Tadas Chodakauskas

On May 26, 1919, he was appointed an Officer for Special Affairs at the headquarters of the Ministry of National Defence, and a week later he became a member of Panevėžys and county military commandant, serving from 1919 to 1924.

[5] He lived in Panevėžys and bought Staniūnai Manor, a property on the outskirts of Panevėžys.In 1929, Chodakauskas built a villa in Berčiūnai [lt], which was an alternative to Palanga for holidaymakers.

[7] After the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940, Chodakauskas and his family drove from Panevėžys to the Masurian Lakes in Poland to join his sisters Sofija and Jadvyga and Antanas Smetona.

[8] In June 1940, the Lithuanian Saugumas, the state security service now in the hands of the pro-Soviet regime, reported that people in the Panevėžys region of Lithuania welcomed the “fall of the Chodakauskas dynasty” that had so dominated local politics.

[9] Chodakauskas and his family stayed with the Smetonas at the Hunters' Heights (Gästeheim Jägerhöhe) at the Schwenzait resort in the Masurian Lake District.

[10] As the Red Army approached, Jadvyga and Stanislavas managed to move west and eventually emigrate to the United States, while Chodakauskas remained in the city.

[10] The priest of Lankeliškiai parish, Justinas Lelešius [lt] (partisan name Grafas)[13] asked Chodakauskas to join the armed resistance movement.

[15][16] Undercover officers sent by the British Secret Intelligence Service MI6 and led by Jonas Deksnys, landed at Palanga at 2AM to assist with the anti-Soviet resistance.

They included Deksnys, his wireless radio operator, Justas Briedis, Kazimieras Piplys, a Latvian named Vidvuds Sveics and two Estonians.

Chodakauskas was awarded the Cross of Vytis (5th degree) in 1929 and the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas (3rd class).