page_title: Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński
section_title: First World War
hierarchical_section_title: Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński / First World War
caption_attribution_description: en:Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński, Polish general, shot by Soviets in September 1939 ( Photo in colonel's uniform)
context_page_description: Józef Konstanty Olszyna-Wilczyński was a Polish general and one of the high-ranking commanders of the Polish Army. A veteran of World War I, the Polish-Ukrainian War and the Polish-Soviet War, he was executed by the Soviets during the Invasion of Poland of 1939.
context_section_description: After the outbreak of the Great War he was mobilized to the Austro-Hungarian Army in the role of a platoon commanding officer, but on August 6, 1914 he was allowed to join the Polish Legions.
  He served with distinction in the rank of Second Lieutenant and then First Lieutenant in most of the battles of the 1st Brigade of the Polish Legions. Initially a company commander in the 1st Regiment, in 1915 he was promoted to the rank of Captain and became a battalion commander within the 5th Regiment. After the Oath Crisis of 1917, as an Austro-Hungarian citizen, Olszyna-Wilczyński was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army and dispatched to the Italian Front, along with many of his colleagues. He commanded infantry platoons within 50th, 62nd and 59th platoons, after which he was transferred to Ukraine as a commander of the 3rd battalion of the 16th Regiment. There, he organized a cell of the Polish Military Organization.
  After Poland regained its independence, on November 4, 1918, Olszyna-Wilczyński and his battalion (composed of Poles mostly) joined the Polish Army. An experienced officer, he was attached to the ad hoc formation of Col. Czesław Rybiński fighting in Volhynia during the Polish-Ukrainian War. On November 27 his company was defeated in a skirmish near Mikulińce near Tarnopol and Olszyna-Wilczyński himself was heavily wounded and taken prisoner of war by the Ukrainians. It was not until their defeat in June 1919 that he was released and allowed to return to the Polish Army. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, he became the commanding officer of the 3rd Polish Legions Infantry Brigade, and then (since September 28, 1919) the 1st Polish Legions Infantry Brigade. With the latter unit he took part in the Polish-Soviet War.
  During the Kiev Offensive in 1920 he briefly returned to the 3rd Brigade and briefly served as the military commander of Kievan military garrison. During the Polish withdrawal he commanded a number of units, including the 6th Infantry Division, an Operational Group within Wacław Iwaszkiewicz's 6th Army, 14th Infantry Brigade, and then the 13th Infantry Brigade. After the battle of Warsaw he was promoted to the rank of Colonel. After the war he was withdrawn to the rear and, together with his unit, was responsible for shielding the border with Germany in the area of Zagłębie during the Third Silesian Uprising. A skilled organizer rather than front-line commander, between 1922 and 1923 Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński headed the engineering units of the Kraków-based 5th Military Area Command (DOK V). Then, until October 1924 he served as the head of all the engineering units of the Polish Army in the Polish Ministry of Military Affairs.
  After the creation of the Border Defence Corps (KOP), on October 10, 1924 he became the commanding officer of the 2nd Brigade of that force, based in Baranowicze. The following year he was transferred to the same post in the 1st Brigade of the KOP based in Zdołbunów. Sent to the Higher War School in Warsaw, on March 19, 1927 he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and became the commanding officer of the 10th Infantry Division. Promoter of order, cleanness and mustering, he was generally disliked by his subordinates. At the same time he proved to be a skilled organizer and an outstanding rear-line commander. Because of that between 1935 and 1937 he served as director of Państwowy Urząd Wychowania Fizycznego i Przysposobienia Wojskowego (The National Office of Physical Education and Military Training) and then in January 1938, he was made the commander of the Grodno-based 3rd Military Area Command (DOK III). Soon before the outbreak of the Polish Defensive War the DOK III was converted into the Grodno Operational Group.
caption: Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński
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