Władysław Anders Władysław Anders ( 11 August 1892 – 12 May 1970 ) was a General in the Polish Army and later in life a politician with the Polish government - in - exile in London . Biography . Anders was born on 11 August 1892 to his Baltic - German father Albert Anders and his mother Elizabeth , born Tauchert , in the village of Krośniewice – Błonie , near Kutno which at that time was part of the Russian Empire ( Partitions of Poland ) . He was baptized as a member of the Protestant Evangelical - Augsburg Church in Poland ; but while being kept in Soviet prisons he made a promise that if he survived and regained strength in his legs ( he was seriously injured ) he would convert to Roman Catholicism . He did survive , and did indeed convert . While an undergraduate at Riga Technical University Anders became a member of the Polish student fraternity Arkonia . As a young officer , he served Tsar Nicholas II in the 1st Krechowiecki Lancer ' s Regiment during World War I , later joining the Polish Army and again serving in cavalry as a commanding officer in 15th Poznań Uhlans Regiment . Colonel Anders was chief of staff of the government forces during Piłsudski ' s May Coup of 1926 and was bitterly opposed to President Wojciechowski ' s decision to surrender to the rebels . Unlike the government ' s top commander Tadeusz Rozwadowski , he avoided persecution by the Sanation regime that assumed power after the coup . Anders was in command of a cavalry brigade at the time of the outbreak of World War II . The Polish forces were no match for the larger and better equipped German Wehrmacht with their massive Blitzkrieg tactics and were forced to retreat to the east . During the fighting and retreat Anders was wounded a number of times . He was later taken prisoner by Soviet forces and was jailed , initially in Lviv ( then Lwów ) and later in Lubyanka prison in Moscow . During his imprisonment Anders was tortured . Shortly after the attack on the Soviet Union by Germany on 22 June 1941 , Anders was released by the Soviets with the aim of forming a Polish Army to fight alongside the Red Army . Continued friction with the Soviets over political issues as well as shortages of weapons , food and clothing , led to the eventual exodus of Anders ' men – known as the Anders Army – together with a sizeable contingent of Polish civilians via the Persian Corridor into Iran , Iraq and Palestine . Here , Anders formed and led the 2nd Polish Corps , fighting alongside the Western Allies , while agitating for the release of Polish nationals still in the Soviet Union . Anders was the commander of the 2nd Polish Corps in Italy 1943 – 1946 , capturing Monte Cassino in the Battle of Monte Cassino . After the war the Soviet - installed communist government in Poland in 1946 deprived him of Polish citizenship and of his military rank . Anders had , however , always been unwilling to return to a Soviet - dominated Poland where he probably would have been jailed and possibly executed , and remained in exile in Britain . He was prominent in the Polish Government in Exile in London and inspector - general of the Polish forces - in - exile . After the war Anders wrote a book covering his thoughts and experiences . " An Army in Exile " was published originally by MacMillan & Co . , London , in 1949 . The book has been recently re - issued under the same title . In 1948 he married the actress Irena Anders . He died in London on 12 May 1970 , where his body lay in state at the church of Andrzej Bobola , where many of his former soldiers and families came to pay their last respects . He was buried , in accordance with his wishes , amongst his fallen soldiers from the 2nd Polish Corps at the Polish War Cemetery at Monte Cassino in Italy . After the collapse of Communist Poland in 1989 , his citizenship and military rank were posthumously reinstated . Medals . Foreign . Czechoslovakia France Italy Knights of Malta Persia Russia ( Imperial Russia ) United Kingdom United States of America Yugoslavia ( Royal )