Janusz Bokszczanin

Janusz Bokszczanin (1894-1973) was a colonel of the Polish Army and one of the first Polish commanders of motorized troops.

He joined the Russian imperial army in 1914, after the outbreak of World War I. In 1917 he was allowed to join the Polish 3rd Corps being formed in Russia. With it he reached Poland in 1918 and joined the Polish Army the following year. After receiving extensive military training, in 1935 he became the chief of staff of the Wołyńska Cavalry Brigade. After that he became the commanding officer of Polish 10th Mounted Rifle Regiment. He led that unit during its reorganization from standard horse-mounted cavalry into motorized infantry. During the Polish Defensive War of 1939 he led his unit in the ranks of Col. Stanisław Maczek's Polish 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade, however he did not cross the border with Hungary and avoided being captured by the Germans and Soviets.

As one of the most experienced Polish specialists in war of manoeuvre, in 1940 he joined the ZWZ resistance organization, later to be reformed into the Home Army. Until 1943 he served as the cief of department of "fast warfare" within the headquarters of that organization. In 1944, prior to Operation Tempest, he became the chief of operations and deputy chief of staff of the entire Armia Krajowa after the failure of the Warsaw Uprising. After the Soviet takeover of Poland the Polish underground army was disbanded and Bokszczanin joined the Polish Government Delegate's Office at Home and became the deputy delegate of the Polish government in exile. He then joined the Wolność i Niezawisłość organization created to disarm the former Armia Krajowa units and help them find their place in communist-ruled post-war Poland. He served briefly as the deputy managing director of that organization, after which in October 1945 he left the country as an emissary.