// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Codebreaker, 103, kept his WW2 heroics a secret for decades
Fred Vanke was sworn to secrecy but his work as a codebreaker has finally been recognised
"My wife died and didn't know. I never told anybody. In fact, she always complained - all your friends, when they come visit, they all have stories to tell and you never tell anything."
From fleeing the Nazi invasion of his native Poland, to training as an operative to work behind enemy lines, to helping to crack the codes which turned the tide of the conflict, Fred Vanke had an eventful World War Two.
Sworn to secrecy however, his family and friends almost never learned of the true role the 103-year-old played in the Allied war effort.
But research into the life story of Vanke, now living in Breaston, Derbyshire, has written a new chapter on the history of Bletchley Park's famed codebreakers.
About 100 Poles based in the UK carried out work on behalf of Bletchley Park between 1940 and 1945.
After Fred shared his story, research has added the names of 27 Polish codebreakers and signals intelligence (sigint) to the Bletchley Park Roll of Honour, and more could follow.
The additions represent one of the most significant expansions of the documented Polish contribution to Britain's wartime codebreaking effort in recent years, helping historians better understand the scale of the intelligence partnership between Britain and the Polish government-in-exile.
Believed to be the last surviving member of these Polish codebreakers, Ferdynand Stanislaw Vanke grew up in Krakow, but fled at the age of 16 when war arrived on his doorstep in 1939.
He said: "I did wake up in the morning hearing the planes. I ran to the window and I could see Germans coming over but I thought it was Polish Air Force training.