„Z ostatnich chwil bohatera”. Podporucznik Jan Antoni Władysław Hernich (10.03.1899-1.08.1920)
„The last moments of a hero”. Lieutenant Jan Antoni Władysław Hernich 10.03.1899-1.08.1920

Summary/Abstract: Jan Antoni Władysław Hernich (1899-1920) was a native of Wadowice and a pupil of the Wadowice Secondary School, a legionnaire and later an officer of the 12th Wadowice Land Infantry Regiment. He died on August 1st, 1920 in the battle of Leszniów in Volhynia, as the only officer of this regiment born in Wadowice, the town where the regiment was formed and which later became its peaceful garrison. The battle fought by the 12th IR against the 1st Horse Army of Siemion Budionny for the rebound of Leszniów occupied by the Bolsheviks was part of the Polish Army’s operation to regain Brody and stop the Bolshevik army in its march to Lviv. The Wadowice Land Infantry Regiment played an important and glorious role in this operation, and the anniversary of beating the Bolsheviks near Leszniów was later celebrated as the 12th IR, and the figure of Jan Hernich was considered a hero of the regiment. The article recalls the fate of a young hero – a contemporary Wadowician completely unknown – who as a young boy engaged in the struggle for Polish independence, and brie y describes the four-day struggle of the regiment between Beresteczko and Brody. There is also a memoir of one of Jan Hernich’s colleagues, who described the death of his friend in 1924 in the regiment’s commemorative publication. The author of the article, on the example of the losses of the 12th IR in the battle of Leszniów, also pointed out the contradictions in the records concerning the regiment’s war losses given in various sources and publications.

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