Jozef Kustron (16 October 1892 – 16 September 1939) was a Brigadier-General of Poland who commanded the Polish 21st Mountain Infantry Division during World War II. He was the second general to be killed in the war, after Wilhelm Fritz von Roettig and before Werner von Fritsch.
Biography[]
Jozef Kustron was born on 16 October 1892 in Neu Sandez in the German Empire (present-day Nowy Sacz, Poland). He joined the Polish Legion that fought alongside the Central Powers against the Russian Empire during World War I, as he was a former member of a revolutionary student group that fought for Poland's independence. After Poland gained independence in 1918, Kustron worked for the Ministry of Military Affairs and from July 1920 he oversaw military rail transportation during the Polish-Soviet War. On 1 October 1938 he led the Polish 21st Mountain Infantry Division under the overall command of Wladyslaw Bortnowski in the annexation of Zaolzie from Czechoslovakia, hoping to forestall an occupation of the area by Nazi Germany, who were taking over the rest of the country.
In 1939, Kustron's division fought as a part of the Krakow Army and took part in heavy fighting against the German Wehrmacht from the first day of World War II on 1 September. On 16 September, the division tried to break through to Lwow at Oleszyce, but the German 45th Infantry Division held firm and Kustron was killed in action.