History

Battle of the Bzura was the biggest battle of the 1939 September Campaign. It was fought between two Polish armies: Army Poznań, under General Tadeusz Kutrzeba, and Army Pomorze, under General Władysław Bortnowski, and German 8th Army and 10th Army of Army Group South (“Süd”). More than 650 thousand soldiers clashed during the battle, out of whom 225 thousand fought on the Polish side. Despite initial successes, Polish armies were forced to retreat, encircled, and decimated by the prevailing German forces.

A group of several hundred soldiers from many defeated Polish regiments gathered near Leotynów. Without command and not aware of the situation, they formed an independent defence point, which held its positions probably until the end of September 1939. The Polish positions were continuously struck by German motorized infantry divisions. The fate of the soldiers who fought here are unclear; it is known that about three hundred of them died in the field. After the military operations in the area stopped, dwellers from the nearby villages buried the soldiers killed in battle.

Description

The cemetery with an area of 170 square metres is situated in the woods. In order to reach it, you have to pull off national road No. 50 to Iłów, then turn into a slag road to Radziwiłka village, go straight to the edge of the woods and turn left. The path runs behind the farms in Lontynów village, along the woods on a dune. After about 1 km climb the hill; the cemetery is deep within the woods, behind the hill.

It is a resting place for approximately three hundred soldiers from Army Poznań. It is surrounded by a low wall with posts, with a wire netting between them. Behind the gate, along the axis, there is a metal crucifix. On each side of the crucifix, there are three crosses with plates with the names of all of the soldiers killed in the battle, out of whom only seven were identified.

compiled by Bartłomiej Modrzewski, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warszawa.

Bibliography

• E. Bonusiak, Cmentarz wojenny z II w. ś. żołnierzy polskich poległych we wrześniu 1939 r., Leontynów (karta cmentarza), 1992.
• J. Wojewoda, Leontynów - cmentarz wojskowy - 300-tu jak 300 Spartan, Muzeum Ziemi Sochaczewskiej i Pola Bitwy nad Bzurą, http://muzeum.sochaczew.pl/newsshow/120?title=Leontynow-cmentarz-wojskowy-300-tu-jak-300-Spartan&sochaczew#prettyPhoto, 22 maja 2011, dostęp: 30 listopada 2015.
• J. Wojewoda, Ostatni bój okrążonych, http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/prasa/ostatni-boj-okrazonych/c78s6, 19 maja 2011, dostęp: 30 listopada 2015.