Part 1: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/09/05/the-black-brigade-part-1/
Part 2: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/09/09/the-black-brigade-part-2/
Part 3: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/09/10/the-black-brigade-part-3/

Continuing from part 3…

During the entire year 1943, the division continued training. It also changed its structure to a new type (proven by combat), made to resemble the one of a British armored division. The division consisted in turn of an armored brigade, a motorized lorry-mobile brigade, an artillery brigade and auxilliary division units to secure the chain of supplies. A deadline to make the division combat-ready was set on May 1944. When May came, the newly ready 1st Armored Division took part, along with other units, in last series of military excercises and it was decided to deply the unit during the second stage of the Normandy landings.

2nd Lieutenant battledress, 1st Armored Division

At that point, the 1st Armored Division consisted of following units:

- 10th Armored Cavalry Brigade (HQ units, three tank batallions, one motorized batallion)
- 3rd Rifle Brigade (three infantry batallions)
- one motorized recon regiment
- four artillery regiments
- engineering company
- supply transport detachment
- brigade tank repair shops
- four light repair shops
- reserve tank companies
- field post office, light field ambulance service
- military police detachment
- disciplinary platoon, court martial, prosecution

In total, it was 855 officers, 15210 soldiers, 381 tanks, 473 guns and mortars and 4500 armored cars, armored troop carriers and other motorized vehicles.

In July, the entire division was moved to Aldershot, where it awaited its transports to Normandy. By the end of the July, the division disembarked the transport ships in two Normandy ports – Arromanches and Corseulles, with Bayeux set as the unit’s rally point. It was made part of the II.Canadian Corps of the 1st Army, which in turn was assigned to the 21st Army Group of General Montgomery. The task the division was assigned with was an attack from the Caen area towards Falaise as a part of the Operation Totalise. In the night from 7.8. to 8.8., the unit moved to the initial attack position on the eastern outskirts of Caen. General Maczek wrote a special order before the battle. A part of it was addressed to the Polish soldiers:

“We go to our first battle and we demand to settle the score for the first five years of the war. For Warsaw, for Kutno, for Westerplatte, for hundreds of thousands of defenceless victims, killed by the hands of the occupants. It does not mean however that you will fight like barbarians. Fight the way the Polish soldier always fought in our history. Fight gallantly and fight hard.”

The attack began on 8.8. along the Caen-Falaise road. The 10th Brigade ran into strong defenses and suffered severe casualties. The 2nd Regiment of the Brigade lost 27 tanks out of 34. The next day, however, the attack was resumed and the units managed to advance, even though they were unable to completely break the German defense. Canadian 4th Armored Division had about the same results and even the following days did not bring any improvement. The situation changed only with the arrival of XV. US Armored Corps from the south. The German units, in real danger of getting surrounded, started retreating through the gap between the town of Argentan and river Laison.

The allied commanders decided such a withdrawal must not be allowed and tasked the Polish and Canadian divisions with closing the gap. On 15.8.1944, the division crossed river Dives and captured the town of Jort, continuing in the following days towards the heavily fortified town of Trun. This advance reduced the gap to mere several kilometers.

On 17.8.1944, the division recieved the order to capture the town of Chambois. 2nd Armored Regiment and 8th Rifle Company were assigned this task, but in the night they got lost and couldn’t fulfill the order. At this point, General Maczek, isntead of an all-out frontal assault, suggested capturing the strategic overlooks east of Trun and Chambois to close the remaining gap. On the 19.8.1944 in the evening, the order was completed by the capture of Hill 262 near Mont Ormel and the town of Chambois. The Falaise gap was closed. In the days that followed, Mongomery himself praised the Polish units, saying that they were the plug that closed the gap.

That this point, the entire 1st Division got bogged down in defensive fighting, because from 20.8.1944 on, it became isolated from the rest of the allied troops (and supplies) and had to be supplied by air drops, while being constantly under attack by the Germans, desperately trying to fight their way out of the Falaise pocket. These units included the German 7th Army and Wilhelm Bittrich’s II. SS Panzer Corps, attacking from north and east, trying to open the gap once again and relieve the Germans in the west – these units were not pushovers and the fighting was truly fierce. Despite significant losses, the Polish held out, until they were relieved by the 4th Canadian Armored Division.

These several days of hard fighting was the first and at the same time most difficult battle in the entire western Europe campaign for the Polish. For the troopers, the battle was not just an operation – the fighting was personal, an opportunity to get revenge on the hated occupants for the entire Poland. For the veterans of the original 10th Cavalry Brigade, it was truly a satisfaction to capture the members of the 2nd Panzer Division, the same unit they fought against in 1939. The losses however were high – 10 percent of all the men fell in the battle and there were even voices saying that the entire division should be moved from the front lines. After long deliberation, General Maczek denied this idea and ordered the unit to rest a few days and then to become operational again.

