
Wladyslaw Bortnowski (12 November 1891-21 November 1966) was a Major-General of the Polish Army who commanded the Pomorze Army during World War II.
Biography[]
Wladyslaw Bortnowski was born on 12 November 1891 in Radom, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, and he studied medicine at the famous Jagiellonian University in Krakow. He joined Austria-Hungary's Polish Legion after taking part in resistance activities against Russia, and he fought in World War I. After the war's end, he became a Polish Army officer and fought in the Polish-Ukrainian War and the Polish-Soviet War, rising to the rank of Colonel in 1924 and to Brigadier-General in 1932. That year, he became an Inspector General of the Armed Forces at Torun, and he commanded the occupation of Zaolzie after Czechoslovakia agreed to the Munich Agreement in 1938. During World War II, he would lead the Pomorze Army against Nazi Germany, and he was defeated at the Battle of the Bzura before surrendering after the Fall of Warsaw. In 1945, he was liberated from a German POW camp by the US Army, and he lived the rest of his days in America, dying in Glen Cove, New York in 1966.