The Price of Victory

General Stanislaw Maczek’s stirring memoir captures the élan, the sacrifice and the disappointed hopes of the Polish soldiers who fought alongside the Allies during the Second World War. As Commander of the 10th Motorised Cavalry Brigade in the September 1939 campaign, his men played a crucial role in resisting the German advance before crossing into Hungary with orders to rebuild the Polish Army on French soil. Fighting a further rearguard action during the 1940 Allied retreat, he and his men escaped to Britain. In February 1942, Maczek assumed command of 1st Polish Armoured Division, created out of the Polish forces which had been training in Scotland since 1940. The Division first saw action in Normandy in early August 1944 and was responsible for closing the Falaise Gap at Mont Ormel and Chambois. Thereafter it fought on through Belgium and Holland, ultimately accepting the surrender of the German naval base at Wilhelmshaven. The Price of Victory is an inspiring tale of bravery and skill in the face of overwhelming odds, and of determination to fight for Poland on foreign soil. Having been welcomed as liberators in so many towns across Europe, it was the ultimate irony that the terms of the Yalta Agreement meant the Poles’ aim of liberating their own was denied them.