After the Oath crisis he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army and sent to the Italian front, where he fought with distinction in shock battalion near Cortellazzo [it].

[2] During the Invasion of Poland in 1939 he was the commanding officer of the Polish 38th Infantry Division, formed of reserve units between Tarnów and Kraków.

Despite offering heavy resistance, only a single regiment managed to break through enemy lines and reach the besieged city.

After the capitulation of Lwów to the Soviet Union on September 22, 1939, Alojzy Wir-Konas was arrested by the NKVD and imprisoned in the Starobielsk concentration camp.

[2] Among the Katyn victims were 14 Polish generals including Leon Billewicz, Bronisław Bohatyrewicz, Xawery Czernicki (admiral), Stanisław Haller, Aleksander Kowalewski, Henryk Minkiewicz, Kazimierz Orlik-Łukoski, Konstanty Plisowski, Rudolf Prich (murdered in Lwow), Franciszek Sikorski, Leonard Skierski, Piotr Skuratowicz, and Mieczysław Smorawiński.