The Kotwica (Polish for “Anchor”) was a World War II emblem of the Polish Secret State and Armia Krajowa (Home Army, or AK). It was created in 1942 by members of the AK Wawer “Small Sabotage” unit as an easily-usable emblem for the Polish struggle to regain independence. The “Anchor” is a combination of the letters PW, standing for Polska Walcząca (“Fighting Poland”).

The Kotwica was first painted on walls in Warsaw, as a psychological-warfare tactic against the occupying Germans, by Polish boy scouts on March 20, 1942. On June 27, 1942, a new tradition was born: to commemorate the patron saint’s day of Polish President Władysław Raczkiewicz and Commander-in-Chief Władysław Sikorski, members of the Armia Krajowa stamped several hundred copies of the German-backed propaganda newspaper “The New Warsaw Courier”, with the Kotwica. Initially, only 500 copies were so stamped; the following year, the number reached 7,000.