Stanisław Grzmot - Skotnicki Stanisław Grzmot - Skotnicki ( ; 1894 – 1939 ) was a Polish military commander and a general of the Polish Army . During the Invasion of Poland of 1939 he commanded the Czersk Operational Group and was among the highest ranking Polish officers to be killed in action in that war . Stanisław Skotnicki was born January 13 , 1894 in the village of Skotniki ( being the root of his surname which literally means " lord of Skotniki " ) , to a family of Polish nobility ( bearing the coat - of - arms of Clan Bogoria of which the lords of Skotniki are among the most ancient and prominent branches ) . After graduating from a gymnasium in Radom , he was sent to a Trade Academy in Sankt Gallen in Switzerland . There he formed a unit of the Związek Strzelecki and started organizing military training for the Polish emigrees and students . It was then he adopted his nom de guerre of " Grzmot " ( Polish language for thunder ) , which later formed a part of his surname . Upon the outbreak of the Great War he returned to Poland , to Austro - Hungarian Galicia , where he volunteered for the service in the Polish Legions . In August 1914 he became the member of the famous Belina ' s Patrol under Władysław Belina - Prażmowski , the first detachment of the Polish Cavalry to cross the border with Privislinsky Krai . Later in the war he served in the cavalry regiment of the Legions , in which he commanded a platoon and then a squadron . After the Oath Crisis of 1917 he was interned in a camp in Beniaminów . After Poland regained her independence in November 1918 Stanisław Grzmot - Skotnicki took part in re - creation of his cavalry regiment , which later adopted the name of 1st Regiment of Light Cavalry of Józef Piłsudski ( " 1 . pułk szwoleżerów im . marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego " ) . As one of its commanders he took part in the Polish - Ukrainian War , after which he was sent to the newly created School of Cavalry Officers in Warsaw , and then to the Application School of Cavalry in Saumur in France . Upon his return , in August 1920 he became the commanding officer of the 8th Cavalry Brigade and then the entire 2nd Cavalry Division on the fronts of the Polish - Bolshevik War . After the war he became the head instructor at the Centre for Cavalry Training in Grudziądz . Between 1924 and 1927 he was the commander of the prestigious Poznań - based 15th Uhlan Regiment . Since 1927 he commanded the 9th Independent Cavalry Brigade . After the reorganization of Polish Cavalry in 1932 he commanded the " Baranowicze " cavalry brigade of the Border Defence Corps and then the Nowogródek Cavalry Brigade . Since 1937 he served as the commander of the Pomeranian Cavalry Brigade . At the start of the Invasion of Poland in 1939 , he commanded his unit as the core of the " Czersk " Operational Group which was to shield the Vistula river crossings against the German offensive and to protect the flanks of the Pomorze Army . After that unit ' s defeat in the battle of Tuchola Forest , he withdrew with the remnants of his unit to the south . During the Battle of the Bzura River he commanded a small improvised infantry unit , with which he headed for Warsaw after the Polish defeat in the battle . On September 18 , 1939 , he was heavily wounded in the village of Tułowice and died of wounds the following day . Initially buried on the spot , in 1952 his body was exhumated and moved to Warsaw ' s Powązki Military Cemetery .