Wiktor Thommée

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R.I.P
Wiktor

Wiktor Thommée (1881–1962) was a Polish military commander and a brigadier general of the Polish Army. A veteran of the Great War and the Russian Civil War, he is best known for his command over Piotrków Operational Group and the battle of the Bzura during the Invasion of Poland of 1939.

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Early life Wiktor Thommée was born 30 December 1881 in Sventiany, Russian Empire (modern Švenčionys, Lithuania), to a Polish family of distant French provenance. After graduating from trade schools in Lida and Dyneburg (modern Daugavpils, Latvia), in 1901 he joined an officers' school in St. Petersburg. In 1904 he graduated and received the grade of second lieutenant, after which he was attached to the Voronezh-based 124th Infantry Regiment. With that unit he took part in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Twice wounded, he spent several months in various hospitals, after which he was dismissed from active service for recovery and joined the Trade Institute in Kharkov (modern Kharkiv, Ukraine). In 1912 he was again admitted to the Russian Army and until 1914 he studied at the Academy of the General Staff in St. Petersburg.

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First World War After the outbreak of the Great War, Thommée joined the 276th Infantry Regiment and served with distinction as a commanding officer of a company and then battalion. In 1916 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and became an adjutant at the staff of the 48th Corps in the area of the Romanian front. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, he quit the army and on 25 September 1918 he joined the Polish Army in the area of Kuban. There, on 9 November he became the de facto chief of staff of Lucjan Żeligowski's Polish 4th Rifle Division, formally a part of the Polish Blue Army allied to France, United Kingdom, U.S. and Imperial Russia. After the division returned to Poland and was reformed into the 10th Infantry Division, Thommée served as the chief of its staff during the opening stages of the Polish-Bolshevik War until August 1919. On 22 August that year he became the head of the Third department of the staff (Offensive intelligence "B"), controlling the intelligence net in the European part of Russia, at the North-Western Front, Masovian Front and then the Polish 1st Army under Gen. Franciszek Latinik. A skilled…Citește mai mult

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Second World War At the outbreak of the Invasion of Poland, on 1 September 1939, Thommée assumed the command over the Piotrków Operational Group, one of Polish Army Corps within the Łódź Army. Renamed to Thommée Operational Group on 6 September, the unit was the only part of the Łódź Army not to suffer tremendous losses during the retreat from the borders. After Gen. Juliusz Rómmel left his army for Warsaw, Wiktor Thommée managed to reorganise the withdrawing forces of the Łódź Army and fight the battle of Cyrusowa Wola on 8 September, in which he defeated the German 10th Infantry Division. After the battle, on 13 September his forces moved to the Modlin Fortress, where Thommée assumed the command of the Modlin Army. Besieged, the forces under his command defended the area until 29 September. Due to lack of supplies, food and water, Gen. Thommée negotiated the capitulation of his forces under the condition that all the soldiers were to be treated as prisoners of war and were to be set free. Although initially the Germans honoured the treaty, on 7 November 1939, Thommée was arrested along with a large part of his staff and was sent to Germany.…Citește mai mult

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Awards Throughout his life, Thommée was awarded with some of the highest Polish military decorations. Among them were:

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References "Kowalski Wincenty (1892-1984)". Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish) (November 14). 2005. "Kampania wrześniowa 1939 roku - próba bilansu". Oblicza Historii (in Polish) (2/2004). 2004. "THOMMÉE, WIKTOR-". Wielka Encyklopedia PWN (in Polish) (web ed.). 2003. Zbigniew Mierzwiński (1990). Generałowie II Rzeczypospolitej (in Polish). Warsaw, Polonia. ISBN 83-7021-096-1. Jacek Macyszyn (1999). Generałowie polscy (in Polish). Pruszków, Ajaks. ISBN 83-87103-72-1. Tadeusz Kryska-Karski (1991). Generałowie Polski niepodległej (in Polish). Stanisław Żurakowski. Warsaw, Editions Spotkania. Томме Виктор Эдуардович // Русская армия в Первой мировой войне (in Russian).