From Narmandy to Wilhelmshaven - the 1st Armoured Division in combat

	From Normandy to Wilhelmshaven - the 1st Armoured Division in combat

This Division based on the tradition of the 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade from the September campaign and of the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade from the French campaign of 1940.

The formation of the Division, which was stationed in Scotland, began in February 1942.

The unit numbered 16,100 soldiers, 381 tanks, 470 artillery guns and approx. 4000 vehicles. This Division, and the preceding one - the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade - enjoyed great interest of the Polish and British authorities, and it was visited amongst others by: King Peter of Yugoslavia, the British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, Field-Marshall Bernard Montgomery and the British King George VI and his wife. During the latter visit an unprecedented event took place, namely, the soldiers of the 1st Motorized Artillery Regiment stood on guard at Glamis Castle. This was the first case in the history of England and Scotland of the royal couple, on British soil, being guarded by foreign soldiers.
 

Between 29 July and 4th August the division arrived in Normandy. It became a part of the 2nd Canadian Corps, commanded by General Guy Simmonds. The Division was to take part in an operation devised by Field Marshall Montgomery, whose aim it was to encircle the German armoured troops located there and by so doing to open the way to Paris. The encirclement was planned to be in the Falaise area. The Polish division was in readiness to attack alongside the British 3rd Infantry Division and with the Canadian 4th Armoured Division. The attack commenced on the night of 7/8 of August.

After breaking the German defences on 17 August, the division reached the town of Chamboise. There was the only road which German troops could take in order to withdraw from the encircled area.
 

After the seizure of Chamboise the 1st Armoured Division's troops, along with the US 385th infantry batallion, had to restrain the continuous attack of the withdrawing Germans until the British and Canadian troops joined the combat. In the course of the fight the Division destroyed approx. 570 tanks and other vehicles, 100 guns and took 5500 prisoners of war. The cost of this operation on the part of the 1st Division was around 450 killed and 100 tanks lost. Later Field Marshall Montgomery described these fights in the following way:

"Under Falaise we locked the Germans like if they were in a bottle, and the Polish Armoured Division was the cork of this bottle".

After the Battle of Falaise the 1st Armoured Division's troops crossed the French - Belgian border on 6th September and entered Flanders, fighting in the Ghent area and Axel, before taking part in the battle for Antwerp. As part of the operations in the Netherlands the division seized Breda after two days of fights. In 1944 the Division ended its combat track by fighting for Moerdijk - a strongly fortified town across the river Moselle. 1400 Polish soldiers died in the course of these attacks, and almost 3000 German soldiers were taken prisoners of war. After this fight the Poles took up defensive positions at the Moselle, where they remained until the first days of April 1945. On 7 April the Division's troops, as part of the 2nd Canadian Corps, moved towards Germany and crossed its border on the following day. On the night of 4th/5th May the troops reached the outskirts of Wilhelmshaven - the city and port which waes great base of the Kriegsmarine. On 6 May Gen. Maczek accepted the capitulation of the base's commander. The war in Europe ended two days later.
 

In the course of its combat the 1st Armoured Division took around 52,000 German prisoners of war, destroyed approx. 320 armoured vehicles and 310 anti-tank cannons, and shot down 13 aircraft. Its own losses amounted to around 5000 soldiers and 350 armoured vehicles.
 

 

General Stanisław Władysław Maczek (1892-1994) During the First World War he served in the Austro-Hungarian army, and from 1918 he was in the Polish Army. In the 1939 campaign he commanded the 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade, the unit he also commanded in France. From 1942 he was the commander of the 1st Armoured Division and as such he took part in the liberation of Western Europe (1944 -1945); in 1945 he became commander of the 1st Polish Corps. After the end of the war he lived in Edinburgh. In 1990 he was nominated 'General (of the kind) of Arms'. He died on 11 December 1994. He was decorated, amongst others, with the Virtuti Militari crosses of the 3rd, 4th and 5th class, with the Belgian Order of the Crown - 2nd class; the British Order of Bath - 3rd class; the French Honorable League - 3rd class and the Dutch Oranie-Nassau medal - 3rd class.