Stanislaw Maczek (31 March 1892-11 December 1994) was a Lieutenant-General of Poland during the Polish-Ukrainian War and the Polish-Soviet War and in the Free Polish government during World War II.
Biography[]
Stanislaw Maczek was born on 31 March 1892 in Lwow, Galicia, Austria-Hungary. His family was originally the Macek family of Croatia. Maczek studied Polish literature at Lwow University, but he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army at the start of World War I. Maczek served on the Italy front and was a Lieutenant by 1918, and he was the only Austro-Hungarian Alpine regiment commander from Poland, giving him mountain warfare experience. He joined the military of an independent Poland after leaving the Austro-Hungarian Army, and he fought in the Defense of Lwow from the West Ukrainian People's Republic during the Polish-Ukrainian War. By the end of the war in 1919, he was a Major, and he was given command over a frontline flying rifle battalion during the Russian Civil War. His battalion was named for him in honor of his achievements during the war, and he was promoted to colonel in 1931, leading the Polish 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade in the Invasion of Poland at the start of World War II.
When Nazi Germany invaded Poland, he led a successful delaying action at the Battle of Jordanow, and he slowed the Wehrmacht's Blitzkrieg to a bloody crawl. His unit was the only Polish unit not to have lost a single battle, but it was withdrawn by Edward Smigly-Ritz to Hungary, where it was interned. Maczek later travelled to France, where he wrote on how to counter against German tactics; the French high command ignored it, and it was captured unopened by the Germans during the 1940 Battle of France. On 16 June 1940 his regiment of Free Polish troops took many German prisoners after a night attack on Montbard over the Burgundy Canal, and most of their troops headed to Vichy France, French North Africa, Portugal, and then the United Kingdom. General Wladyslaw Sikorski petitioned the British government to create a Polish armored army to help the British, and Maczek was given command of the Polish 1st Armored Division. At the end of July 1940, the armored division was deployed to Normandy and entered combat during the push into the Falaise Gap. After destroying German armor near Caen, the Polish pushed towards Falaise in Operation Totalize and bravely held Hill 262 before assaulting Chambois. The Poles proceeded to liberate Ghent, Ypres, and other parts of Belgium in late 1944 and pushed into the Netherlands and then Germany at the end of the war, accepting the surrender of 200 Kriegsmarine vessels and several more sailors at Wilhelmshaven. At the end of the war, he was promoted to Major-General, and he led all Polish forces in the United Kingdom until they were disbanded in 1947.
After the war, the communist Polish People's Republic stripped him of his citizenship, and the British decided not to give him pension rights, so he worked as a bartender at the Edinburgh hotel until the 1960s. Maczek was later awarded honorary citizenship by the Mayor of Breda, who appealed to the government of the Netherlands to help Maczek out with finances. A large amount of money was raised by the Dutch people to help out their liberator, who had a chronically-ill daughter. In 1989, Prime Minister Mieczyslaw Rakowski of Poland issued a public apology to Maczek and awarded him the Order of the White Eagle, the highest award in Poland. He died in Edinburgh, Scotland on 11 December 1994 at the age of 102.