[COMMANDER OF THE LANCER PUŁK] II RP Virtuti Militari After the Last Commander of the 11th Lancer Regiment of the Legions (Ciechanów) - Col. Mączewski

The award cross number 3711 of the Order of Virtuti Militari after Colonel Wladyslaw Maczewski - the last commander of the 11th Cavalry Regiment of the Edward Rydz Smigly Legions, who led the regiment to fight in the September Campaign. A cavalry officer with a full combat resume covering all the key conflicts for Polish independence in the first half of the 20th century.

Mączewski (1894-1979) belonged to the Legion generation - he served in the Polish Legions from 1915, went through World War I, and then participated in the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Bolshevik wars. A cavalry line officer, he was wounded, interned after the oath crisis, and from 1918 was actively involved in building the structures of the Polish Army.

In the interwar period, he developed a commanding career, completing his training at the Cavalry Training Center and assuming staff and line positions. In 1938 he took command of the 11th Legion Cavalry Regiment - a unit with a legion tradition and high prestige in the cavalry structures of the Second Republic.
As commander of the regiment, he took part in the 1939 September campaign, fighting near Mława and Kaluszyn, among other places. After the surrender, he was taken prisoner by the Germans, remaining a prisoner oflag until 1945.

After liberation, he continued his service in the Polish Armed Forces in the West, reaching the rank of colonel. His biography is a model example of the fate of an officer of the Second Republic - from the Legions, through the war of 1920, the 1939 campaign, German captivity, to his military service in exile.
An object of museum class: not an anonymous decoration, but a direct relic attributed to the commander of a cavalry regiment of the Second Republic.