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| 1st Polish Armoured Division in Normandy |
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| A Stuart light tank in Normandy |
A British Staff report also took the Polish losses seriously and made recognition of the fact that the Canadians were now having to actively support the Poles in the field. They opted to leave events to play out to see how the Poles coped with the issues before the next phase of operations around the Somme area kicked off which gave the Poles about three weeks breathing space.
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| Allied soldiers with a liberated Ostruppen |
Of course, a further complication was the training that these men required in order to fall into step with the 1st PAD effectively.
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| Polish Radio Operator 1944 |
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| An infantry patrol in France 1944 |
It was resolved that defences needed to be beefed up, patrolling should be intensified and more rigorous checking of patrol reports was to be made mandatory.
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| Maczek and Crerar |
Following the Falaise dust up the Poles claimed that they were ready to fight again within a week. Casualties would have their effect however. Infantry companies were now below 100 men and the tank companies now had three platoons instead of the four... but despite this, by 31st August the Division crossed the River Dives via the 'Warsaw Bridge' and gave chase to the enemy.
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| The 1st Polish Armoured Divisions liberation route... |
One of the most important tasks of the 1st PAD was to locate and secure bridges over water obstacles. Corps had received word of an intact bridge in the Abbeville area although on moving towards the target area Reconnaissance reported that the bridge had been blown. This was 11:30 on 2nd September 1944. By 17:15 hours Polish sappers had built a bridge under fire and 3rd Rifle Brigade had stormed the river and forced a crossing.
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| Abbeville as it appeared in 1944 |
They chased the Germans into Belgium where on 12th September they liberated Ghent then turning north clearing the countryside north of Germans to the Scheldt Estuary.
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| Polish armour with a bit of R&R before crossing into Holland |
It was during this wet and marshy autumn and winter that the Division started to show absolutely superb cooperation between the Armour, Infantry and Sappers. The heroism of the Polish sappers should be a matter for historical record. They were frequently called upon to cross heavily defended watercourses and required to throw up bridges and construct fords all under furious defensive fire so that the armour and infantry could get across and continue the advance.
Casualties remained high however with Zgorzelski of the 10th Dragoons sending a battle report to Maczek following a crossing of the Axel Canal on 22nd September where he had to report the loss of 106 men in one day including 4 officers. However Maczek also reports that morale remained high amongst the men on account of the level of success that they were achieving despite the losses.
Throughout October 1944 the 1st Polish Armoured Division was engaged in this tooth and nail war of overcoming obastacles. Always well prepared for defense by the Germans, gains were always accompanied with a significant loss of men.
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| The Poles liberate Breda... |
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| A Polish dispatch rider reaches Breda |
As Captain Stanislaw Grabowski oberved 'there were two ways that they had available to them. Monty's way which involved laying on an aerial bombardment of the town and then a blitz assault or shelling it and then blitz it or there was General Maczeks way which was to encircle the town and then there was a chance that street fighting could be avoided, thus he gained reknown amongst the civilian population'.
Captain Tadeusz Wielgorski of 2nd Armoured Regiment observed something similar saying that when they were capturing Breda all of the regiments and their tanks could have fired and caused complete devastation. They did not, and that was why Breda 'greeted us so warmly'.
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| 8th Infantry Brigade being greeted by the Dutch at Breda |
After passing Breda they turned north chasing the Germans until they had them trapped against the waters of the Hollandsche Diep. This unfolded into a 10 day battle, including the crossing of the Mark Canal, once again in the teeth of strenuous resistance finally culminating with the capture of Moerdijk on the coast.
In mid November 1944 the 1st Polish Armoured Division was given its first proper chance to rest, with its headquarters situated in Breda. During this period of R&R the Divisional staff had a chance to take stock of where they actually were.
The losses so to speak, and my oh my, were they sobering figures.
The losses so to speak, and my oh my, were they sobering figures.
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| Brigadier General Stanislaw Maczek with Breda's Burgemeester Van Slobbe (and some other punkah wallah in uniform!) |
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| Treating a victim of sniper fire on the battlefield |
This brought the casualties to a grand total of 5,771 men. There were a further 1,773 officers and men who were sick but who had returned to the regiments, albeit maybe not all to front line duty. It makes you wonder just who was left doing the fighting.
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| Polish armour moving across wide open spaces |
It was during this winter break however that many of the Poles eventually found the time again to sit down and consider what was happening in the world around them and their place in it.
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| Meanwhile at Yalta Roosevelt says: "Gentlemen, lets share the world..." |
Whilst at Yalta, East and Central Europe were to all intents and purposes handed over to the Communists with Churchill aparently being quite ebullient about allowing the communists to expand their area of influence. Once again Anthony Eden, our man of the hour, stepped in to voice his concern about the voraciously aquisitive nature of Stalin and the Communist Regime. He categorically refused to believe that they would behave well to the new populations within their expanded sphere, merely wanting to expand their reach and most definitely at the expense of absolutely anybody who got in their way.
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| One of the plenary sessions at Yalta 1945 |
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| Anders was not amused! |
Maczek found himself considering the situation. The new Polish borders were to follow the Curzon Line which was the orignal British ideas for the Polish borders in 1918, but his home, Lwow would no longer be Polish. He considered the death camps of Oswiecim (Auschwitz-Birkenau) and Dachau and the expulsion of the Nazi abomination from the homeland and was left wondering if the Nazis really were really still the main enemy. He wondered if he could even return home at all?
True to form though, he rejected all personal concerns and opinions and stated that 'a soldier should not speak of his fate or his future, no matter how hard or unfair it might be' Nevertheless it should also be pointed out here that the Foreign Office was acutely aware of how unhappy Maczek was with the high handed attitude that Anders was displaying towards wartime military/politics and in a wholly unusual departure for Maczek was openly critical of him.
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| The Poles staged at Hengelo prepare to cross the border into Germany... |
It was revealed that at nearby Niederlangen there was a womans detention camp which contained women of the Armia Krajowe, captured during the Warsaw Uprising of '44. There was a concern that the nazis may try to use the women as some sort of diversionary tactic and so High Command deemed it essential that an armoured platoon be sent to the camp to liberate them.
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| Maczek with some of the liberated women of Warsaw's Armia Krajowa |
The fate of the failed uprising was brought into stark and ugly focus on that day.
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| Polish armour a bit stuck in the mud! |
On the 19th April 1945 the Division breached its final water obstacle, the Kusten Canal and reached its final objective of the war; Wilmhelmshaven. Typically of Maczek he delayed the action for as long as possible in order to bring as much firepower to bear as possible without causing excessive casualties.
On 4th May the 10th Mounted Rifles and 8th Rifle Battalion halted at the outer rings of the Wilmhelmshaven defences and in the evening called in artillery support in order to open up a passage into the town but a signal had been received that an armistice had been arranged for 08:00 the next morning, 5th May 1945.
The artillery opened up and continued without pause until 07:59.
In their final offensive operations in Germany the Division had lost a further 600 men and officers but had taken 5000 prisoners and an enormous amount of materials.
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| The destroyed Wilmhelmshaven docks after the capitulation in 1945 |
In their final offensive operations in Germany the Division had lost a further 600 men and officers but had taken 5000 prisoners and an enormous amount of materials.
Mazcek described the end of the war and the taking of the German surrender in Ostfriesland at the HQ of II Canadian Corps at Bad Zwischenahn. He recalled how in a large empty room General Guy Simonds sat behind a long table with his Chief of Staff and Divisional Commanders. No seats for the Germans indicated the hostility of the reception that they were to receive.
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| General Erich Straube |
Straube began to speak but Simonds cut him off immediately stating that he had not come here to negotiate but to listen to Simonds and accept an unconditional surrender with absolutely non-negotiable terms. Simonds read the list in a hard edged and clear voice.
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| The Polish flag is raised |
In a quaint turn of phrase Maczek recorded in his diary that "surely it wasnt necessary to remind them that they had unleashed this dreadful war with the attack on Poland and in the presence of one of the few Polish units still fighting they were now laying down their arms"
The 1st Polish Armoured Division, fighting in Germany, was to occupy a part of Germany. Maczek was left wondering whether or not this must have been the first time in history that this must have happened?
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| Surrendered German U-Boats in 1945 |
Even if the war had ended on a high for General Maczek and his indefatigable Polish warriors, peace was to prove a grave disappointment as wartime alliances were quickly forgotten.
The first signs of things not going the way they were expected to was received by Maczek a mere two weeks after the occupation of Wilmhelmshaven when he was recalled to Scotland in order to take command of the I Polish Corps. Being a smart guy he probably saw the way the wind was blowing.
What he probably couldnt have anticipated however was being stripped of his citizenship on 6th September 1946 by the Polish Communist puppet government along with a list of another 75 senior Polish officers for taking up arms under and accepting orders from another foreign power.
For the rest of his life Maczek would refuse to recognise the Polish Peoples Republic as anything other than a puppet state jiggling on Communist strings.
After years of misdeeds, once the Communist regime in Poland began to falter, the illegal Jaruzelski regime began to try to use Maczeks name and deeds as a part of their damage control utilising the idea of the Polish soldier, no matter where they were or where they served as the saviours of the nation. McGilvray raises the possibility that this was possibly just one old soldier simply reaching out to another but Maczek stoutly refused to respond to these overtures quite rightly seeing them as nothing more than an attempt to link his name and the Second Republic, which he proudly represented to the corrupt and illegal communist controlled regime that dominated Poland between 1944 and 1989.
Without starting up a long text driven debate concerning the Polish place in the UK after the war it can be said with some justification that the UK government were a bunch of gutless weasles with yellow streaks wider than the San Andreas Fault who continued the long English tradition of abandoning our allies when they have needed us the most unless our own pockets were being hit and the actions of the Communists in Poland were for the most part brushed as far under the carpet as could be managed.
It was apparently quite clear to many of the Poles what the situation in Poland would likely be if they were able to return to their homeland after 1945. Maczek did not desire to return to Poland under those circumstances and it was with some sorrow that he held his final meeting with Colonel Dec and his future, possibly in Poland.
Relationships with Franciszek Skibinski had unfortunately soured remarkably however, as he had apparently embraced the ideas of Communism and had decided to return to Poland. Maczek was of the opinion that Skibinski was being opportunistic seeking to further his career, even if under the Communists. Skibinski would return to Poland, but within a year was arrested and tortured including having all of his teeth knocked out. When a more progressive form of Communism was able to supplant the Stalinist paraoia in 1956 Skibinski was quietly released and made a General.
The decision to deprive Maczek of his citizenship was overturned in 1971 but as it was the government of the Polish Peoples Republic making the decree, and therefore a Communist vassal Maczek ignored the decree. It was not until the fall of Communism in Poland in 1989 that Maczek accepted the gesture.
Lieutenant Jan Suchcitz, one of the veterans of the 10th Mounted Rifles, reflected that in the remaining 50 years of Maczeks life he never sought any accolades, was always a firm believer in an apolitical army and took no part in the political folly that had riven the Polish army for so many years.
Maczek did occasionally sally forth into the political arena however and was, in 1961 openly critical of the manner in which the highest Polish military accolade, the Virtuti Militari, was awarded for the September Campaign. For a campaign of such monumental failure he was of the opinion that far too many had been subsequently awarded. Again in 1961, in a letter to General Grudzinski he was critical of the mass awarding of the medal.
In contrast to some, such as General Anders, Maczek was to remain employed in humble jobs in order to support his family in Edinburgh. He received no pension from either the british or canadian government (and yes the respective governments deserve no capitalisation in this regard!) and it was only the appreciation and generosity of the Dutch people that facilitated a secure future for the Maczeks disabled daughter.
It was reported in the Polish Press in London in 1995 that Maczek did eventually receive a generous pension from the Dutch government. No doubt this was connected to the Polish liberation of Breda and Maczek being instrumental in its liberation without destruction.
This was a sadly belated honour however as Mr Stanislaw Maczek, as he preferred to be known after the war, had to find work as a Barman and later on as a shop assistant, right up to the end of the 1960's in order to support his family. Despite these setbacks however, he was never a downhearted person. He was always attentive to his Divisions former members, always attended reunions and commemorations and he always gladly welcomed visits from his former subordinates.
The problem of senior Polish officers gaining employment in the UK after the war was one that was to haunt Maczek for the rest of his days in exile and was ironically, by association, the reason for being stripped of his Polish citizenship.
Following the surrender of Germany a census of Poles serving under Western Command was taken in the wake of the news that Poland was being handed to the tender mercies of the Communists and a total of only 17.2% were happy to return. The underlying problem with this was that the majority of the British public had, given the enormous suffering that the Soviet Union had suffered through the war, a healthy sympathy for the communist people and their politicians. Ever the slaves to public passions, the home government also had a significant distrust of Anders rabidly anti communist rhetoric and that of other members of the Polish II Corps, believing that it would likely result in political complications if left unchecked, much less actually fostered and accepted.
