Capt. Bolesław Zajączkowski (1891, in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

– August 17, 1920, in

Zadwórze Zadwórze is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Ustrzyki Dolne, within Bieszczady County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland. It lies approximately south-east of Ustrzyki Dolne and south-east of the regional capit ...

) was a Polish lawyer and reserve officer of the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...

Polish-Ukrainian War

A former reserve NCO of the

Austro-Hungarian Army The Austro-Hungarian Army, also known as the Imperial and Royal Army,; was the principal ground force of Austria-Hungary from 1867 to 1918. It consisted of three organisations: the Common Army (, recruited from all parts of Austria-Hungary), ...

, he volunteered for the Polish forces fighting in the battle of Lwów in the Polish-Ukrainian War. During the fights for that city against the forces of the

West Ukrainian People's Republic The West Ukrainian People's Republic (; West Ukrainian People's Republic#Name, see other names) was a short-lived state that controlled most of Eastern Galicia from November 1918 to July 1919. It included major cities of Lviv, Ternopil, Kolom ...

he commanded a machine gun post at the so-called Execution Hill (), a scene of particularly heavy fights. After the successful defense of the city, he returned to civilian life only to rejoin the Polish Army after the outbreak of the Polish-Soviet War.

Polish-Soviet War

During the Budennyi's assault on Lwów he was chosen as a commander of a volunteer battalion of roughly 330 men, mostly pupils and students.

Battle of Zadwórze

All but 12 men of that volunteer battalion perished in an 11-hours long

battle of Zadwórze Battle of Zadwórze (sometimes referred to as the "Polish Thermopylae") took place during the Polish-Soviet War. It was fought on 17 August 1920, near the railway station of Zadwórze, a small village located 33 kilometres from the city centr ...

. For entire day, August 17, the unit under his command withheld repeated attack by an entire cavalry division. After their defenses were finally broken, Zajączkowski committed suicide not to fall into enemy hands. For his merits he was posthumously promoted to the rank of Major and awarded with

Virtuti Militari The War Order of Virtuti Militari (Latin: ''"For Military Virtue"'', ) is Poland's highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war. It was established in 1792 by the last King of Poland Stanislaus II of Poland, ...

medal. After the war his body was one of five to be exhumed, identified and buried with military honors at the

Lwów Eaglets Lwów Eaglets () is a term of affection that is applied to the Polish child soldiers who fought for the city of Lwów (), in Eastern Galicia, during the Polish-Ukrainian War (1918–1919). Background The city now known in Ukrainian as Lviv () ...

' Cemetery in Lwów. The battle was sometimes called "The Polish

Battle of Thermopylae The Battle of Thermopylae ( ) was fought in 480 BC between the Achaemenid Empire, Achaemenid Persian Empire under Xerxes I and an alliance of Polis, Greek city-states led by Sparta under Leonidas I. Lasting over the course of three days, it wa ...

References

Polish Army officers Lawyers from Kraków 1891 births 1920 deaths 20th-century Polish lawyers Recipients of the commemorative badge Orlęta {{poland-bio-stub