29 Recipients of the Cross of Merit with Swords (Poland)

Julian Aleksandrowicz was a Polish medical professional, professor of medicine, and a notable specialist on leukemia. He is known for having developed concepts of comprehensive psychotherapy of persons suffering from somatic diseases, as well as of the ecological prevention of cancer and leukaemia.

Władysław Albert Anders was a general in the Polish Army and later in life a politician and prominent member of the Polish government-in-exile in London.

Zofia Baniecka was a Polish member of the Resistance during World War II. In addition to relaying guns and other materials to resistance fighters, Baniecka and her mother rescued over 50 Jews in their home between 1941 and 1944. Later, Baniecka was an activist with the Intervention Bureau of the Polish Workers' Defence Committee in 1977. She and her husband were active participants in the Solidarity movement in the 1980s, distributing underground press. In her professional capacity, Baniecka was a long-time member of the Warsaw chapter of the Association of Polish Artists and Designers (ZPAP).

Zygmunt Piotr Bohusz-Szyszko was a Polish general. During World War I he served in the Imperial Russian army.

Generał Tadeusz Komorowski, better known by the name Bór-Komorowski was a Polish military leader. He was appointed commander in chief a day before the capitulation of the Warsaw uprising and following World War II, 32nd Prime Minister of Poland, 3rd Polish government-in-exile in London.

Andrew Stanislaus Ciechanowiecki, Dąbrowa Coat of Arms, was a Polish-British nobleman, diplomat, prisoner and agent of Communist Poland, economist, academic, art historian, philanthropist, art collector, antique dealer, antiquarian and exhibition curator. He was considered an authority on French baroque sculpture in the second half of the 20th century.

Bolesław Bronisław Duch (1885–1980) was a Polish Major General and General Inspector of the Armed Forces.

General Ira Clarence Eaker was a general of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Eaker, as second-in-command of the prospective Eighth Air Force, was sent to England to form and organize its bomber command. However while he struggled to build up airpower in England, the organization of the Army Air Forces kept evolving and he was named commander of the Eighth Air Force on December 1, 1942.

Major Wanda Gertz was a Polish woman of noble birth, who began her military career in the Polish Legion during World War I, dressed as a man, under the pseudonym of "Kazimierz 'Kazik' Żuchowicz". She subsequently served in the Ochotnicza Legia Kobiet of the Polish Armed Forces during the Polish–Soviet War. In the interwar period she became a reserve officer but faced discrimination and was stripped of her officer rank. She worked closely with Marshal Piłsudski and remained an activist in the cause of women in the military.

Jerzy Kazimierz Kłoczowski was a Polish historian, professor at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, and former member of the Polish Senate. During World War II, Kłoczowski was a soldier of the Home Army and participated in the Warsaw Uprising, where he was seriously injured and lost his right hand. On leaving the military hospital in April 1945, he went to Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and then to Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, where he earned a degree and a Ph.D. (1950). Member of the anti-communist Solidarity movement – after the fall of communism in Poland, Kłoczowski was elected Senator and member of the Commission for Foreign Affairs of the Senate, as well as the representative of the Polish Parliament at the Council of Europe.

General Stanisław Kopański was a Polish military commander, politician, diplomat, an engineer and one of the best-educated Polish officers of the time, serving with distinction during World War II. He is best known as the creator and commander of the Polish Independent Carpathian Brigade and Polish 3rd Carpathian Infantry Division.

Countess Karolina Maria Adelajda Franciszka Ksawera Małgorzata Edina Lanckorońska was a Polish noble, World War II resistance fighter, philanthropist, and historian.

Lieutenant General Thomas Bernard Larkin was a military officer who served as the 32nd Quartermaster General of the United States Army.

Lyman Louis Lemnitzer was a United States Army general, who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1960 to 1962. He then served as Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1963 to 1969.

