Stanislaw Maczek
Stanisław Władysław Maczek (born March 31, 1892 in Szczerzec near Lemberg , then Austria-Hungary ; † December 11, 1994 in Edinburgh ) was a Polish general.
Life
Coming from a Polish family of Croatian origin, he was a cousin of Vladko Maček , he attended high school in Drohobycz, Galicia . From 1910 to 1914 he studied Polish studies at the University of Lemberg . At the same time, he completed paramilitary training in the Związek Strzelecki (Rifle Association) Józef Piłsudskis . During the First World War he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army . After attending the officers' school he became platoon leader of the kk Landwehr Infantry Regiment No. 3 in Graz. In June 1915 he came to the kk Landesschützen Regiment "Bozen" No. II (called Kaiserschützen from April 1917), then known as the elite unit of the mountain troops , in order to be transferred to the Isonzo in December . In the spring of 1916 Maczek became an instructor at the officers' school of the XIV Corps in Steyr. In February 1918 he was wounded in the hand. After a hospital stay in Vienna and a subsequent three-month vacation, Maczek returned to the Italian front. There he last served as a lieutenant in the mountain riflemen.
After the surrender of the Central Powers, Maczek deserted and went to Krosno , where he joined the new Polish army on November 14, 1918 . As a battalion commander he fought with his unit to conquer Lemberg, which was occupied by the Ukrainians . Victory was achieved in the spring of 1919 with a newly established storm battalion based on the German model . The unit also fought in the Lviv area in the Polish-Soviet War in 1920. In the interwar period, Maczek remained in the army and rose to become the commander of 10 Brygada Kawalerii , the first large motorized unit of the Polish army.
After the outbreak of World War II , Maczek, who had meanwhile been promoted to Brigadier General , first fought against the Germans and then positioned himself again near Lemberg. After the invasion of the Red Army , however, after September 19, 1939, he was forced to cross the border into Hungary with his association . He immediately went on to France , where he reorganized the 10th Armored Cavalry Brigade as part of the Polish armed forces in the west . After the German attack in June 1940, he fought with this association first in Champagne . After the country's defenses had collapsed, he made his way with around 500 men to Marseille , where he managed, disguised as an Arab, to cross the Mediterranean and finally to Scotland via Tunis , Morocco , Portugal and Gibraltar .
On August 1, 1944, he returned to the continent with his new unit, the 1 Dywizja Pancerna (1st Panzer Division), in the course of the invasion of Normandy . As part of the 2nd Canadian Corps, the unit took part in the defense of Mont Ormel in the Battle of Falaise . The further route led him via Belgium to Holland, where he succeeded in liberating the city of Breda without any civilian losses. On May 6, 1945, he reached Wilhelmshaven , where he accepted the surrender of the German naval base. In June 1945 he was appointed division general. In the part of the British occupation zone administered by Polish soldiers , the small town of Haren an der Ems was temporarily renamed Maczków in his honor.
Since Maczek was not ready to submit to the new communist rulers in Poland, he decided to go into exile in Scotland. His Polish citizenship was revoked and the British government denied the war hero combatant and military status, so that he had to work as a bartender in Edinburgh for many years . The government of the Netherlands made him an honorary citizen. In 1961 he published his memoirs with the title Od podwody do czołga (From horse-drawn cart to tank). After the fall of the communist regime, Maczek was still rehabilitated. In 1990 he was appointed weapons general and, in 1994, the year he died, was honored with the highest Polish honor, the Order of the White Eagle . Maczek was buried in the war cemetery in Breda.
literature
- Jan Rydel: The Polish occupation in the Emsland 1945-1948. fiber Verlag, Osnabrück 2003, ISBN 3-929759-68-3 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sławomir Kułacz: Uwagi na temat służby Stanisława Maczka w armii Austro-węgierskiej . In: Klio - Czasopismo Poświęcone Dziejom Polski i Powszechnym . tape 48 , no. 1 , March 29, 2019, ISSN 1643-8191 , p. 89-104 , doi : 10.12775 / KLIO.2019.005 ( umk.pl [accessed on March 8, 2020]).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Maczek, Stanislaw |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Maczek, Stanisław Władysław (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Polish general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 31, 1892 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Szczerzec near Lemberg , then Austria-Hungary |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 11, 1994 |
| Place of death | Edinburgh |