Wincenty Kowalski Wincenty Kowalski ( 1892 – 1984 ) was a Polish military commander and a general of the Polish Army . A veteran of both World War I and World War II , he fought in all the inter - war conflicts of Poland . During the Polish Defensive War of 1939 he commanded the Polish 1st Legions Infantry Division . Biography . Wincenty Kowalski was born September 11 , 1892 in Warsaw , to a family of humble workers . After graduating from a lyceum of Stanisław Konarski , he joined the high school of Hipolit Wawelberg , the only institution of higher education in Warsaw to allow Polish language ( though not openly ) . Afterwards he moved to Liège in Belgium , where he graduated from the Machinery Building faculty of the Polytechnical Institute . During that time he joined the Związek Walki Czynnej , a secret Polish anti - tsarist organization preparing the cadres for a future anti - Russian uprising aimed at liberation of Poland . He was also a member and a tutor of the Związek Strzelecki ( ZS ) . Drafted into the Russian Army , between 1912 and 1913 he studied at the Officers ' School of Artillery in Smolensk . After that he moved to Austro - Hungarian Galicia , where he settled in Kraków . There he continued his military training at the NCO and officers ' school of the ZS . After the outbreak of the Great War , in August 1914 he joined the Polish Legions . Initially a member of the legendary 1st Cadre Company , with time he became a battalion commander within the 1st Legions Infantry Regiment . After the Oath Crisis of 1917 he was interned in Beniaminów , along with most of the Legionaries with official Russian citizenship . In November 1918 , after Poland regained her independence , he joined the newly formed Polish Army and was promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant . As one of the first experienced officers to join the army , he was immediately dispatched to Lwów , where he took part in the battle for that city and the Polish - Ukrainian War . He also fought with distinction in the Polish - Bolshevik War , for which he was promoted to the rank of Captain ( in 1919 ) and then Major ( 1920 ) . After the Peace of Riga he remained in active service . Initially both a tutor and a student at the Centre for Infantry Training in Rembertów , with time he became one of the professors of the Warsaw - based Higher War School . After finishing his studies he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1922 and then to Colonel in 1928 . After that he returned to active service in line units and served in a number of detachments based in Wilno and Modlin , among them the Wilno Fortified Camp ( since 1932 ) . Between 1937 and 1938 he served as the commanding officer of the 8th Infantry Division and then the garrison of the Modlin Fortress . As one of the more skilled Polish officers of the time , on March 19 , 1939 he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and became the commander of both the prestigious Polish 1st Legions Infantry Division and the " Wyszków Operational Group " formed around it . After the outbreak of the Polish Defensive War of 1939 , during the opening stages of World War II , Kowalski proved to be one of the most successful commanding officers in the Polish Army at that time . The units under his command entered in contact with the enemy on September 4 , in the forests around Długosiodło to the north of Warsaw . Delaying the German forces in a number of skirmishes and battles along the Narew and near Różan , Kowalski ' s units managed to retain most of their combat readiness . After the battle for Pułtusk , on September 7 , the Poles were outnumbered 3 : 1 and ordered to retreat southwards . On the road Gen . Kowalski managed not only to withdraw most of his forces , but also to rally the defeated forces of Modlin Army and Independent Operational Group Narew crowded near the bridge in Wyszków . Thanks to Kowalski ' s actions , overnight 2 divisions and ( 33rd Infantry and 41st Infantry ) , as well as the Mazowiecka Cavalry Brigade were not only rallied but also safely transported to the other side of the Bug River . Kowalski then withdrew with his forces to the area between Wyszków and Kamieńczyk , and organized a successful defence of the line there . After repelling a German assault on Brańszczyk , his forces started to slowly move southwards while performing delaying actions and keeping the combat readiness almost intact . After the German forces seized the town of Kałuszyn thus cutting out Kowalski ' s men from the safe passage towards the Romanian Bridgehead , on September 13 the division broke through enemy lines and retook the city in what became known as the battle of Kałuszyn . Despite heavy losses on the Polish side , Wincenty Kowalski managed to yet again rally a large part of his forces and continued his move towards Włodawa , Lublin and Lwów . Near Chełm , on September 18 and 19th Kowalski ' s division ( then reduced to merely a regiment after two weeks of constant fights against numerically and technically superior enemy ) was reorganized and reinforced with an improvised detachment under Stanisław Tatar . From there the division proceeded towards Tomaszów Lubelski . After a successful break through German panzers on September 21 and the German 8th Infantry Division in the battle of Falków the following day , the division arrived to the battlefield of the Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski . Outnumbered , lacking artillery , supplies , food and reduced to not more than a regiment , the division ' s assault on Tarnawatka was stopped on September 23 and wounded General Kowalski was taken prisoner of war by the Germans . After half a year in a prison hospital , in early 1940 Kowalski was transported to Oflag VII - A Murnau POW camp , where he spent the entire war . Liberated by the forces of USA on April 30 , 1945 , Kowalski joined the Polish Army in the West . Demobilized in May 1946 , he settled in London and then moved to New York . There he took active part in a variety of Polish organizations of the local Polish diaspora . Among his most notable deeds was organization of a funeral of Jan Lechoń , one of the most renown Polish poets to die in exile . He was also the head of the Association of Polish Combatants , the " Józef Piłsudski Institute of America " ( ) and the head of the Polish Brotherly Help , a non - profit venture aimed at helping the Polish political emigrants living in the United States . He died suddenly on November 29 , 1984 in River Forest . Following his last will , on September 6 , 1986 his ashes were buried at Kałuszyn war cemetery , among the fallen men of his division .