Lieutenant Colonel Mieczysław hr. Poniński – military attaché of the Republic of Poland in Rome

Abstract

In May 1919, the Military Attachat was established at the Polish Legation in Rome, obliging him to observe the Italian armed forces, economy, foreign policy, coordinate purchases of military equipment and organize repatriation to the country of Poles – former soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army, staying in POW camps in Italy. The first military attaché was Gen. Eugeniusz Kątkowski, who, however, did not speak Italian. In October 1920 he was replaced by Maj. Mieczysław, hr. Poniński, who knew Italian language and Italian culture. In 1921, however, it turned out that by joining the Polish Army in 1919, he concealed the fact that he was removed from the Italian army in 1893 and demoted from the rank of lieutenant to the sergeant. Because, he received the rank of captain (captain) in the Polish Army. In addition, his assistant Maj. Jan Pogorski developed 12 military reports claiming that he obtained them from a secret informer for a total of 2,500 lire, while he rewrote them from the Italian military press. Lt.-Col. Mieczysław Poniński was dismissed from Rome and placed before the Officer’s Honorary Court, and then before the Criminal Court. Thanks to his connections he avoided the punishment. He was the only one of nearly 100 Polish military attachés in the years 1919–1939, who committed such an offense.