Prugar-Kettling, Bronilaw.

Prugar-Kettling, Bronilaw, born on 02-07-1891 in Trześniów   the son of Karol Prugar (a local farmer and Ludwika, born Rymarowicz. After the death of his father Bronilaw was raised by his uncle Wojciech, a priest, an old pastor of the Holy Trinity parish in Babie. Bronilaw came from the Prugar family, who settled in Trześniów around the 15th century. He went to primary school in Jaćmierz. In 1910 he passed his high school graduation at CK Male Gymnasium in Sanok (his class included Józef Hukiewicz, Major Władysław Kubala, and Polish neurologist , doctor of medical sciences , colonel doctor of the Polish army, victim of the Katyn massacre, Stefan Mozołowski. After graduating from high school, he completed a year of military service. Before World War I, from 1910 to 1914, he studied at the Faculty of Law and Political Skills of the Franciscan University in Lviv.   Prugar-Ketling had sisters: Bronisława (husband Kolodziej) and Aniela (husband Madej).On 16-10-1920 in Sanok he married Maria Anna Borczyk (born 1894, daughter of a shoemaker from Sanok, Antoni Borczyk, sister of Czesław, teacher by profession, also member of the Bartosz Teams, with whom he had sons: Bogusław (born 1926) and Zygmunt (born 1928).

In his youth, in his hometown of Trześniów, he founded the Bartosze Sport Teams, of which he was the head. In addition, he founded several DB teams in the Poviats Sanok, Brzozów and Przemyśl. In 1913 he completed two military courses (in Brzuchowice and Dublany), and was then appointed rotor and cadet. After that he was also a rotator in Sanocka Banner of Bartosze Teams, founded on 03-08-1911. He was a DB instructor in the Sanok, Brzozów and Przemyśl poviats. He was appointed to the rank of cadet by the Commissioner of the Sanok Banner, DB Bronisław Tustanowski. During World War I he served in the 1st and 2nd Armies. The parent unit was the Infantry Regiment No. 89. He was appointed a second lieutenant with the seniority of 01-01-1916 in the corps of reserve officers of the infantry. He was wounded twice and in 1916 he was captured by the Russians. After escaping from captivity in 1917, he joined the Polish Military Organization, was evacuated due to illness and made it to France via Murmansk and England. There he joined Haller’s army in 1918 and obtained the rank of captain. From July to November of this year 1918, he was a company commander and then commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Polish Rifle Regiment (renamed the 44th Infantry Regiment of Borderlands Rifles after returning to the country).

In 1919 he returned to the independent Second Republic of Poland with Haller’s army.  At the head of the battalion he took part in the Polish-Bolshevik War. After the war he dropped out with his doctorate in law  The Polish–Soviet War (late autumn 1918 / 14 February 1919 – 18 March 1921) was fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution, on territories which were formerly held by the Russian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

On 02-02-1920, he was a student of the Second Military Training Course of the General Staff School. In mid-April 1920 he was sent to the front for staff training. He was the head of the operations department in the staff of the colonel’s operational group. General Józef Rybak, who was part of Lieutenant General Edward Śmigły-Rydz‘s

3rd Army. He then headed the 3rd Operational Division of the Staff of General Leonard Skierski’s 4th Army. General Skierski was one of fourteen Polish Generals and one of the oldest military commanders to be murdered by the NKVD in the Katyn massacre of 1940.

In July 1929 Prugar-Ketling was transferred to the 45th Infantry Regiment of Borderlands Rifles in Równe in the position of regimental commander  From October 1935 to October 1938 he was head of the Infantry Division of the Ministry of Military Affairs in Warsaw. From October 1938 to August 1939 he was the infantry commander of the 11th Carpathian Infantry Division in Stanisławów.

During the September campaign, he commanded the 11th Carpathian Infantry Division of the “Karpaty” Army. Among other things, the division led by him famously crashed into a night strike of the SS motorized regiment “Germania”.He avoided German captivity. Via Hungary he arrived in France, where he was appointed commander of the 2nd Infantry Rifle Division on 11-11-1939 . Together with Colonel Stanisław Maczek

   was promoted to senior Brigadier General on 15-09-1939. General Maczek was later one of the liberators of the Netherlands.

At the head of the division, he took part in the 1940 French Campaign , fighting in May and June 1940 as part of the 45th French Corps The division was focused on the areas of southeastern France, including taking part in the battle of the Clos du Doubs hills in Alsace. On the orders of General Władysław Sikorski

  on 19/20 June 1940, Prugar-Ketling crossed the border into Switzerland with the majority of his troops (about 12,000 soldiers) and spent the rest of the war interned.In mid-1945 he submitted to the Provisional Government of National Unity and returned to Poland in the autumn of that year  He was the head of the Cabinet of the Commander in Chief and Minister of National Defence, Polish Marshal Michał Rola-Żymierski

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Death and burial ground of Prugar-Kettling, Bronilaw.

He died on 18-02-1948 at the age of 57, in Warsaw and was buried in Aleja Zasłużonych at the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw on 20-02-1948 (Section A25-grave-22)

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