General Maczek atop of the turret of the Cromwell command tank (on the left)

After the short rest, on 30.8., the entire division started moving towards Abbeville to chase the retreating Germans. After crossing river Somme, they captured Saint Omer and on 6.9., they entered Belgium. The first city to be liberated by them was the historical town of Ypres, followed by Thiel. In these days, thanks to good infrastructure and practically no German resistance, the division managed to advance 400 kilometers. In the following victorious march, Polish soldiers liberated Gent, Lokeren and Saint Nicholas. On 16.9., they entered Holland and after heavy fighting, they liberated Axel and Hulst. The fast advance however caused various supply issues, as the unit literally outran the supply lines. This issue was shared by most of the allied units fighting in the west, getting further and further from the supply caches in Normandy. The solution was to “clean up” the Antwerp area, opening the port to the Allies. After its liberation, the division again “took a few days off”, resuming the attack only on 28.9. east of Antwerp in the Tilburg direction.

By the end of October, 1st Armored Division liberated the city of Breda, but once again, losses were high. General Maczek was always very sensitive to losses and always minded the needs of the soldiers. He considered Breda to be his most important strategic victory, but at the same time, it left a bitter aftertaste, because it was here where he had to bury many of his fellows and friends. The sacrifice of Polish soldiers, who, instead of shelling the enemy to submission were careful to spare lives of local civillians was rewarded with the love and gratefulness of the citizens. Maczek in turn was so touched that later, he specifically asked to be buried amongst his friends from the unit in the Breda military cemetery.

The last part of the campaign was the destruction of the heavily fortified German position at Moerdijk. This bridgehead was reinforcing the German position at the river Maas (Meuse). It fell to the Polish forces on 9.11.1944, ending the campaign in Benelux for the unit – further tasks included only patrolling the river Maas. The fighting in Belgium and Netherlands weakened the 1st Armored Division – especially the manpower were lacking, as there weren’t that many exile Polish men left. The unit was however using Polish soldiers, forcibly conscripted to German service and forced to serve in the west as a source of new recruits. These men had no desire to fight for the Germans and defected/surrendered at first available opportunity.

In February 1945, the results of the Yalta conference reached the ears of the Polish soldiers. General Maczek himself came from eastern Poland, as did many veterans of the 10th Cavalry Brigade. The Yalta conference declared their homes to be east of the Curzon line and therefore a part of the Soviet Union. The unit became instantly demoralized by these news, understanding the events as yet another treason from the “allies”. The unit however kept on fighting the hated enemy. In early April 1945, the unit crossed the river Rhine and advanced towards the city of Emden, with the Küsten channel being the first target of the advance. After five days of heavy fighting, the German resistance was broken. For the first time in the war, a Polish soldier made it to the German soil. Practically at the same point, the Polish 1st and 2nd Armies entered Germany from the east. During their advance, they ran into the Oberlangen camp, where they liberated – amongst other people – 1700 women and soldiers from the Warsaw Uprising. In the days that followed, the task was to mop up the area around Emden. After that, the Division was assigned the task of capturing Wilhelmshaven.

They arrived at the outskirts of the city on 4.5.1945, but the attack on the Germans never came. The division command recieved the order to cease fire at 8:00AM on 5.5.1945, following the capitulation of German forces in the area. The war for the Polish 1st Armored Division was over.

For two years that followed, Polish troops were present in north-western Germany as occupying troops. In June 1947, the 1st Armored Division was moved to England and the unit was finally disbanded. It was over for the Polish troops. Eight long years ago, they were forced to abandon their homeland and by all rights they should have felt the satisfaction of defeating the aggressors, but the Polish found out they had nowhere to return to. Soviet Union, even though it started the war as nazi Germany accomplice, ended the war in the “allied” camp and as a “victor” and was therefore left to tyrranize the eastern and central Europe for next 45 years.

Many Polish soldiers, serving in the western armies, suffered the same fate as their Czechoslovak counterparts. After they returned home, they were eventually forced to leave the Polish military, arrested, some were tortured, murdered or deported to Soviet gulags, never to be seen again. Few survived the Soviet “hospitality”. Seeing this, many Polish soldiers decided to stay in England instead.

Such was the fate of General Maczek himself. Even though he looked forward to return home after long years of war, he quickly discovered the fate the new Soviet overlords had in store for him. He refused to return to Poland after the war and as an act of revenge, his Polish citizenship was revoked in September 1946 – such was the “thanks” he got for defending Poland from the beginning. At this point, he decided never to return home. He settled down in Edinburgh. Since he could not claim British military pension and was no longer a citizen of Poland, he had no income and had to work as a barkeep in the Learmouth hotel. His bar soon became the meeting point of Polish soldiers in England and every time a former Polish soldier entered the bar, he always saluted the former general with the traditional Polish military salute. Maczek did not participate in Polish political exile, but he wrote a book of memoirs – it was published in England in 1960, but the Polish readers had to wait until 1990 to read it, it was banned in Poland before that. In 1992, on his 100th birthday, he was promoted to the rank of “general broni” (General of armored forces) and in 1994, he was awarded the highest Polish military award, the Order of the White Eagle (Order Orła Białego). Stanislaw Maczek died on 11.12.1994, aged 102 years. According to his wishes, he was buried in the military cemetery in Breda, amongst his friends he left there 60 years ago.

Source:

Zbigniew Mikesz – Černá brigáda