The attack on the train station in Mosty and railway tunnel at the Jabłonków Pass on the night of 25th/26th of September 1939 was conducted not by regular German forces, but rather by members of special paramilitary group operating within the Polish territory. This particular group was composed of roughly 30 people largely recruited from the members of German minority inhabiting region of Cieszyn Silesia (ger. Teschener Schlesien) and centered around secret Combat Organization (Kampforganisation). The Organization itself has been coordinated by a local teacher, Heinrich Knoppek and his second-in-command, Hans Śniegoń. It was also divided into four units based in different cities: Jabłonków, led by Ferdinand Janiczek, Mosty, led by Anton Szotkowski, Łomna, led by Hlavička (first name unknown) and Bukowiec, led by Leopold Marszałek. The Jabłonków unit, selected for the mission has been further divided into three squads led by Otto Szafarczyk, Alois Aertz and Wiktor Sikora.

As one can see, many of the members had Polish, Czech and Slovak last names, indicating that they were most likely local residents since many generations and their presence was something completely normal. This notion is further corroborated by the fact that the stationmaster on duty in Mosty station, an object of strategic importance within Polish territory was Evžen Krůček, most likely an ethnic Czech. Such cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity in the border territories facilitated the recruitment and operation of clandestine German organizations. Of course, Polish border guard and army made attempts to seal the border with some success, such as the capture of the weapon smugglers from Svibice (now part of Cieszyn) in mid-September 1939, but they were unable to suppress their activity completely, especially given that there was at least some enmity between them and local Czech and Slovak population who treated capture of the region as an unprovoked Polish aggression.

Members of the Kampforganization were trained by the German military specialists, as per orders of the the 2nd Department of the Abwehr (German military intelligence agency) and under supervision of agent Herbert Vorster, reporting to the Lt. Hans Albert Herzner of the VIII military region with headquarters in Breslau. Their upkeep, equipment and other expenses were paid for by the Nazi party members residing in Čadca and Žilina, on the Slovak side of the border.

Now, shortly prior to the date of operation, Herzner's group has been concentrated in Čadca (roughly 6 km from Mosty) and, on 25th September they moved after dark across the border towards the targets. Being local residents, they knew the dislocation of Polish border posts and patrol routines, while the mountainous, wooded terrain was quite conducive to infiltration by individuals and small groups. Additionally, members of the organization were civilians, so they wore casual clothes and were lightly armed, so they could easily drop the incriminating evidence and provide a plausible explanation (after the annexation of the part of Cieszyn Silesia by Poland it was normal that many people were crossing new border on regular basis). Thus even when part of the was detained, this would not compromise an entire mission.

The existence of the deeply conspired organizations capable of conducting sabotage missions in strict cooperation with regular military personnel was not a very novel idea in Germany. It is generally assumed that it has been originated by Cpt. Theodor von Hippel who proposed the idea of irregular forces composed of local civilians and soldiers living in potential enemy territory who knew local language, terrain and customs. This concept, as 'not becoming of modern military' has been initially rejected in early 1920s by the Reichswehr officers. Undeterred, von Hippel presented his idea to Adm. Wilhelm Canaris, chief of the Abwehr who found it interesting and fitting the profile of military intelligence, offering von Hippel a command of the aforementioned 2nd Department tasked with subversion and sabotage. This led to the formation of the special forces unit in Czechoslovakia in 1938. Members of this unit, later named 'Ebbinghaus Batallion' were recruited from the Freikorps units formed by German inhabitants of Western Czechoslovakia and intended to be used for sabotage and capture of the strategic objects. After the successful attack on Poland, Canaris ordered formation of a fully-fledged special unit composed of Germans living in various regions and fluent in foreign languages who could act as saboteurs and coordinators of local pro-German cells in the Allied territories. Until early 1941 company managed to raise separate units trained to operate in many various theaters, including, but not limited to Baltic States, USSR, Balkans, Greece, Caucasus, Middle East and Persia.