In mid-August 1915, the 32nd Rifle Regiment of the Polish Legions fought in Sokal, which stormed the town occupied by the Russians. The town was captured, with around a thousand Polish soldiers killed and wounded during the fighting. An undetermined number of the fallen were buried in Sokal.
Further battles for Sokal took place in August and September 1920, during the Polish-Bolshevik war. In August 1920, during the offensive of the South-Western Front, the 3rd Cavalry Regiment of Major Cyprian Bystram and the 6th Cavalry Regiment of Major Zygmunt Piasecki fought here against the Soviet 24th Rifle Division of Komdiv Kozyrev. The battle was lost by the Polish soldiers. In September 1920, during the great Volhynia-Podolia battle, General Lucjan Żeligowski's 10th Infantry Division recaptured Sokal from Soviet hands. Polish soldiers killed in both these battles were buried in the Sokal cemetery.

In 1923, a monument was erected on the mass grave of soldiers killed in the battles for Sokal. The inscription engraved on it stated: "Heroes martyred for the national cause, whose names are committed to the memory and honour of posterity by grateful compatriots [further on there was a list of 25 names] / 1918-1920 / Sokal 1923". The monument survived the Second World War, but in the 1960s it was devastated - the brass plaque with the names of the heroes was torn out, and attempts were made to destroy the monument itself.
In 2001-2003, former residents of Sokal Tadeusz and Stanisław Sobiecki brought about the reconstruction of the monument with the consent of the local authorities. On 25 June 2003, a ceremony was held to consecrate the rebuilt monument. The current inscription, placed on the new inscription plate, reads: "To Polish soldiers / fallen on Sokal land / in the First World War". This inscription makes no reference to the 1920 battles, presumably for fear of renewed acts of devastation.