officer of Pomeranian Army, the northernmost of the Polish armies to take part in the war. September Campaign During the September Campaign, also known as the Polish Defensive War, Bortnowski commanded the Pomeranian Army. Having been surrounded from two sides by Nazi German forces, the Pomeranian Army was forced to fight several bloody battles while retreating southwards towards Poznań and Warsaw, including the Battle of Tuchola Forest. On 9 September, Bortnowski subordinated the Pomeranian Army under the Poznań Army led by General Tadeusz Kutrzeba. Next, the combined forces of the Pomeranian and Poznań Armies took part in the Battle of the Bzura, a counter-offensive devised by Kutrzeba. Bortnowski's forces were most notable for fighting near the outskirts of Łowicz and Sochaczew. On 14 September, he was ordered to retreat onto the northern side of the Bzura River which resulted in the definite retreat of both the Pomeranian and Poznań Armies towards Warsaw. On 21 September, Borntowski was captured by German forces and held as a prisoner-of-war. German captivity and post-war life Bortnowski spent the rest of World War II in various Nazi prisoner-of-war camps, such as Oflag IV-B Koenigstein, Oflag VIII-E Johannisbrunn and finally Oflag VII-A Murnau. Liberated in 1945 by American forces, he remained in exile after the war. Initially in Great Britain, where he was one of the founders of the Józef Piłsudski Institute in London, he eventually emigrated to the United States in 1954. He is most commonly associated with the Polish Independence League and the Józef Piłsudski Institute of America. He served on the institute's committee from November 30, 1954. From June 19, 1955, he served as the institute's vice-president, and he was appointed President of the Institute in 1961 and served until 1962. He died on November 21, 1966, in Glen Cove, New York. His funeral took place five days later on November 26, where he was laid to rest at the Our Lady of Czestochowa Cemetery in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Controversy Prior to his death on September 22, General Mikołaj Bołtuć, an officer serving in Bortnowski's Pomeranian Army, allegedly criticized Bortnowski's leadership during the September Campaign. He supposedly regretted that he had not "during the first days of the war – during the Battle of Tuchola Forest, put a bullet through his (Bortnowski's) head and assumed command". Additionally, he allegedly stated that "if I die, let it be known that the Army and I died