17 August in military history: the Battle of Zadwórze, 1920

The name compares the stand with Leonidas at Thermopylae. Chołodecki's 1924 sketch appeared in a booklet titled Polskie Termopile and closed with the words "Here are the Polish Thermopylae, here sleep the remains of Leonidases" (our translation), and the IPN writes that the defense passed into history under that name.

Captain Bolesław Zajączkowski commanded the infantry battalion of Roman Abraham's volunteer detachment; the sources call Abraham a rotmistrz (cavalry captain) or a major. Zajączkowski took his own life at the end of the fight rather than be captured.

The IPN gives 318 killed, almost the whole battalion; Szymon Nowak's IPN booklet gives 318 to 325. Nowak also counts about 30 men taken prisoner, and writes that no one was able to estimate the Soviet losses.

Chołodecki credits it with the safe withdrawal of the 13th Infantry Division and the 12th Infantry Regiment to Winniki and Lwów, and Nowak with that of neighboring subunits of the same division and regiment. The IPN goes further and says that thanks to the volunteers the Bolsheviks did not take the city.

US troops were in the city by the morning, the last Axis troops had left Sicily, and, in the US official history, General Patton accepted the city's surrender. Alexander and the official history both count the campaign at thirty-eight days.