Tadeusz Kutrzeba

Tadeusz Kutrzeba

General Kutrzeba shortly before signing the capitulation of Warsaw in 1939

Tadeusz Kutrzeba (15 April 1885 - 8 January 1947) was an army general of the Second Polish Republic.

Kutrzeba was born in Kraków, then part of Austria-Hungary. In 1906 he graduated with distinction from the Military Technical Academy (Wojskowa Akademia Techniczna) in Mödling and was enlisted as Second Lieutenant in a minesweeping unit.

During the Invasion of Poland in 1939 he commanded the Poznań Army composed of four infantry divisions (14, 17, 25, 26) and two cavalry brigades (Wielkopolska and Podolska). He devised the Polish counterattack plan of the battle of Bzura and commanded the Poznan and Pomorze Armies during the battle. After the siege of Warsaw he was captured by the Germans and spent the rest of the war in several prisoner of war camps: Hohenstein, Königstein and Oflag VII-A Murnau.

After World War II he became chairman of the September Campaign Historical Committee in London. He was struck with cancer and died in London on 8 January 1947.

Honours and awards

Poland

• Commander's Cross of the Virtuti Militari, previously awarded the Knight's Cross and the Silver Cross (1921)
• Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1930), previously awarded the Officer's Cross
• Cross of Valour - three times
• Gold Cross of Merit

Foreign

• Officer of the Legion of Honour (France)
• Commander's Cross of the Order of the Star of Romania
• Commander's Cross of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)
• Cross of Liberty, Class II (Estonia)
• Order of the Cross of the Eagle, Class II (1932, Estonia)
• Order of Lāčplēsis Third Class (Latvia)
• Academic Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature