Freely he served and I thank you.

Freely I Served is the memoirs of Major General Stanislaw Sosabowski who was the commander of the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade who jumped at Arnhem and who was unfairly blamed for the debacle by Monty and General Browning. Hence the reason why most Polish soldiers, and especially the paratrooper veterans, held no respect for Monty after the war. My Grandfather like Stanislaw Sosabowski was from Eastern Poland, the Kresy, which underwent ethnic cleansing twice by the Russians who removed the Poles and the Nazis who wiped out the Jewish communities.

I have a confession to make before I continue with my review, my Grandfather served as a Sergeant in the Polish Paratroopers and jumped at Arnhem and had similar tails to tell as his former commanding officer. A commanding officer who he greatly admired as he too had escaped capture and took a similar to that of Sosabowski all except he came across Yugoslavia to France. His stories and dislike of the French I now understand from this book, the only difference Sosabowski never held a grudge even when he had every right to do so.

You feel the horror of being on the receiving end of the Panzer Blitzkrieg and the Stuka dive bombers and how the Poles were fighting against a massive military machine. How through sheer grit and determination managed to delay the capture of Warsaw and the eventual surrender and his work for the Underground Army. How he managed to escape through the Nazi and Soviet zones in to Hungry and eventually Paris. How the French blamed the Poles for not defending better and that they should have used trenches to dig in and fight like the First World War. The French showed that they had no concept of what the Poles had faced until it was too late and they were being brought under the jackboot. How the French often refused to arm the Polish soldiers and when they did gave them rifles that had been used in the Franco-Prussian War in the 1870s.

How in England he trained and built up the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade to a fighting force all who wanted to fight and win the peace for their beloved Poland. How they trained and were willing to join their comrades at arms during the Warsaw Rising and how that was refused and they were used at Arnhem. We get the full description of training and the jump at Arnhem and the battle after. Here he gives us the details of the battle and how it felt as he saw his men fight and die how the Germans rained down hell and that the intelligence reports had not quite told them about the divisions that were now in Arnhem. You feel his loss when he points out that 1700 Polish troops either parachuted or glided in to battle and 1310 marched out.

After Arnhem he explains the politics that came in to force and how General Browning slighted Sosabowski by putting him and the paratroopers under the command of a British brigadier. When the Polish Government conferred the Star of the Order Polonia Restituta on General Browning how he told Sosabowski that he wished they had not done that in light of recent events. It was at this time that the Polish Commander in Chief was dismissed due to pressure from the Russians and by accident the newspapers used a picture of Sosabowski which under the circumstances amused him. Sosabowski does note that General Browning held the notion, that was prevalent amongst the officer corps that all foreigners are fools and should be treated accordingly. He also notes that even General Urquhart miss understood the role of Sosabowski referring him as a political leader of men when he was clearly a military man not a politician.

This memoir also covers Sosabowski’s life in the army from the First World War where he was under the Austrian colours, due to the 18th century partition of Poland and was fighting other Poles who were forced to be under the Russian flag. His years at the Staff College post war and his commission in to the infantry as a colonel and his pride at being appointed in January 1939 the commanding officer of the prestigious 21st “Children of Warsaw” Infantry Regiment.

This book was written before Sosabowski’s death in 1967 while Poland was occupied by the Soviets and some of the names of the Underground Army contacts full names were not given as he understood this would have meant their arrest even then. Like his many comrades he was unable to return to Poland when demobbed in 1948 as he would have faced immediate arrest and probable execution as an enemy of the state – according to the Communists. He worked in an electrical factory until before his death and never spoke of what he did during the war his colleagues were shocked when they attended his funeral which was given full military honours.

Even in death the Officer Corps of the UK Army and the Foreign Office fought against Sosabowski receiving in 2006 the Bronze Lion Award for Bravery which his family received from Queen Beatrix in Driel. His body now rests in Poland in the country would not allow him home after the war, but at least he is back in the country he defended till the end. ( )

Good first person account by a man who had an interesting perspective on WW2. Brings home the sadness of what Roosevelt allowed to happen to Poland. ( )