Stanisław Maczek: the general who liberated Breda

Maczek fought in the relief of Lwów in 1918, in the Battle of Warsaw in 1920 and against the German invasion of Poland in 1939. In 1944 his division fought in the Battle of Normandy, where it held the heights of Mont Ormel during the Battle of Falaise. Two months later it liberated the Dutch city of Breda, where he is buried among his soldiers.²

Early life: a philologist in uniform

Maczek was born on 31 March 1892 in Szczerzec near Lwów and spent his childhood in Drohobycz. He studied philosophy and Polish philology at the University of Lwów and took his first military training in the Riflemen's Association. In 1914 he was called up into the Austro-Hungarian army. He fought the Russians and then the Italians in the Alps, serving in a Tyrolean Kaiserjäger mountain regiment.³

Rise: from the relief of Lwów to the Black Brigade

In November 1918 Maczek joined the new Polish Army and led a volunteer unit from Krosno to the relief of Lwów. In 1919 he commanded a "flying assault company" of the 4th Infantry Division, which helped take Drohobycz from the Ukrainians. In August 1920 he fought in the Battle of Warsaw at the head of an assault battalion, and he received the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari.⁴

Between the wars he took a further-training course at the Higher War School in Warsaw in 1923 and 1924, headed a military intelligence post in Lwów and commanded the 81st Grodno Rifles Regiment. The commandant of the War School described him as independent, quick and bold in decision and execution. In 1938 he took command of the 10th Cavalry Brigade, the first motorized unit of the Polish Army, an unusual post for an infantry officer.⁵

What was Stanisław Maczek famous for?

Maczek is famous for leading the Polish 1st Armoured Division in 1944 and 1945. The division helped close the Falaise pocket in Normandy, liberated the Dutch city of Breda without destroying it and ended its war at the German naval base of Wilhelmshaven. In 1939 he had commanded the Polish army's first motorized unit, the Black Brigade.⁶

September 1939

From the first days of the war the 10th Cavalry Brigade fought a German motorized corps attacking from the south, at Jordanów, Wiśnicz and Rzeszów. The IPN and one Polska Zbrojna article call it the XXII Corps; an article published by the Museum of Polish History and another Polska Zbrojna article call it the XXIII. Using its mobility, it slowed a far stronger enemy and then fought in the defense of Lwów. After the Red Army invaded Poland, the brigade crossed into Hungary. The IPN calls it the only large Polish unit that was not beaten and left the country intact; an article published by the Museum of Polish History calls it one of the few units that were not destroyed.⁷

The brigade was known as the Black Brigade after its uniform of black leather jackets and black berets. For the September campaign Maczek received the Gold Cross of the Virtuti Militari and was promoted to brigadier general.⁸

France, 1940

In France Maczek rebuilt his unit as the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade, which fought in Champagne in June 1940. When the brigade was cut off, it destroyed its heavy equipment and its men set off on foot for the unoccupied zone. Maczek reached Marseille, crossed to North Africa among demobilized Arab soldiers and traveled by way of Morocco and Lisbon to Britain.⁹

What did Maczek's division do at Falaise?

Fighting in the Canadian II Corps, Maczek's 1st Armoured Division seized the heights near Mont Ormel, 262 meters high, which the Poles called Maczuga, the Mace, on 19 August 1944. Attacked from all sides by German troops trying to break out of the Falaise pocket, the Poles held the hills until Canadian tanks reached them on 21 August.¹⁰

The division was formed in Scotland on 25 February 1942 under Maczek, who had led the 2nd Rifle Brigade there since October 1940. When it crossed to Normandy at the end of July 1944 it had more than 16,000 soldiers and nearly 400 tanks. Before its first battle Maczek told his men that they would demand payment for all five years of the war, "for Warsaw, for Kutno, for Westerplatte."¹¹

The division's first battle, Operation Totalize on 8 August, failed to break the German front. The Poles then attacked toward Chambois, where they were to link up with the Americans coming from the south, and from 19 August they fought on the hills near Mont Ormel and north of Chambois, across the German escape route.¹²

The sources give different losses. The IPN puts Polish losses at Falaise at 446 killed, 1,501 wounded and 150 missing; an article published by the Museum of Polish History gives 300 killed and 1,000 wounded. Both put the division's tank losses at about 100.¹³ › The Battle of Falaise, 1944

How did Maczek liberate Breda?

On 29 and 30 October 1944 Maczek's division took Breda with an outflanking maneuver instead of a frontal assault. He decided to attack without artillery preparation to spare the civilians and the buildings, and the city was freed without major destruction or civilian losses. Its people put up signs in their windows reading "Thank you, Poles" in Polish.¹⁴

Before Breda the division had pursued the Germans into Belgium, crossing the border on 6 September and taking Ypres and Tielt, fought at Ghent and entered the Netherlands at Axel. After the battle the soldiers of the division were made honorary citizens of Breda, and the division spent the winter there. In February 1945 General Alphonse Juin awarded Maczek the Legion of Honor in Paris.¹⁵

In the spring of 1945 the division crossed into Germany. In early May it reached the naval base of Wilhelmshaven, where Maczek took the surrender of the German command. It was the end of a combat trail of about 1,800 kilometers.¹⁶

Did Maczek ever lose a battle?

Admirers often say Maczek never lost a battle: his biographer Piotr Potomski, quoted by dzieje.pl, and Jan Józef Kasprzyk, quoted by Polska Zbrojna, both repeat the claim. His record was not spotless. In June 1940 his brigade was cut off in France and broke up, and his division's first attack in Normandy, Operation Totalize, failed.¹⁷

Historians quoted in these articles stress how he fought rather than a perfect record. Professor Waldemar Rezmer of Nicolaus Copernicus University told Polska Zbrojna that Maczek used his equipment well but did not waste his soldiers' lives, and that this is why Breda was freed without destruction. The IPN brochure makes the same point about his care for his men.¹⁸

His soldiers called him Baca, the name for the senior shepherd of a flock in the Polish Carpathians, because of his fatherly care for them. The IPN dates the nickname to the formation of the 1st Armoured Division.¹⁹

What happened to Maczek after the war?

In 1946 the communist government in Warsaw stripped Maczek of his Polish citizenship, and he stayed in exile. With no military pension, he settled in Edinburgh and worked as a laborer, a shop assistant and then a barman in a hotel run by a former NCO of his division.²⁰

Until the demobilization Maczek commanded the Polish units that remained in Britain, and he was promoted to major general. In 1990 he was promoted to lieutenant general. At the request of the people of Breda he was also granted honorary Dutch citizenship.²¹

The sources differ on two later dates. The IPN biography, two Polska Zbrojna articles and a 2019 Museum of Polish History article say his Polish citizenship was restored in 1971, while the IPN's Trails of Hope site gives 1989. The IPN dates his Order of the White Eagle to February 1994, and the Museum's 2024 article to a few months before his death; its 2019 article gives 1992.²²

How did Maczek die?

Maczek died in Edinburgh on 11 December 1994 at the age of 102. As he had wished, he was buried on 23 December in the Polish military cemetery in Breda, among the soldiers of his division. Since 2000 the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade of the Polish Army, based at Świętoszów, has carried his name.²³ › The Greatest Commanders in Polish History