Man of Steel and Honour: General Stanislaw Maczek: Soldier of Poland, Commander of the 1st Polish Armoured Division in North-West Europe 1944-45

by Evan McGilvray

Overview

This is a biography of one of the most undervalued commanders of the Second World War, General Stanislaw Maczek, a soldier overlooked by most military historians in the West both because he was Polish and above politics. Unlike most Polish commanders he rocked no boats and after his service was complete in 1947 he retreated into relative obscurity. When he died at the age of 102 he had left a single published book of his war memoirs and little else to the popular imagination. One had to be acquainted with his armored division, the wartime 1st Polish Armoured Division in order to know anything of the man or even to have even heard of him. This book is an attempt to try to put the historical record right, at least in the English language, and place front and center into the wartime historiography the story of an extraordinary man.

Maczek's story is the story of 20th Century Poland and begins naturally enough with his birth in 1892, into a Poland that hadn't existed since 1795 when it was trisected between the three empires of Austrian, Russia and Prussia (later Germany). Maczek was born in the Austrian sector, which meant in 1914 he was conscripted into the Imperial Austrian Army, with which he served with great credit on the Italian Front, high in the Alps. It was this experience which was to serve Maczek well in his future career in the Polish Army after 1918. / Maczek should be remembered for his pioneering use of mixed armor and infantry units as well as the early use of commando-style units during the Polish border wars of 1918-1920. However his work was ignored despite its obvious success. He should also be recognized as being the savior of the Normandy Campaign, which by August 1944 was seriously bogged down. It was feared that the German forces in Normandy might be able to flee over the River Seine and head eastwards towards Germany. A magnificent, stubborn and costly stand by the Polish 1st Armoured Division during August 1944 prevented this happening, and the Normandy Campaign was able to succeed. This is yet to be credited to the Poles in the imagination of the West. Maczek's division was later able to advance into Germany, fighting its way through the Low Countries. Maczek's command of the division and its combat service in North-West Europe 1944-45 is fully described, and represents, in particular, an important contribution to our knowledge of the Normandy Campaign.

After the war, Maczek, now exiled and stateless and with his homeland seized by the Soviet Union, was stripped of his Polish citizenship by the Communists, and was left to bring up his young family on his wages as a barman. This is the story of a man who changed history, fully researched from archival and printed materials, and with a heavy reliance on original Polish language sources. The text is complemented by over 100 previously unpublished photographs, focusing on Maczek and the 1st Polish Armoured Division 1944-45.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781910777381
Publisher:	Helion and Company
Publication date:	07/19/2015
Series:	Helion Studies in Military History
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Evan McGilvray has written several books on Polish military history for Helion and is writing a book about Poland, NATO and the failure of democracy in Poland since joining the European Union.

Table of Contents

List of Photographs 6

List of Maps 16

1 The Young Maczek, 1892-1914 17

2 1914-18: Poland, Maczek and the First World War 23

3 Establishing Frontiers: The Polish Wars, 1918-1920 29

4 1910: Maczek and the Polish-Soviet War 46

5 Maczek and Inter-War Poland, 1921-1939 56

6 The Polish Campaign, September-October 1939 69

7 1939-40: Into Hungary and France 81

8 1940: Into Britain 100

9 Preparing for War: 1942-44 116

10 To War: August 1944 133

11 Closure in Normandy 157

12 The Final Months of War: September 1944-May 1945 173

13 Betrayal and Exile - 1945-2004 218

Appendices

I Order of Battle of the 1st Polish Armoured Division 16 September 1942 234

II Order of Battle of the 1st Polish Armoured Division North-West Europe 1944-45 235

Bibliography 237

Index 244

What People are Saying About This

Dr. Andrew Stewart

This is a most illuminating and insightful account of a little-known Allied military commander. General Maczek’s odyssey across occupied Europe and the part his troops played in the liberation campaign of 1944-1945 deserve much greater recognition and acclaim. Hopefully Evan McGilray’s highly knowledgeable new study will go some way to correcting the lack of knowledge about this aspect of the wartime years. Drawing upon sources from London’s National Archives and the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, it is an admirable addition to his expanding body of work on the Polish experience of the Second World War. The inclusion of a wonderful collection of photographs and some most useful maps along with the impressive quality of the publication only serve to enhance what is a highly readable and most enjoyable biography"
—Dr. Andrew Stewart (Senior Lecturer in Defence Studies, King’s College London)

Editorial Reviews

"This is a most illuminating and insightful account of a little-known Allied military commander. General Maczek’s odyssey across occupied Europe and the part his troops played in the liberation campaign of 1944-1945 deserve much greater recognition and acclaim. Hopefully Evan McGilray’s highly knowledgeable new study will go some way to correcting the lack of knowledge about this aspect of the wartime years. Drawing upon sources from London’s National Archives and the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, it is an admirable addition to his expanding body of work on the Polish experience of the Second World War. The inclusion of a wonderful collection of photographs and some most useful maps along with the impressive quality of the publication only serve to enhance what is a highly readable and most enjoyable biography."

Dr Andrew Stewart

The strength of this book lies in the mass of detail that McGilvray has amassed using sources from the National Archives and the Sikorski Institute. The book also has over 100 previously unpublished photographs. The book is very readable and the reader will gain a great deal of knowledge of what Maczek did.

Mars & Clio: Newsletter of the British Commission for Military History

"...a very worthy tribute to this most undervalued and perhaps least recognised of World War II commanders... although McGilvray might not be Antony Beevor (not many writers on the Second World War are), he makes for a very edifying, as well concise and compelling writer"

David Marx Book Reviews

The strength of this book lies in the mass of detail that McGilvray has amassed using sources from the National Archives and the Sikorski Institute. The book also has over 100 previously unpublished photographs. The book is very readable and the reader will gain a great deal of knowledge of what Maczek did.

Mars & Clio: Newsletter of the British Commission for Military History

The strength of this book lies in the mass of detail that McGilvray has amassed using sources from the National Archives and the Sikorski Institute. The book also has over 100 previously unpublished photographs. The book is very readable and the reader will gain a great deal of knowledge of what Maczek did.

Mars & Clio