Anders Władysław
Władysław Anders (1872-1970): General of the Polish Army, commander of the Polish Armed Forces during World War II. He started his military career in the Russian army. During World War I he was forming the Polish Corps in St. Petersburg. He participated in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1920. In the interwar period he was the commander of the Nowogrod Cavalry Brigade. In September 1939 he fought in the Lublin territory and was taken prisoner by the Soviet. He was kept in the jails of Lvov and Moscow. After signing the Polish-Soviet agreement in July 1941 he was released and appointed the commander of the Polish Armed Forces in the USSR. In April and August 1942 he led the army and some civilians to Iran; the led by him army was since then called the Polish Army in the East. After passing through Iraq and Palestine, the Anders’s army fought in the campaigns in Italy as the 2. Polish Corps. Anders’s fame was brought by the battle of Monte Cassino on 17 May 1944, during which the attack of the 2. Corps finished the several-months siege of the fortress. Since 2 October 1944 until 5 May 1945 he served as the Commander in Chief of the Polish Armed Forces and the Inspector General of the Armed Forces. After the war he remained in exile in London. He published his war memoirs entitled "Without the last chapter." He died in 1970 and was buried in the cemetery of Polish soldiers at Monte Cassino.
