Władysław Bortnowski Władysław Bortnowski ( 1891 - 1966 ) was a Polish historian , military commander and one of the highest ranking generals of the Polish Army . He is most famous as the commander of the Pomorze Army to take part in the battle of Bzura during the invasion of Poland in 1939 . Bortnowski was born November 12 , 1891 in Radom , Congress Poland , Russian Empire . After graduating from a gymnasium in Zhytomir he joined the Jagiellonian University of Kraków and graduated from its medical faculty . A member of both the Związek Walki Czynnej and Związek Strzelecki , he received officer ' s training in the latter . After the outbreak of the Great War he joined the Polish Legions and commanded a platoon in the ranks of the 1st Infantry Regiment . A promising officer , in the rank of Second Lieutenant he became the commanding officer of a company of 5th Infantry Regiment and then an adjutant of the 7th Regiment . Wounded in the battle of Łowczówek , after the Oath Crisis of 1917 he was arrested and interned in the POW camp in Beniaminów . After Poland was re - established following World War I , Bortnowski joined its Armed Forces and was verified in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel . In December he became the operations officer of the Polish 1st Legions Infantry Division , composed mostly of his colleagues of the Polish Legions . A veteran of both the Polish - Ukrainian War and the Polish - Bolshevik War , in October 1920 he became the chief of staff of the 3rd Army under Zygmunt Zieliński . After the cease - fire , in November of that year he was sent to Paris , where he received training at the Ecole Superieure de Guerre . In 1922 he graduated and returned to Poland , where he received further practice at various posts , notably in the staff of the Army Inspectorate in Wilno ( modern Vilnius , Lithuania ) . On August 15 , 1924 he was promoted to the rank of Colonel and in October of the following year he became the commanding officer of the Kutno - based 37th Infantry Regiment . After the May Coup d ' État , in November 1926 he became the commander of infantry of the 26th Infantry Division and then , since 1931 the Zamość - based 3rd Legions Infantry Regiment , one of the most prestigious units of the Polish Army . On January 1 , 1932 he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General . From October 12 until March 28 , 1938 , He served as an Inspector General of the Armed Forces at Toruń . In the autumn of 1938 Bortnowski was nominated to the command of Zaolzie Operational Group which occupied the Zaolzie area of Czechoslovakia after the Munich Agreement . After the success of the operation , he was appointed to the General Staff as the Army Inspector . Prior to the outbreak of the Polish Defensive War , on March 1 , 1939 , he was promoted to the rank of Division General and became the commanding officer of the Pomorze Army , the northernmost of the Polish armies to take part in the war . Despite difficult situation resulting from the orders of the Marshal of Poland Edward Rydz - Śmigły , he managed to save a large part of his forces and withdraw with them southwards , to take part in the Battle of Bzura . Heavily wounded in the battle , on September 21 he was taken prisoner of war by the Germans . He spent the rest of World War II in various Nazi POW camps , including Oflag IV - B Koenigstein , Oflag VIII - E Johannisbrunn and finally the Oflag VII - A Murnau . Liberated in 1945 , he remained in exile after the war . Initially in Great Britain , in 1954 he moved to the United States . He died November 21 , 1966 in Doylestown , Pennsylvania . Honours and awards . Among the military decorations he received are :