Project Eagle: The Top-Secret OSS Operation That Sent Polish Spies Behind Enemy Lines in World War II

After the Battle of the Bulge--which had begun with a German attack that American intelligence failed to anticipate--the Office of Strategic Service (OSS), forerunner of the CIA, revamped its intelligence operations in Europe. Confronted with staff shortages and needing native language speakers, the OSS decided to enlist the cooperation of volunteers from occupied countries for intelligence-gathering operations. As part of Project Eagle, Polish soldiers were recruited and trained to go behind the lines of the Third Reich. Project Eagle tells this fascinating World War II story of intelligence and espionage that until now has been hidden away in the archives of the OSS.

The OSS had worked with Polish exiles throughout the war, but Project Eagle would mark a new and dramatic chapter in their cooperation. In early 1945, American intelligence recruited thirty-two Poles--a unique group of men who had been forcibly conscripted into the German Wehrmacht, were captured in France and Italy, and were pulled from Allied prisoner of war camps. They were then trained in intelligence gathering as well as espionage to assist the Allies in their invasion of Germany. Not long after--in March 1945--they parachuted behind enemy lines, equipped only with falsified documents and radios. For six weeks, up until Germany's surrender, the Polish spy teams roved Germany, assisting ground commanders and providing counterintelligence assistance.

John S. Micgiel has served as director of the Institute on East Central Europe, associate director of the Harriman Institute, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Europe, and adjunct professor of international and public affairs--all at Columbia University. He is past president of the Kosciuszko Foundation, which promotes cultural exchange between the United States and Poland. In 2011 he received the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, an award honoring service to the Polish-American community. Now retired from Columbia, Micgiel teaches at the University of Warsaw. He lives in Greenwich, Connecticut.