Finally, the British government came up with an idea of how to discharge all of the serving Polish troops. The Polish Armed Forces (Repatriation and Resettlement Scheme), which was a vehicle by which Poles could be moved from the military either into local civilian life or even back to Poland, was established. For those that chose to remain in the U.K the Poles established the Polish Resettlement Corps (PRC). It was established to serve as a sort of halfway house in which discharged Poles could be prepared for life in the West.
It was the establishment of the PRC that was to prove so problematic for the Poles as it caused tremendous anger within Communist ranks, both in Moscow and its new vassal states. The Soviets decided that any members of the PRC had taken military service under a foreign government which was actually categorically untrue. Despite the uniforms being worn the organisation was a civilian operation.
The new Polish puppet Defence Minister, Marshal Zymierski had broadcast the message that anybody enlisting in the PRC would be stripped of their citizenship despite the fact that it was non military, as well as being both a logical and pragmatic step in the transition to civilian life in Great Britain.
Perhaps the most obvious way for Great Britain to provide assistance to Maczek would have been to take the step that they did with so many other senior serving Poles and offer them a comfortable pension. At a time when the average British employee was earning in the region of £24 a month General Anders, the most political of the Polish military hierarchy and certainly the deepest thorn in the side of the allies with regards to his political anti soviet rhetoric was awarded £100 a month with many others receiving between this and £75.
What beggars belief is that Maczek, who commanded I Corps, was apolitical and whose prescience and planning had pulled the allies collective balls out of the fire in Normandy was awarded nothing! Not a penny!
Thankfully not all British are so disgraceful and this decision did indeed raise comments in official circles.
McGilvray quotes a note that Bernard Law Montgomery had written to the cabinet querying how their cases were to be dealt with and I think its worth quoting in full:"... General Maczek with the 1st Polish Armoured Division played a large part in the closing of the Falaise Gap.
b) These officers at PRC have aided Britain in assisting government policy and resettled their men into the British economy.
c) These men have lost everything they possessed. Kopanski and Maczek have been publicly deprived of their Polish nationality. The majority have spent their spare money in ensuring a good education for their children and as a consequence have saved little or nothing."
Another partisan to Maczeks cause said:
"... General Maczek had most loyally handled the problem of the resettlement of Poles in Scotland and the liquidation of the Polish commitment to Scottish Command. He fought gallantly under Field Marshal Montgomery's command throughout the 1944/45 campaign in France and who, since he has been running the PRC's commitment in Scottish Command, has absolutely no money of his own, and has a wife and two children to educate, also an idiot child whom he has to maintain. He is most anxious to know whether any provision will be made for him. I cannot help feeling that it would be an injustice, after the service rendered to us, to leave this type of man to sink or swim on his own."
The author of this note, who was writing to the Prime Minister, Clemence Attlee considered that a pension should be provided for a Polish Officer IF:
a) Of the rank of Major General, its equivalent or above
b) Had served in the Polish Armed Forces under British command during the war
c) Had served in the PRC
Minutes recorded by one Barbara Green at the Ministry of Labour and National Service are also in print as agreeing with these perspectives.
The end for Maczeks former Division, the Black Devils came on March 1947 when a discussion was held at HQ on BAOR (British Army on the Rhine) to decide when to demobilise the Division and transport those who wanted it back to the UK and into the ranks of PRC. It was finally settled that the 1st Polish Armoured Division would cease to be at 1 minute past midnight on 1st May 1947.
That was the end of the story for one hell of a Division. Resolute in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, stubborn, aggressive and one that had served the allied cause to the highest expectation in both good times and bad, they had fought from the first day of the war right up until the last, suffering a series of catastrophic reverses across Europe before remodelling themselves and striding back the other way across Europe and dishing out emphatic wallopings as they went!
Maczeks immediate fate after demobilisation is that he never received a pension from the British government worth mentioning! At the age of 57, with no skills other than understanding the nature of waging combined arms mobile warfare, he had to go out into the British job market in order to support his family.
A former NCO from Maczek's Division gave him a job and as ever, uncomplaining, Maczek rose early in the morning and took a 30km bus journey to Edinburgh where he worked as a barman at the Learmonth Hotel. Maczek, being a naturally upbeat and optimistic person never let his personal circumstances get him down though and he still managed to find a smile for his patrons.
