Antoni Chruściel Gen . Antoni Chruściel ( " nom de guerre " Monter ; 1895 – 1960 ) was a Polish military officer and a general of the Polish Army . He is best known as the " de facto " commander of all the armed forces of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 , as well as Home Army ' s chief of staff . Early life . Antoni Chruściel was born 16 July 1895 in the village of Gniewczyna Łańcucka halfway between Łańcut and Przeworsk , to Andrzej Chruściel , a local farmer and the vogt of that village . In 1909 , while still a student at a local gymnasium in Jarosław , Chruściel joined the secret scouting troop ; he was also active in the Zarzewie movement . In 1914 , after the outbreak of the First World War he moved to Lwów , where he joined the Eastern Legion . Soon afterwards , as a citizen of Austria - Hungary , he was drafted into the Austro - Hungarian Army . After graduating from an NCO school in May 1915 he served at various posts , including his service as a commanding officer of a company of the 90th Infantry Regiment . After the dissolution of Austria - Hungary and the chaos at the eastern front , Chruściel ' s regiment was the only unit in the entire Austro - Hungarian Army to return to the barracks as an organized entity and with arms . Few weeks later Chruściel , together with most of his unit , joined the newly formed Polish Army . Before World War II . During the Polish - Bolshevik War Chruściel continued his NCO career in the 14th Infantry Regiment ( formed mostly of the former 90th Regiment of the Austro - Hungarian Army ) , as the commanding officer of the 5th company . In January 1922 he became the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion of that unit , after which in October 1922 he was transferred to the Lwów - based 42nd Infantry Regiment , where he served as the commanding officer of the 3rd and then 6th company . At the same time he studied law at the Lwów University . Transferred to the Cadet Corps , in 1931 he graduated from the Higher War School in Warsaw and became a professor in the Infantry Training Centre in Rembertów . In October 1934 he became the head of the Tactics Department of the War School in Warsaw . In January 1937 he started his service with the 40th Infantry Regiment as the deputy commanding officer . After finishing his practice with that unit , in March 1938 Chruściel became the commanding officer of the famed 82nd " Siberian " Infantry Regiment stationed in Brest - Litovsk as part of Gen . Cehak ' s 30th Infantry Division . World War II . Chruściel ' s regiment was secretly mobilised between 23 and 27 March 1939 , and moved to the village of Szczerców where it formed a defensive line at the Widawka River . After the outbreak of the Polish Defensive War of 1939 it entered combat on September 2 . As part of the " Piotrków Operational Group " of the Łódź Army , Chruściel ' s unit retreated towards the Modlin Fortress and took part in its defence until the capitulation of the Polish units in the area . Interned in the POW camp in Działdowo , he was released in late October , already after the end of hostilities . Fearing that his release from the prison camp was a mistake , Chruściel moved to Warsaw , where he settled under a variety of false names . In June 1940 he joined the Union of Armed Struggle ( ZWZ ) underground organization . Initially head of the 3rd division of its staff , responsible for training and tactics , since October of that year Chruściel held the post of deputy commander of the City of Warsaw ZWZ region . Uprising . On 31 July , the Polish commanders General Bór - Komorowski and Colonel Antoni Chruściel ordered full mobilization of Home Army forces for 17 : 00 the following day . Chruściel ( codename " Monter " ) commanded the Polish forces in Warsaw . Initially he divided his forces into eight areas . On 20 September , they were reorganized to align with the three areas of the city held by Polish forces . The entire force , renamed the Warsaw Home Army Corps ( Polish : Warszawski Korpus Armii Krajowej ) and commanded by General Antoni Chruściel — promoted from Colonel on 14 September — formed into three infantry divisions ( Śródmieście , Żoliborz and Mokotów ) . Upon the defeat of the Uprising , Chruściel was captured and sent to a German POW camp where he remained until his liberation by the Americans in May 1945 . Post Uprising . After the Uprising , Antoni Chruściel was taken prisoner of war by the Germans and interned in the camps of Stalag XIII - D in Langwasser near Nuremberg and then the famous Oflag IV - C in Colditz Castle . Liberated by the Americans in May 1945 , Chruściel joined the Polish II Corps and served in the Polish Army in the West until it was demobilized by the British in 1948 . Although initially Chruściel planned to return to Soviet - held Poland , he was deprived of Polish citizenship by the Communist authorities of Poland and had to remain in exile . Upon demobilization he settled in London . In 1956 he moved to Washington , DC , where he continued his work as a translator and lawyer . There he died on 30 November 1960 . On the insistence of the local Polish community , he was buried in the Polish church in Doylestown , Pennsylvania . In 1971 , already after Chruściel ' s death , the communists lifted their decree of 1946 ; the decision , however , was never made public . After the end of communist rule and the decline of Soviet domination of Poland , the veterans of the Warsaw Uprising decided to bring back the ashes of their commander to Warsaw . On 30 July 2004 , that is on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the uprising , Antoni Chruściel and his wife Waleria were given a state funeral at Warsaw ' s Powązki Military Cemetery .