Stanisław Grzmot-Skotnicki

Stanisław Grzmot-Skotnicki ([staˈniswaf ˈɡʐmɔt skɔtˈnit͡ski] ^ⓘ; 13 January 1894 – 19 September 1939) was a Polish military commander and a general of the Polish Army. During the invasion of Poland of 1939 he commanded the Czersk Operational Group and was among the highest ranking Polish officers to be killed in action in that war.

Stanisław Skotnicki was born on 13 January 1894 in the village of Skotniki (being the root of his surname which literally means of Skotniki), to a family of Polish nobility (bearing the coat-of-arms of Clan Bogoria of which the lords of Skotniki are among the most ancient and prominent branches). After graduating from Seven-Class Municipal Trade School in Radom in 1912, he began studies at the Academy of Commerce in Sankt Gallen, Switzerland. There he joined the Związek Strzelecki and started organizing military training for the Polish emigrees and students as a commander of the association's branch. It was then he adopted his nom de guerre of Grzmot (Polish language for thunder), which later formed a part of his surname.