Last weeks of 1942 were a turning point of WWII. At Stalingrad, German 6th Army was already doomed, while the second battle of El Alamein and “Operation Torch” neutralized the Axis threat to North Africa, the Suez Canal and the Middle East.

➡ In November, New York saw the premiere of “Casablanca,” set in the Vichy France colony of Morocco. One of the main characters in the movie was Victor Laszlo, member of Czech resistance fleeing from the Germans. Some people say he was modelled on a real person.

➡ If so, the similarities are not striking: the real guy was Polish, his name was Słowikowski, and he was not running from the Germans but came looking for them: in mid-1941 he arrived in North Africa from Britain to set up one of the most efficient espionage networks of the war. 

➡ “Agency Africa,” based in Algiers behind a front of a cornflakes producer – the front being, by the way, profitable enough to finance a big part of the undercover operation – proved to be extremely successful in gathering information that facilitated the Allied assault.

➡ Słowikowski, a pre-war Polish Intelligence officer, set up nine local branches from Tunis to Tangier, recruited 89 agents – laborers, businessmen, policemen and government officials – and by the time the Allies arrived, had sent 1,244 coded radio messages to London. 

➡ And so, when on 8 November 1942 British and American troops landed in Casablanca, Oran and Algiers – the assault codenamed “Operation Torch” – their generals knew the location of every ship, artillery unit, minefield, ammunition depot and command point on the coast.

➡ Such knowledge allowed them to draw detailed plans and reduce losses. In all, about 1,000 of the landing Allied troops lost their lives, compared to hundreds of thousands Soviet soldiers whose bodies paved the way for the Stalingrad breakthrough.

➡ Major Mieczysław Słowikowski, awarded the highest Polish, British, French and American medals for his role in the North-African campaign, continued intelligence work out of London, and then trained infantry in Scotland. After WWII, he settled down in Great Britain.

➡ Referring to “Casablanca” one more time: rather than Laszlo, Major Słowikowski was Rick Blaine gunning down Major Strasser. 

Pictured: US Army General Jacob Devers decorating Major Mieczysław Słowikowski with the Legion of Merit.