Maj. General Stanislaw Maczek: An Assessment of Command and Leadership

The Falaise Gap was the only escape route for the German Army who had been fighting in Normandy. At the time General Maczek's Polish 1st Armoured Division, recently reorganised by the British in 1940 , was sent to fight with Canadian troops to try to capture the town of Falaise. The Falaise Gap was partially closed trapping well over 100,000 German soldiers. They were taken prisoners and sent to prisoner of war camps.

Paul Latawski a Senior Lecturer in the War Studies Department, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, has research interests in the Polish Armed Forces in the West during WW11, Polish resistance to occupation 1939-45 and urban operations. He is writing a history of 1st Polish Armoued Division's operations in Normandy