1 Dywizja Pancerna
The 1 Dywizja Pancerna ( German 1st Polish Armored Division , English 1st Polish Armored Division ) was a Polish armored division in World War II . It was set up in Scotland in 1942 and had 16,000 soldiers. She was part of the Polish Armed Forces in the west of the Polish government in exile . The division was commanded by General Stanisław Maczek and finally until the demobilization of General Klemens Rudnicki .
history
Scotland
The division was established on February 25, 1942 on the orders of General Władysław Sikorski . In the early days it was responsible for the protection of a 200-kilometer stretch of coast in eastern Scotland and consisted of 885 officers, 15,210 NCOs and men, 381 tanks, 473 guns and 5,060 motorized vehicles.
Normandy
At the end of July 1944 she was relocated to Normandy . On August 8, 1944, she was assigned to the 1st Canadian Army and was used for the first time in Operation Totalize . In the Falaise Kesselschlacht , it withstood all attacks on August 19 and 20, 1944 in heavy losses with the 2nd SS Panzer Division and the 9th SS Panzer Division on Mont Ormel (hill 262) and thus ensured that the boiler could be closed.
Belgium and the Netherlands
Between September 10 and 17, 1944 the division liberated the city of Ghent together with Belgian resistance fighters . On September 27, the division was ordered to take the Dutch city of Breda , which, after two days of hard fighting, succeeded with no civilian casualties. The soldiers were made honorary citizens of Breda for this purpose .
The division later took part in the battle of the Scheldt estuary .
Germany
In April 1945 the women's camp in Oberlangen in the Emsland was liberated, where over 1,700 women from the Warsaw Uprising were held prisoner. The Wilhelmshaven fortress was to be conquered next . However, the German units surrendered on May 6, 1945 without a fight. The next day the Polish occupation of the city began.
The units of the 1st Polish Armored Division acted as occupiers in north-west Germany for the next two years . Together with the 1st Polish Paratrooper Brigade (1st SBS) it formed the 1st Polish Corps .
In June 1947 the division was relocated to England and demobilized. The majority of the soldiers did not return to communist Poland , but remained in exile .
Graves
The graves of the Polish soldiers are in Cloppenburg , Oberlangen and in Osterbrock . There are two forest cemeteries in Meppen . In Haselünne and in the municipality of Thuine , the Polish soldiers are buried in the municipal cemetery. The burial site in Münster-Lauheide was renewed in 2010.
