Henryk Toruńczyk
Appearance
Henryk Toruńczyk | |
---|---|
Born | Włocławek, Russian Empire | 8 February 1909
Died | 18 January 1966 Warsaw, Polish People's Republic | (aged 56)
Buried | Powązki Military Cemetery, Warsaw |
Allegiance | Polish People's Republic |
Service | International Brigades Polish People's Army |
Rank | Pułkownik (Colonel) |
Unit | XIII International Brigade Polish Independent Special Battalion Internal Security Corps |
Commands | Commander of the XIII International Brigade Commander of the Internal Security Corps |
Battles / wars | Spanish Civil War Second World War |
Awards | ( | )
Col. Henryk Torunczyk, born in Włocławek, (1909–1966) was a Polish soldier. He later volunteered to fight with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. He was sometime commander of the Naftali Botwin Company; Chief of Staff[1] of XIII International Brigade and leader of an International Unit[2] formed in January 1939 from a rump of Brigade veterans who remained in Spain after demoblisation.[3] They crossed the border in Spain on about 9 January 1939[4] He later became a partisan.[5] From 1943 he was instrumental in forming the Samodzielny Batalion Szturmowy.[6] In 1945 he was briefly commanding officer of the Polish Internal Security Corps.
He is also called: Henrik Torunczyk and Henrik Tourunczyk.
Awards and decorations
[edit]- Order of the Banner of Labour]], 1st Class
- Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (13 July 1955)
- Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 3rd Class
- Gold Cross of Virtuti Militari
- Partisan Cross
- Medal "For Your Freedom and Ours"
- Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd Class (USSR)
See also
[edit]- Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, 4th Rev. Ed. 2001.
- Antony Beevor, The Battle for Spain, 2007.
- Cecil Eby, Comrades and Commissars, 2007.
References
[edit]- ^ (in Spanish) Order of Battle site
- ^ "A ghost brigade ... [it] soon fell apart" Eby, Comrades and Commissars, p 415.
- ^ Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, p 855
- ^ Beevor, The Spanish Civil War, p855.
- ^ AJEX: Jews in the Spanish Civil War
- ^ Ryszard Terlecki, Miecz i tarcza komunizmu. Historia aparatu bezpieczeństwa w Polsce 1944-1990, Kraków 2007, s. 10.