1. Leonard Wilhelm Skierski was a Polish military officer.
12 Facts About Leonard Skierski
1. 2.
Leonard Skierski was a general of the Imperial Russian Army and then served in the Polish Army.
3.
Leonard Skierski is a victim of the Katyn massacre of 1940 and was murdered by the NKVD in Kharkov in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
4.
Leonard Skierski is one of fourteen Polish generals and one of the oldest military commanders to be a victim of the Katyn massacre.
5.
Leonard Skierski's parents were Henryk Skierski and Helena nee Hassman.
6.
Early in his youth Skierski graduated from a philological school in Kielce and joined the Cadet Corps in Voronezh.
7.
Leonard Skierski quickly rose through the ranks and ended up as a colonel, leading an artillery command.
8.
Leonard Skierski was arrested by the Bolsheviks, but managed to escape to Ukraine, where he joined the Polish II Corps in Russia.
9.
Early in his Polish Army service, Leonard Skierski became known as a skilled and flexible commander of infantry units; he was highly popular among his troops.
10.
In December 1919, Leonard Skierski was withdrawn from the front and assigned to the 4th Infantry Division.
11.
Leonard Skierski managed to withdraw the army under heavy pressure from numerically superior enemy and regroup it.
12.
Leonard Skierski was held in the special NKVD interrogation camp for Polish PoWs in Starobelsk.