Life was a series of struggles for the Maczek family but he never complained and they never asked for help. An insignificant pension from the British government was provided but was so inconsequential that it served very little practical purpose within the household so he carried on working in the bar. Every time his veterans stopped by for a pint they would stand to attention in recognition of his rank.
The details of how Maczeks life unfolded after this period now become considerably less dense. Once the PRC was disbanded and Maczek settled into the grim monotony of civilian life, with his resolute refusal to recognise the communist occupiers of his country it would seem that he became somewhat of an icon to the Polish expatriates who had opted to make Great Britain their home. It was certainly a far cry form his 20's when he studied philosophy and fought tooth and nail on the Italian Front.
His memoirs go no further than the end of the Second World War and morally he usually avoided the Polish predilection for meddling in political issues that split the Polish community so frequently. In point of fact, by refusing to involve himself in these areas he was to become quite a thorn in the side of the communist body politik for some time to come.
We should all be thankful however that no matter how abhorrently our own government treated a man of Maczeks calibre, other countries of Europe were a lot more graceful in remembering him and his men. As McGilvray tells it Renata, Maczeks daughter, reminiscing on a visit to the Netherlands said that her father was feted wherever he travelled in the late 1940's and again in the 1960's was feted once more as he took the part of honoured guest when he and other veteran guests retraced their steps that they so bloodily took in 1944. In Axel there were 4 days of celebration whilst a street was renamed 'General Maczekstraat', in Ypres a metal tablet commemorating the actions of 1st Polish Armoured Division was also unveiled.
Mr Maczek became the titular head of the Polish expatriate community in Scotland. With his self imposed distance from the Polish Government in Exile (which incidentally was no longer recognised by any state in the world) Maczek was able to retain a dignity that was admirable and he was stalwart in his refusal to recognise the Polish puppet state, even when, under a more moderate form of communism his nationality was offered to be restored in an effort to rehabilitate the government with its people by appropriating past heroes.
He ignored these overtures still!
He remained loyal to 'his boys' who were by now all pensioners. A lifetime of loyalty and service. By the time Maczek was 80 even the British were finally remembering him. It ws announced that he was to be the guest of honour of the Commander of the Army during the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
The Dutch, ever loyal to his memory, held a concert orchestra in honour of his 80th birthday.
The turn of a century was a big event for Maczek. Cards and notes from well wishers poured in from around the world with many young people from the Netherlands and Belgium found amongst the congratulatory messages, writing to him to express their gratitude for the freedom that he and his men had bestowed on their countries through the shedding of their blood so selflessly.
By the time Maczek turned 100 Poland had finally shuffled loose the communist yolk and new Polish President Lech Walesa made Maczek a full General and awarded him a pension.
Sadly Maczek was too frail to return home to Poland by this point in time and in any case his true home was now a part of the Ukraine but he had lived long enough to know that his beloved Poland had been freed from under the communist boot.
Mr Stanislaw Maczek died on 11th December 1994 at the grand old age of 102, rightly mourned by the Poles, Dutch and Scots. His funeral was held in Edinburgh but he was laid to rest at Breda alongside his men at the site of perhaps his most poignant victory.
His legacy to the majority of those who choose to remember him will doubtless be one of military exploits, struggle and victories against the odds but this would be to forget his humanity. He was a man who cared more for the person than the victory. He had iron ethics which he never compromised and he gave a lifetime of service asking nothing in return. His towering sense of duty and responsibility saw him look after a disabled daughter without batting an eyelid for as long as was humanly possible with the same sense of duty that he shepherded his old soldiers. He never once turned his back on an old comrade and he held to his personal creed just long enough to see Poland become a true democracy and a sovereign nation once more.
This old warrior must have finally died in peace.
Men cast in his mould, and finished to his standard are few and far between. One or two in a generation are what makes the world turn and serve as icons that allow the rest of us to aim to be something greater than we are. We should respect their moral legacies and always seek to pay our dues to their memories.
Gone, but never forgotten. R.I.P Mr Stanislaw Maczek
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| Maczek back in Scotland and surrounded again... |
What he probably couldnt have anticipated however was being stripped of his citizenship on 6th September 1946 by the Polish Communist puppet government along with a list of another 75 senior Polish officers for taking up arms under and accepting orders from another foreign power.
