After the outbreak of World War I he returned to Poland under foreign partitions and volunteered for the Polish Legions in Austria-Hungary.

[3] After Poland regained independence in 1918 Narbutt-Łuczyński joined the newly formed Polish Army, and took part in the Polish-Bolshevik War in the rank of Major, and then Colonel (since June 1, 1919).

[4] During the Polish-Soviet War, Major Łuczyński was a commanding officer of Polish troops in the frontline city of Pinsk, whose population was overwhelmingly Jewish.

[5][4] On April 5, 1919, after receiving numerous reports about planned attacks on the Polish army, and even on him personally, he gave the orders for what became known later as the Pinsk massacre, where 35 local Jewish members were executed without trial one hour after being arrested and falsely accused of being Bolshevik plotters.

[2] According to William W. Hagen Łuczyński "embodied military anti-Jewish paranoia, discovering in trivia malevolent design and finding himself in a numerous throng of unfriendly foreign-speaking Jews, high fearful of ambush.