Minister Stanisław Kot to create a center of Polish intelligence in Lisbon on January 15, 1941. Officially named the Center for Contact with the Continent (Placówka Łączności z Kontynentem), the Lisbon-based bureau was headed by Kowalewski and soon became the hub of an extensive net of Polish resistance, sabotage and intelligence organizations throughout occupied Europe. Acting independently of similar groups in Poland, which were run directly from London or Warsaw, the center coordinated the efforts of dozens of groups in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, North Africa, Spain and even Germany. It organized communication between the Polish Government in Exile and occupied Europe, as well as providing logistical and financial support for Polish resistance groups throughout Western Europe. Kowalewski's intelligence network was also helpful to the British government, as most of his reports were passed either to SOE or to the Ministry of Economic Warfare. A notable coup for his Lisbon center was the passing of the exact date for Operation Barbarossa to the British, who were thus informed of the fact at least two weeks prior to the actual invasion of Russia. Kowalewski also managed to neutralize a secret radio station used by the Germans to communicate with U-boats operating in the Atlantic. He was also crucial in enabling former Romanian King Carol II to escape from Romania, and leave Spain for Lisbon. Postwar However, despite the fact that Kowalewski had contacts with numerous politicians of Hungary, Romania and Italy willing to change sides, the situation changed after the Casablanca Conference of 1943, when the Allies demanded the unconditional surrender of the Axis. The situation further deteriorated after the Tehran Conference, when it became clear that Hungary and Romania would fall under Soviet domination anyway and that the plan for a second front in the Balkans, which would allow the Hungarians and Romanians to break with Nazi Germany was finally dismissed. According to recent research by a Polish-British joint history commission for investigation of Polish World War II intelligence service, at the latter conference the Soviets demanded that Kowalewski be withdrawn from his post to England. In late January 1944 Frank Roberts, head of the Central Department of the British Foreign Office, informed Gen. Colin Gubbins, head of the SOE, that Kowalewski's network was not only aimed at the Germans, but at creating a common Polish-Hungarian-Romanian Bloc, which was allegedly aimed at vital Soviet interests. On March 6,