The Stone Table

Quick answer: Who were the Cichociemni?

The Cichociemni, the silent and unseen, were Polish paratroopers trained with Britain's SOE, from 1942 mostly at Audley End House in Essex. About 2,400 volunteered, 605 completed training, and 316 parachuted into occupied Poland, most after swearing an oath at a stone table, into a country that, as John writes, would not survive the peace.

The table is stone, about the size of a kitchen chopping block, now kept in a stable building at Audley End in Essex. For most of the war it stood on the tea-house bridge over a narrow stretch of the River Cam. Its Polish inscription reads, roughly: here you enter the Underground Army. From 1942 until the last drops at the end of 1944, most of the 316 who jumped knelt before it at night, put a hand on a crucifix, and swore an oath. They'd come out of Poland through Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Egypt, some from Soviet captivity. Officers, students, peasants, aristocrats, Jews, and Catholics, all going home the same way: by parachute, at night, alone. They called themselves the Cichociemni, the silent and unseen. John walked the grounds and tells their story, including what Americans rarely learn: what happened to them after the war. And he tells about the names, found by accident behind a cupboard door, scratched there before they jumped so someone would eventually know.

Why it matters for leaders: Remembering names that were written so someone would one day read them is how we keep faith with those who served.

Q: What does the stone table's inscription say?

A: Roughly translated from Polish: here you enter the Underground Army.

Q: What was found behind a cupboard door at Audley End?

A: Polish names scratched in pencil and knife point by trainees before they jumped, discovered by accident during a routine inspection.

Read the full essay on Substack → https://heroespath.substack.com/p/the-stone-table

By John Fenzel, founder and CEO of Heroes' Path Foundation