Stanisław Nałęcz-Komornicki was an outstanding officer of the Polish Army during WWII. He participated in the battles for Wał Pomorski, Kołobrzeg, and Berlin. He also commanded a platoon during the Warsaw Uprising.

The future Polish officer was born in a noble Varsovian family on the 26th of July 1924. During the 1930s, he was active in the scouting movement. From 1940 he was active in the Union of Armed Struggle, then in the Home Army.

In 1944, he took an active part in the Warsaw Uprising. He commanded a platoon in the Old Town and Powiśle. He came close to death on numerous occasions and was wounded two times during his battles. 

When asked about the fight for the city of Kołobrzeg, which took place in 1945, he recalled that Polish soldiers literally entered the water fully dressed to celebrate Poland’s recovered access to the Baltic Sea.

After the war, Komornicki studied at the Faculty of History at the University of Warsaw. His relations with the Communist authorities were tense, to say the least. He remained faithful to his patriotic ideals, which did not make him friends among Poland’s leaders in the second half of the 20th century. 

He is the author of numerous publications on the Warsaw Uprising and the fights of the last phase of World War II. He wrote of one of the first memoirs on the insurgent fights in the capital: „Na Barykadach Warszawy„, which despite having been ready for printing in 1946, was only published ten years later. 

In 1993, he was awarded the prestigious War Order of Virtuti Militari and the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

Image: Twitter @szykom89

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen