1920 War veteran gets promotion
PR dla Zagranicy John Beauchamp 24.02.2012 12:16
Poland’s Defence Minister Tomasz Siemioniak promoted Józef Kowalski, a 112-year-old war veteran, to the rank of Captain. The promotion was bestowed upon Kowalski on Thursday, when the minister visited an old people’s home in Tursk, western Poland, where the veteran has resided since 1990.
Kowalski is the last living soldier of the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1920. He fought in the victorious Battle of Warsaw in August 1920, in which the Polish Army defeated the Bolsheviks, driving them back into Soviet Russia.
Józef Kowalski is the oldest living man in Poland. He received the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Reborn Poland for his 100th birthday. He also holds honorary citizenship of Warsaw and Radzymin, as well as the Pro Memoria medal of the Union of Polish War Veterans. (mk/jb)
112-year-old veteran Józef Kowalski. Photo: PAP/Lech Muszyńskitags: veteran
Last Polish-Soviet War Veteran
Last Polish-Soviet War Veteran
http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/91254 ... -promotion
Re: Last Polish-Soviet War Veteran
http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/15553 ... quote]Last veteran of Polish-Soviet War dies, aged 113
PR dla Zagranicy Nick Hodge 10.12.2013 10:58
The last veteran of the 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet War has died at a nursing home in Tursk, western Poland.
Polish officers 1920. Photo: wikipedia
Captain Jozef Kowalski, who was born in 1900, was due to turn 112 in February. As a young cavalryman he fought as a lancer against the Red Army in the fabled Battle of Komarow on 31 August 1920. The clash, near Zamosc in south east Poland, marked the largest cavalry battle in European warfare since 1813. Polish commander Juliusz Rommel routed the Russian forces, providing a crippling blow to the Red Army's cavalry. Within days Poles had won a subsequent victory in the Battle of Warsaw, the so-called 'Miracle on the Vistula,' during which the Red Army was repulsed from the gates of the Polish capital.
Kowalski later served in the Second World War, during which he endured a period of imprisonment in a German forced labour camp. Two years ago, on his 110th birthday, he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by President Bronislaw Komorowski. British Ambassador in Warsaw during the Polish-Soviet War Lord'Abernon concluded that the Polish victory had “saved Central, and parts of Western Europe from... the fanatical tyranny of the Soviet.” (nh)
Source: IAR[/quote]
PR dla Zagranicy Nick Hodge 10.12.2013 10:58
The last veteran of the 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet War has died at a nursing home in Tursk, western Poland.
Polish officers 1920. Photo: wikipedia
Captain Jozef Kowalski, who was born in 1900, was due to turn 112 in February. As a young cavalryman he fought as a lancer against the Red Army in the fabled Battle of Komarow on 31 August 1920. The clash, near Zamosc in south east Poland, marked the largest cavalry battle in European warfare since 1813. Polish commander Juliusz Rommel routed the Russian forces, providing a crippling blow to the Red Army's cavalry. Within days Poles had won a subsequent victory in the Battle of Warsaw, the so-called 'Miracle on the Vistula,' during which the Red Army was repulsed from the gates of the Polish capital.
Kowalski later served in the Second World War, during which he endured a period of imprisonment in a German forced labour camp. Two years ago, on his 110th birthday, he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by President Bronislaw Komorowski. British Ambassador in Warsaw during the Polish-Soviet War Lord'Abernon concluded that the Polish victory had “saved Central, and parts of Western Europe from... the fanatical tyranny of the Soviet.” (nh)
Source: IAR[/quote]
Re: Last Polish-Soviet War Veteran
That's a bummer. I know we lost the last (known) World War I veterans last year, and with them a piece of history.