Krystyna Skarbek - Cairo

Cairo

Upon their arrival at SOE offices in Cairo, Egypt, they were shocked to learn they were under suspicion because of Skarbek's contacts with a Polish intelligence organization called the "Musketeers". This group had been formed in October 1939 by engineer-inventor Stefan Witkowski, who would be assassinated by parties unknown in October 1942. Another source of suspicion was the ease with which she had obtained transit visas through French-mandated Syria and Lebanon from the pro-Vichy French consul in Istanbul. Only German spies, some Polish intelligence officers believed, could have obtained the visas.

There were also specific suspicions about Kowerski. These were addressed in London by General Colin Gubbins—to be, from September 1943, head of SOE—in a letter of 17 June 1941 to Polish Commander-in-Chief and Premier Władysław Sikorski:

Last year a Polish citizen named Kowerski was working with our officials in Budapest on Polish affairs. He is now in Palestine . I understand from Major Wilkinson that General Kopański is doubtful about Kowerski's loyalty to the Polish cause Kowerski has not reported to General Kopański for duty with the Brigade. Major Wilkinson informs me that Kowerski had had instructions from our officials not to report to General Kopański, as he was engaged on work of a secret nature which necessitated his remaining apart. It seems therefore that Kowerski's loyalty has only been called into question because of these instructions.

Kowerski eventually cleared up any misunderstandings with General Kopański and was able to resume intelligence work. Similarly, when Skarbek visited Polish military headquarters in her British Royal Air Force uniform, she was treated by the Polish military chiefs with the highest respect.

It could not but have helped that, in the meantime, Germany had started Operation Barbarossa, an invasion of the Soviet Union (22 June 1941), as her intelligence obtained from the Musketeers had predicted. It is now known that advance information about Operation Barbarossa had also been provided by a number of other sources, including Ultra.

When Skarbek's husband, Jerzy Giżycki, was informed that Skarbek and Kowerski's services were being dispensed with, he took umbrage and abruptly bowed out of his own career as a British intelligence agent. When Skarbek told her husband that she loved Kowerski, Giżycki left for London, eventually emigrating to Canada. They would be formally divorced at the Polish consulate in Berlin on 1 August 1946.

Skarbek was sidelined from mainstream action. Vera Atkins, assistant to the head of F Section, would later describe Skarbek as a very brave woman, but a law unto herself and a loner.