Battle of Warsaw (1920)
The battle of Warsaw was fought from August 12–25, 1920 as Red Army forces commanded by Mikhail Tukhachevsky approached the Polish capital of Warsaw and the nearby Modlin Fortress. On August 16, Polish forces commanded by Józef Piłsudski counterattacked from the south, disrupting the enemy's offensive, forcing the Russian forces into a disorganized withdrawal eastward and behind the Neman River. Estimated Russian losses were 10,000 killed, 500 missing, 30,000 wounded, and 66,000 taken prisoner, compared with Polish losses of some 4,500 killed, 10,000 missing, and 22,000 wounded.
Juliusz Rómmel
In March 1939, he was given command of the Łódź Army, a Polish tactical group that was to link the southern and northern flanks of the Polish Army during the probable war with Germany. He positioned his forces close to the border with Germany. When the Polish Defensive War finally broke out on 1 September 1939, this proved to be a fatal move. Without any natural defences, Rómmel's army was easily outmaneuvered and cut out from the rest of the Polish forces, without much chance to act as a pivot of the Polish defences or even withdraw. Under still uncertain circumstances, Rómmel and his staff were separated from his army and headed for Warsaw, arriving on the night of 7–8 September. The Commander-in-Chief, Edward Rydz-Śmigły, (then in Brześć), gave him command over all the Polish forces in the "ad hoc" Warsaw Army, which included the Warsaw Defense Force under General Walerian Czuma and the Modlin Fortress defense force under General Wiktor Thommée. Rydz-Śmigły gave him a signed order to "..defend the city as long as ammunition and food lasts, to hold as many of the enemy forces as possible." He signed all the proclamations to the civilian population. Before the surrender, Rómmel authorized Gen. Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski to create the Służba Zwycięstwu Polski. On 27 September Rómmel started negotiations with Nazi Germany regarding the surrender of Warsaw. Rómmel allowed Michał Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz to engage in further battles and operations to maintain the independence and the integrity of the borders, which became the nucleus for the Polish underground organization.