Wiktor Thommée Wiktor Thommée ( 1881 – 1962 ) was a Polish military commander and a Brigadier General of the Polish Army . A veteran of the Great War and the Russian Civil War , he is best known for his command over Piotrków Operational Group and the battle of the Bzura during the Polish Defensive War of 1939 . Early life . Wiktor Thommée was born 30 December 1881 in Święciany , Russian Empire ( modern Švenčionys , Lithuania ) , to a family of distant French provenience . After graduating from trade schools in Lida and Dyneburg ( modern Daugavpils , Latvia ) , in 1901 he joined an officers ' school in St . Petersburg . In 1904 he graduated and received the grade of 2nd Lieutenant , after which he was attached to the Voronezh - based 124th Infantry Regiment . With that unit he took part in the Russo - Japanese War of 1904 - 1905 . Twice wounded , he spent several months in various hospitals , after which he was dismissed from active service for recovery and joined the Trade Institute in Kharkov ( modern Kharkiv , Ukraine ) . In 1912 he was again admitted to the Russian Army and until 1914 he studied at the Academy of the General Staff in St . Petersburg . First World War . After the outbreak of the Great War , Thommée joined the 276th Infantry Regiment and served with distinction as a commanding officer of a company and then battalion . In 1916 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and became an adjutant at the staff of the 48th Corps in the area of the Romanian front . After the Russian Revolution of 1917 , he quit the army and on 25 September 1918 he joined the Polish Army in the area of Kuban . There , on 9 November he became the " de facto " chief of staff of Lucjan Żeligowski ' s Polish 4th Rifle Division , formally a part of the Polish Blue Army allied to France , United Kingdom , U . S . and Imperial Russia . After the division returned to Poland and was reformed into the 10th Infantry Division , Thommée served as the chief of its staff during the opening stages of the Polish - Bolshevik War until August 1919 . On 22 August that year he became the head of the " Third department of the staff " ( Offensive intelligence " B " ) , controlling the intelligence net in the European part of Russia , at the North - Western Front , Masovian Front and then the Polish 1st Army under Gen . Franciszek Latinik . A skilled officer of intelligence service , Thommée asked his superiors to move him to front - line service and on 17 June 1920 he was made the commanding officer of the famous 28th " Kaniów Rifles " Infantry Regiment . For the rest of the Polish - Bolshevik War , he commanded the 19th Infantry and then 20th Infantry Brigades . For his service during the conflict , in 1922 he was promoted to the rank of Colonel ( with precedence of 1 June 1919 ) . After the Peace of Riga had been signed , Thommée remained in the army and on 10 August 1921 he was made the commanding officer of the General Army Area Brześć . On 20 October 1922 he became the first officer of the Grodno - based 3rd Military Area Command ( DOK III ) and at the same time he started his studies at the Higher War School in Warsaw . On 1 July 1923 he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and on 15 August 1924 he became the commanding officer of the 15th Infantry Division stationed in Bydgoszcz . One of the most promising staff officers of his times , in 1926 he was sent to Paris , where he graduated from the prestigious Ecole Superieure de Guerre . Upon his return to Poland he continued his service at various posts , including the command over the Toruń - based 8th Military Area Command ( DOK VIII ; 1934 – 1938 ) and then the Łódź - based 4th Military Area Command ( DOK IV ) . Second World War . At the outbreak of the Polish Defensive War , on 1 September 1939 , Thommée assumed the command over the Piotrków Operational Group , one of Polish Army Corps within the Łódź Army . Renamed to " Thommée Operational Group " on 6 September , the unit was the only part of the Łódź Army not to suffer tremendous losses during the retreat from the borders . After Gen . Juliusz Rómmel abandoned his army and defected for Warsaw , Wiktor Thommée managed to reorganise the withdrawing forces of the Łódź Army and fight the battle of Cyrusowa Wola on 8 September , in which he defeated the German 10th Infantry Division . After the battle , on 13 September his forces moved to the Modlin Fortress where Thommée assumed the command of the Modlin Army . Besieged , the forces under his command defended the area until 29 September . Due to lack of supplies , food and water , Gen . Thommée negotiated the capitulation of his forces under the condition that all the soldiers were to be treated as prisoners of war and were to be set free . Although initially the Germans honoured the treaty , on 7 November 1939 , Thommée was arrested along with a large part of his staff and was sent to Germany . He spent the remaining part of World War II in various Nazi POW camps . Initially in Oflag IV - B Koenigstein and Stalag I - B Hohenstein , he was then transferred to Oflag VIII - E Johannisbrunn . In 1942 he was sent to Oflag VII - A Murnau , from where he undertook numerous escape attempts and was finally sent to Oflag VI - B Dössel . Liberated in 1945 , he moved to the United Kingdom , where in April he joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West . Unlike most of his war - time colleagues , in January 1947 he returned to Communist - held Poland . Formally accepted into the army , he was retired and deprived of his pension . He lived in poverty in Gdynia , at times working as a janitor . It was not until the death of Bolesław Bierut and the political thaw of 1956 that Wiktor Thommée was granted with a pension and a flat in Warsaw . He died on 12 September 1962 and was buried in the " Alley of the Meritous " in Warsaw ' s Powązki Military Cemetery . On 1 January 1964 he was posthumously promoted to the rank of Division General ( Lt . Gen . ) . Awards . Throughout his life , Thommée was awarded with some of the highest Polish military decorations . Among them were :