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<\/a>The history of these heroes of the fight for the independence of Poland reborn after the partitions – unfortunately, most of them do not know their names – began at the end of October 1918. At that time, numerous detachments of demobilised soldiers from the Austro-Hungarian army and Russian prisoners of war found themselves in the area of the Zag\u00f3rz railway junction. In order to prevent excesses on the part of the military, whose morale had been greatly strained by the chaos engulfing the partitioning empires, the railwaymen of Zag\u00f3rz took matters into their own hands. „(…) With the knowledge and permission of the head of the Zag\u00f3rz railway station at the time, Mr. Rolicki, we formed a guard patrol, whose task was to garrison railway facilities and protect property that was to be the property of the Polish state. (…)”\u00a0 – This is an excerpt from the memoirs of Bronis\u0142awDziedzicki. He was one of the participants in a successful operation to take control of the railway infrastructure located within Zag\u00f3rz. In very scarce historical sources concerning this event, apart from Bronis\u0142awDziedzicki, the following people were mentioned:\u00a0 Ludwik Marko, Leon Sikorski, Milasz (first name unknown), Edward Lichy and four other volunteers unknown by name. As early as November 3, 1918, the railway guard was reinforced with a company of the 3rd Battalion of the Sanok Riflemen. As the Polish-Ukrainian armed conflict over the nationality of eastern Galicia escalated, the Zag\u00f3rz railway junction gained in strategic importance with each passing day.<\/p>\n The local community’s response to the numerous challenges posed by the Ukrainian military offensive was to establish the Committee for the Defence of the Zag\u00f3rz Junction. This body, created on the initiative of Dr Jan Puzdrowski, included: Andrzej Batruch, Leon Jas\u0142owski, Jan Ma\u015blanik, Aleksander Stroi\u0144ski, W\u0142adys\u0142awOzgaj and Zygmunt Grzebie\u0144. The increasingly difficult situation on the Polish-Ukrainian front required the involvement of extraordinary forces and resources. Polish armoured trains set out to the relief of Lw\u00f3w and Przemy\u015bl, defended by teenage defenders who went on to become known as the Lviv and Przemy\u015bl Eaglets. There were several of them, but in the context of the military operations conducted within the Zag\u00f3rz railway junction, the trains named „Kozak” and „Gromob\u00f3j” are most frequently mentioned. The circumstances of their construction and the detailed course of their service are the subject of frequently contradictory inquiries and interpretations by a narrow circle of professional historians and railway enthusiasts. This does not change the fact that the above-mentioned armoured trains played a key role in the rebuilding of Polish statehood in what is now known as eastern Galicia.<\/p>\n An example of the dedication and bravery of the crews of the armoured trains, operating on the railway tracks converging in Zag\u00f3rz, is the tragic story of a member of the crew of the armoured train „Kozak”, Second Lieutenant Stanis\u0142awSasKorczy\u0144ski. In 1917, as a graduate of the Sanok gymnasium, he was drafted into the Austrian army. After graduating from a one-year military school in Vienna, the newly-graduated artilleryman was sent to the Italian front, from where he returned to Sanok at the beginning of November 1918, after the fall of Austria-Hungary as an ensign. Here he reported to the local command of the reborn Polish Army. After being assigned to the newly created Podkarpacie Group, Ensign Stanis\u0142awSasKorczy\u0144ski as a gunner of the armoured train „Kozak” on November 23, 1918 set off to the region of Chyr\u00f3w which was besieged by Ukrainian troops. On the first day of 1919 the rail gunner was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. Unfortunately, the same month he died in circumstances that were described by his mother Amalia SasKorczy\u0144ska in a letter to the military authorities preserved in the Central Military Archives: „(…) on January 19, 1919 during an intelligence excursion organized by the „Kozak” armoured train, he died on the railway track near Chyr\u00f3w, hit by a grenade (…), by his own cannon, together with his servicemen, i.e. CHMURA serving for one year and \u015aL\u0104SKI. All were buried in the Central Cemetery in Sanok. They were among the many now sadly mostly nameless Polish patriots who, by giving their lives for the reborn Homeland, created the legend of the 1918 Defenders of the Zag\u00f3rz Railway Junction. With a view to commemorating their heroic deeds, commemorative Crosses of the Defenders of the Zag\u00f3rz Junction were awarded from 7 November 1920.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
a patrol on the railway bridge on
the Os\u0142awa River. Photo From the
collection of Grzegorz Nycz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n