For the rest of his life Maczek would refuse to recognise the Polish Peoples Republic as anything other than a puppet state jiggling on Communist strings.
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| Polish President Jaruzelski |
Without starting up a long text driven debate concerning the Polish place in the UK after the war it can be said with some justification that the UK government were a bunch of gutless weasles with yellow streaks wider than the San Andreas Fault who continued the long English tradition of abandoning our allies when they have needed us the most unless our own pockets were being hit and the actions of the Communists in Poland were for the most part brushed as far under the carpet as could be managed.
It was apparently quite clear to many of the Poles what the situation in Poland would likely be if they were able to return to their homeland after 1945. Maczek did not desire to return to Poland under those circumstances and it was with some sorrow that he held his final meeting with Colonel Dec and his future, possibly in Poland.
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| Franciszek Skibinski early and late in life. |
The decision to deprive Maczek of his citizenship was overturned in 1971 but as it was the government of the Polish Peoples Republic making the decree, and therefore a Communist vassal Maczek ignored the decree. It was not until the fall of Communism in Poland in 1989 that Maczek accepted the gesture.
Lieutenant Jan Suchcitz, one of the veterans of the 10th Mounted Rifles, reflected that in the remaining 50 years of Maczeks life he never sought any accolades, was always a firm believer in an apolitical army and took no part in the political folly that had riven the Polish army for so many years.
 |
| The Virtuti Militari |
In contrast to some, such as General Anders, Maczek was to remain employed in humble jobs in order to support his family in Edinburgh. He received no pension from either the british or canadian government (and yes the respective governments deserve no capitalisation in this regard!) and it was only the appreciation and generosity of the Dutch people that facilitated a secure future for the Maczeks disabled daughter.
It was reported in the Polish Press in London in 1995 that Maczek did eventually receive a generous pension from the Dutch government. No doubt this was connected to the Polish liberation of Breda and Maczek being instrumental in its liberation without destruction.
 |
| The bar in the Learmont Hotel that Mr Maczek worked in |
The problem of senior Polish officers gaining employment in the UK after the war was one that was to haunt Maczek for the rest of his days in exile and was ironically, by association, the reason for being stripped of his Polish citizenship.
Following the surrender of Germany a census of Poles serving under Western Command was taken in the wake of the news that Poland was being handed to the tender mercies of the Communists and a total of only 17.2% were happy to return. The underlying problem with this was that the majority of the British public had, given the enormous suffering that the Soviet Union had suffered through the war, a healthy sympathy for the communist people and their politicians. Ever the slaves to public passions, the home government also had a significant distrust of Anders rabidly anti communist rhetoric and that of other members of the Polish II Corps, believing that it would likely result in political complications if left unchecked, much less actually fostered and accepted.
 |
| One of the PRC camps |
 |
| An example of a Polish Resettlement Corp registration book |
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| Commie puppet Marshal Michal Rola-Zymierski |
Perhaps the most obvious way for Great Britain to provide assistance to Maczek would have been to take the step that they did with so many other senior serving Poles and offer them a comfortable pension. At a time when the average British employee was earning in the region of £24 a month General Anders, the most political of the Polish military hierarchy and certainly the deepest thorn in the side of the allies with regards to his political anti soviet rhetoric was awarded £100 a month with many others receiving between this and £75.
What beggars belief is that Maczek, who commanded I Corps, was apolitical and whose prescience and planning had pulled the allies collective balls out of the fire in Normandy was awarded nothing! Not a penny!
Thankfully not all British are so disgraceful and this decision did indeed raise comments in official circles.
 |
| Bernard Law Montgomery in 1948 |
b) These officers at PRC have aided Britain in assisting government policy and resettled their men into the British economy.
c) These men have lost everything they possessed. Kopanski and Maczek have been publicly deprived of their Polish nationality. The majority have spent their spare money in ensuring a good education for their children and as a consequence have saved little or nothing."
Another partisan to Maczeks cause said:
"... General Maczek had most loyally handled the problem of the resettlement of Poles in Scotland and the liquidation of the Polish commitment to Scottish Command. He fought gallantly under Field Marshal Montgomery's command throughout the 1944/45 campaign in France and who, since he has been running the PRC's commitment in Scottish Command, has absolutely no money of his own, and has a wife and two children to educate, also an idiot child whom he has to maintain. He is most anxious to know whether any provision will be made for him. I cannot help feeling that it would be an injustice, after the service rendered to us, to leave this type of man to sink or swim on his own."