General Stanisław Maczek was a Polish tank commander of World War II, whose division was instrumental in the Allied liberation of France, closing the Falaise pocket, resulting in the destruction of 14 German Wehrmacht and SS divisions. A veteran of World War I, the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish–Soviet Wars, Maczek was the commander of Poland's only major armoured formation during the September 1939 campaign, and later commanded a Polish armoured formation in France in 1940. He was the commander of the famous 1st Polish Armoured Division, and later of the I Polish Army Corps under Allied Command in 1942–45.

Józef Mieczysław Mączka was a Polish soldier, poet of the Polish Legions.

General Leopold Okulicki was a General of the Polish Army and the last commander of the anti-Nazi underground Home Army during World War II. He was arrested after the war by the Soviet NKVD and murdered while imprisoned at Butyrka prison in Moscow.

Jadwiga Piłsudska-Jaraczewska was a Polish pilot, who served in the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. She was one of two daughters of Józef Piłsudski.

Bronisław Stanisław Rakowski was a Polish general. He fought in the Polish legions during World War I and was imprisoned by the Soviet NKVD during Soviet invasion of Poland. During World War II, he fought in the Anders Army and Polish Armed Forces in the West.1931–1936: Commanding Officer 12th Ulan Regiment 1936–1939: Head of Army Historical Bureau 1939–1941: Prisoner of War, Soviet Union 1941–1942: General Officer Commanding 8th Division 1942: General Officer Commanding 5th Division 1942–1943: Chief of Staff Polish Forces in Soviet Union 1943–1945: General Officer Commanding 2nd Armoured Brigade 1945–1947: General Officer Commanding 2nd Armoured Division

Mieczysław Zygfryd Słowikowski, also known as "Rygor-Słowikowski," was a Polish Army officer whose intelligence work in North Africa facilitated Allied preparations for the 1942 Operation Torch landings.

Stanisław Franciszek Sosabowski CBE was a Polish general in World War II. He fought in the Polish Campaign of 1939 and at the Battle of Arnhem (Netherlands) in 1944 as commander of the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade.

Jerzy Stefan Stawiński was a Polish screenwriter and film director. Beginning in 1957 he had written or co-written 29 films. He wrote a segment of the film Love at Twenty, which was entered into the 12th Berlin International Film Festival.

Fr. Adam Studziński was a Polish Roman Catholic priest. Studzinski served as chaplain of the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II.

Nikodem Sulik-Sarnowski was an officer of the Russian Imperial Army, and Generał brygady of the Polish Army.

Nathan Farragut Twining was a United States Air Force general, born in Monroe, Wisconsin. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force from 1953 until 1957, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1957 to 1960. He was the first member of the Air Force to serve as Chairman. Twining was a distinguished "mustang" officer, rising from private to four-star general and appointment to the highest post in the United States Armed Forces in the course of his 45-year career.

Józef Unrug was a Polish admiral who helped reestablish Poland's navy after World War I. During the opening stages of World War II, he served as the Polish Navy's commander-in-chief. As a German POW, he refused all German offers to change sides and was incarcerated in several Oflags, including Colditz Castle. He stayed in exile after the war in the United Kingdom, Morocco and France where he died and was buried. In September 2018 he was posthumously promoted in the rank of Admiral of the fleet by the President of Poland. After 45 years his remains, along with those of his wife Zofia, were exhumed from Montrésor and taken in October 2018 to his final resting place in Gdynia, Poland.

Józef Ludwik Zając (1891–1963) was a Polish general and pilot.

Elżbieta Zawacka, known also by her war-time nom de guerre Zo, was a Polish university professor, scouting instructor, SOE agent and a freedom fighter during World War II. She was also a Brigadier General of the Polish Army, promoted by President Lech Kaczyński on 3 May 2006. Sometimes called "the only woman among the Cichociemni", she served as a courier for the Home Army, carrying letters and other documents from Nazi-occupied Poland to the Polish government in exile and back. Her regular route ran from Warsaw through Berlin and Sweden to London. She was also responsible for organizing routes for other couriers of the Home Army.

Jerzy Eugeniusz Zborowski was born on July 26, 1922 in Warsaw and died in September 1944 in Warsaw, Poland).