Wilhelm Orlik-Rückemann

Wilhelm Orlik-Rückemann

Wilhelm Orlik-Rückemann (born August 1, 1894 in Lemberg , † October 18, 1986 in Ottawa ) was a Polish general.

Life

Wilhelm Rückemann was born in 1894 in Austro-Hungarian Galicia into a Polish family with Jewish roots. After finishing elementary school, he studied at the secondary school in Lemberg in 1910 . He became a member of the “Zarzewie” freedom association and the “Strzelec” shooting association . A degree in road and bridge construction started in 1912 in the Polytechnic of his hometown was interrupted after the outbreak of the First World War.

Early military service

From August 1914 he fought in the Austro-Hungarian army with the Polish Legion under Józef Piłsudski against the Russian troops . From November 13 to December 26, 1915, he was in command of the 1st Battalion, and from March 15 to April 4, 1916, he served as the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 6th Infantry Regiment. After the advance of the Central Powers in the Ukraine, he escaped from the Austro-Hungarian Army in July 1917 and served in the secret organization of the establishment of a national Polish army . On November 4, 1918, he officially joined the newly formed Polish Army. He was captured during the Polish-Ukrainian War and remained interned by Skoropadski's secret service until the end of 1918 . He was released after the alliance between Piłsudski and Petlura was signed.

During the Polish-Soviet War , he first led the 2nd Infantry Regiment in July 1920 and on August 16 took over the command of the 1st Panzer Regiment, which he commanded until 1921. In 1922 he served as an inspector of armored weapons in the Infantry Department of the Ministry of Defense. From 1923 to May 1927 he was again leader of the 1st Panzer Regiment, in between he was promoted to colonel on August 15, 1924 . From 1927 to 1928 he was in command of the Border Guard Brigades , after which he was in command of the 23rd Infantry Division until 1932. In January 1928 he was appointed deputy commander of the 23rd Infantry Division in Katowice . On April 30, 1927 he was appointed head of Department V in the Ministry of Military Affairs and was responsible for armored weapons. From December 6, 1930 to July 31, 1931 he attended the Fifth Leadership Course at the Higher Military School in Warsaw. On February 27, 1932, he took command of the 9th Infantry Division and was appointed Brigadier General on December 21, 1932 , a rank that came into effect on January 1, 1933. Between December 1938 and August 1939 he was Deputy Commandant of the Eastern Corpus Ochrony Pogranicza (KOP) opposite the Soviet Union .

In World War II

After the German invasion of Poland , he was confirmed as commander of the Eastern Border Guard Corps and was confronted with the border crossing of Soviet troops in the middle of the month. From September 17th, his troops were actively engaged in the fight against the invading Red Army from the east . From September 20, his troops marched on Busk , until September 25, he followed the German troops , which were returning to the demarcation line , into the Rawa Ruszka area . On the night of September 27-28, his troops approached the city of Shazk and successfully attacked the Soviet 52nd Rifle Division in the Battle of Szack . On September 30th his units crossed the Bug and were attacked in turn by the Soviet 45th Rifle Division on October 1st near the village of Wytyczno. After breaking away from the enemy, at Mielniki he was able to unite with the retired group of General Kleeberg . On October 6, 1939, the German troops surrendered in the Dęblin area . Orlik-Rückemann escaped capture by escaping in time via Lithuania to Sweden . From there, thanks to the help of the Polish consulate, he got to Great Britain at the end of October .

Until the end of the war, Orlik-Rückemann held various staff positions in the Polish government- in- exile in London . From 1945–1947 he worked in the Polish Corps General Inspectorate for distribution policy in Great Britain. In 1947 General Orlik-Rückemann retired and remained in exile. He lived in London long before he followed his family to Canada in 1972 . He died in Ottawa in 1986 and was buried there.

literature

• Janusz Piekałkiewicz : Polenfeldzug , Augsburg 1998, (biography in the glossary) ISBN 3-86047-907-5 .

Web links

• Biography on 1939.pl (Polish)