About the book

Operation Market-Garden through the eyes of soldiers of the 1st Independent Parachute Brigade of General Stanisław Sosabowski

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Author: Sławomir Kwiatkowski

EAN: 9788396651907

Number of pages: 420

Binding: Softcover with flaps

Publisher: Fundacja Projekt Historia

Price: 49,90 zł.

„Operation Market Garden through the eyes of the soldiers of the 1st Independent Parachute Brigade of General Stanisław Sosabowski” is a meticulously written memoir of a Polish soldier who describes his military path with extraordinary insight, from pre-war scouting, through the tragedy of September 1939, occupation and deportation to a Soviet labor camp and finally a trip to England, where the 1st Independent Parachute Brigade was being formed.

After many months of military and parachute training in Great Britain, together with his comrades-in-arms, he receives a combat task and takes part in the fight as a soldier of the 1st Independent Parachute Brigade under the command of General Stanisław Sosabowski, in the largest parachute operation of the Second World War, Operation Market – Garden.

On over four hundred pages, the author describes his personal experiences, reports from colleagues, friends, soldiers, as well as documents and photos showing the combat trail of Polish paratroopers. The book has a very personal character, the author describes his thoughts on the failure of the operation, the participation of Polish soldiers in it, and finally, the incompetence of the Allied command and the British blaming the Polish commander of the Brigade for the failure.

The knowledge that the author conveys is a unique historical message, which is practically absent on the Polish market. While there were memories of commanders participating in these momentous events, which Operation Market Garden undoubtedly was, knowledge about Polish participation and the role played by Polish soldiers is still symbolic. The more so that the events described in the book have a much broader context and do not refer to the battle itself, but to the entirety of the wartime fate of a Pole who described with meticulous care what he experienced and how he saw the events of that time, seen through the eyes of not an ordinary soldier, but above all, an educated and well-trained man in the military profession. This makes an extraordinary contribution to expanding knowledge about the events of the Second World War.