Jan Jagmin-Sadowski

Jan Jagmin-Sadowski (April 24, 1895 in Grojec – October 5, 1977 in Warsaw), was a general of the Polish Army in the interbellum period, also member of Józef Piłsudski's legions.

In the early XX century, Sadowski studied mechanics at the Lviv Polytechnic, and there he got in touch with Polish independence movement. He became a member of the Polish Socialist Party - Revolutionary Fraction, as well as Polish Rifles and the Sokol movement. After outbreak of World War I, he volunteered to the 1st Legionnaire Rifles Regiment. In 1914 he distinguished himself in battles of Anielin and Łaski, next year he fought at Łowiczowek, Konary and Jozefowek. In 1916, as soldier of the I Brigade of the Polish Legions, he fought in the bloody battle of Kostiuchnówka. After the Oath crisis, Sadowski, together with other officers, was interned in a prisoner of war camp in Beniaminów.

In the Second Polish Republic, Sadowski, then a colonel, was an instructor at the School of Infantry Officers in Warsaw. In 1919 he entered the Polish Army Headquarters' School in Warsaw, then was sent on a two-year course to Ecole Superieure de Guerre in Paris. After graduation, Sadowski was promoted to major and became commandant of the elite 15. "Wolves" Infantry Regiment in Dęblin. Later on, in 1931, he was named commandant of the Polish 23rd Infantry Division, stationed in Katowice.

On March 19, 1939, Sadowski was promoted to general, and took command of the freshly created Upper Silesian Fortified Area. During the Polish September Campaign, he was commandant of the Âlàsk Operational Group, which was part of the Kraków Army. His units were engaged in heavy fights with advancing Wehrmacht, especially in the area of Mikołów and Wyry. However, the Germans managed to break through Polish defence and Sadowski ordered his men to retreat behind the Przemsza. In mid-September 1939 Edward Rydz-Śmigły renamed his Group into Operational Group Jagmin. His troops participated in the defence of Kraków, then fought in the area of Kielce and finally, in the Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski, where they were defeated.

After the campaign, Sadowski was kept in a POW camp in Wollenberg, where he spent the war. In 1946 he returned to Poland, where he was forced to move to reserve. In 1976 his name once again became famous, when Sadowski, protesting against conferring Virtuti Militari to Leonid Brezhnev, together with other war weterans, left his own Virtuti Militari at the Jasna Góra Monastery. He authored several books, including Dzialania Grupy Operacyjnej "Slask" 1-3 wrzesnia 1939 r. (Activities of the Slask Operational Group, September 1-3, 1939).