other members of the Interallie were picked up after Carré agreed to co-operate with the Germans in return for her life. Czerniawski and others were imprisoned.
After having been offered safety by the Germans, he was sent to England as an agent. However, he made himself known to the British authorities. He was de-briefed by the British (MI6) and Polish authorities about the security lapses of his organisation in France. He was then employed as a double agent by MI5 using the codename "Brutus" (after Caesar's friend and assassin) under their Double Cross System. His strong anti-Russian attitude, manifested in his denouncing (in a pamphlet he authored) a Polish officer who attended an official reception at the Soviet Embassy, led to doubts about his suitability. For this act of mutiny against the Polish authorities, he was arrested and imprisoned. MI5 produced a cover story that he had been detained in a sweep of "anti-Bolshevik" Poles.
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