The author of this note, who was writing to the Prime Minister, Clemence Attlee considered that a pension should be provided for a Polish Officer IF:
a) Of the rank of Major General, its equivalent or above
b) Had served in the Polish Armed Forces under British command during the war
c) Had served in the PRC
Minutes recorded by one Barbara Green at the Ministry of Labour and National Service are also in print as agreeing with these perspectives.
 |
| 1st Polish Armoured Division is demobilised |
That was the end of the story for one hell of a Division. Resolute in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, stubborn, aggressive and one that had served the allied cause to the highest expectation in both good times and bad, they had fought from the first day of the war right up until the last, suffering a series of catastrophic reverses across Europe before remodelling themselves and striding back the other way across Europe and dishing out emphatic wallopings as they went!
Maczeks immediate fate after demobilisation is that he never received a pension from the British government worth mentioning! At the age of 57, with no skills other than understanding the nature of waging combined arms mobile warfare, he had to go out into the British job market in order to support his family.
 |
| The Learmonth Hotel in Edinburgh. Now a Travel lodge. |
Life was a series of struggles for the Maczek family but he never complained and they never asked for help. An insignificant pension from the British government was provided but was so inconsequential that it served very little practical purpose within the household so he carried on working in the bar. Every time his veterans stopped by for a pint they would stand to attention in recognition of his rank.
 |
| 16 Arden Street in Edinburgh. Mr Maczek's family home. |
His memoirs go no further than the end of the Second World War and morally he usually avoided the Polish predilection for meddling in political issues that split the Polish community so frequently. In point of fact, by refusing to involve himself in these areas he was to become quite a thorn in the side of the communist body politik for some time to come.
 |
| Mr Maczek in Breda in the '60's |
Mr Maczek became the titular head of the Polish expatriate community in Scotland. With his self imposed distance from the Polish Government in Exile (which incidentally was no longer recognised by any state in the world) Maczek was able to retain a dignity that was admirable and he was stalwart in his refusal to recognise the Polish puppet state, even when, under a more moderate form of communism his nationality was offered to be restored in an effort to rehabilitate the government with its people by appropriating past heroes.
He ignored these overtures still!
 |
| The Edinburgh Military Tattoo 1972 |
The Dutch, ever loyal to his memory, held a concert orchestra in honour of his 80th birthday.
The turn of a century was a big event for Maczek. Cards and notes from well wishers poured in from around the world with many young people from the Netherlands and Belgium found amongst the congratulatory messages, writing to him to express their gratitude for the freedom that he and his men had bestowed on their countries through the shedding of their blood so selflessly.
 |
| Lech Walesa, victorious in his own anti communist uprising |
Sadly Maczek was too frail to return home to Poland by this point in time and in any case his true home was now a part of the Ukraine but he had lived long enough to know that his beloved Poland had been freed from under the communist boot.
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| General Stanislaw Maczek 1944 |
Mr Stanislaw Maczek died on 11th December 1994 at the grand old age of 102, rightly mourned by the Poles, Dutch and Scots. His funeral was held in Edinburgh but he was laid to rest at Breda alongside his men at the site of perhaps his most poignant victory.
His legacy to the majority of those who choose to remember him will doubtless be one of military exploits, struggle and victories against the odds but this would be to forget his humanity. He was a man who cared more for the person than the victory. He had iron ethics which he never compromised and he gave a lifetime of service asking nothing in return. His towering sense of duty and responsibility saw him look after a disabled daughter without batting an eyelid for as long as was humanly possible with the same sense of duty that he shepherded his old soldiers. He never once turned his back on an old comrade and he held to his personal creed just long enough to see Poland become a true democracy and a sovereign nation once more.
This old warrior must have finally died in peace.
Men cast in his mould, and finished to his standard are few and far between. One or two in a generation are what makes the world turn and serve as icons that allow the rest of us to aim to be something greater than we are. We should respect their moral legacies and always seek to pay our dues to their memories.
Gone, but never forgotten. R.I.P Mr Stanislaw Maczek
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| Mr Maczeks grave situated with all of 'his boys' in Breda, Netherlands |
