EDWARD RYDZ-SMIGŁY
THE POLE WHO COMMANDED LATVIANS AND HELD THE CENTRE AT THE BATTLE OF WARSAW 1886-41 POLAND
The son of a non-commissioned officer in the Austro-hungarian Army, Rydz initially trained as a painter before he was given an Austrian military education. Drafted into the Austrohungarian Army for WWI, he fought in the Polish Legions against Imperial Russian forces, and was promoted to colonel.
Upon Poland’s independence in 1918,
Rydz became Minister of War and was again promoted to brigadier general in the new
Polish Army. During the Polish-soviet War, he captured Vilnius and Daugavpils before commanding the Latvian forces and helping seize Kiev. Despite the Polish retreat, Rydz commanded the centre of Polish forces at the Battle of Warsaw, and managed to block two Soviet armies from escaping to the east.
Appointed commander-in-chief of the
Polish Armed Forces in the 1930s, Rydz was decisively defeated by Nazi Germany during the invasion of Poland in 1939. He escaped to Romania and was interned. He resigned as commander-in-chief and handed over command of Polish forces to Władysław Sikorski. He escaped internment, but died of heart failure in Warsaw.