Polish Genius : Lt Jozef Kosacki

On April 3, 1941, an accident occurred that greatly moved Lieutenant Kosacki and had a significant impact on the creation of his most famous invention: on the beach near Arbroath in Scotland, Captain Stanisław Górski and Corporal Stanisław Stasiak from the 14th Uhlan Regiment died in a minefield. This tragic event became the impulse to develop his old, pre-war idea of ​​using radio waves to detect metal objects in the ground. The next three months of experience, trials and improvements took the shape of the final prototype of the mine detector (the only original prototype is currently in the WITI museum - Military Institute of Engineering Technology in Wrocław). After further tests, experiments and competitions from the British Ministry of Supply, Kosacki's "Polish Mine Detector" mine detector won the competition against six designs by British designers[1].

This detector was first used in the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942, where it contributed significantly to the Allied victory. Józef Kosacki voluntarily waived the patent for the developed invention, which was later - after certain modifications - used in many armies until the 1990s[3].