The Price of Victory

General Stanisław 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.

General Stanisław 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.

The final instalment of N.A.M. Rodger's definitive, authoritative trilogy on Britain's naval history At the end of the French and Napoleonic wars, British sea-power was at its apogee. But by 1840, as one contemporary commentator put it, the Admiralty was full of 'intellects becalmed in the smoke of Trafalgar'. How the Royal Navy reformed and reinvigorated itself in the course of the nineteenth century is just one thread in this magnificent book, which refuses to accept standard assumptions and analyses. All the great actions are here, from Navarino in 1827 (won by a daringly disobedient Admiral Codrington) to Jutland, D-Day, the Battle of the Atlantic and the battles in the Pacific in 1944/45 in concert with the US Navy. The development and strategic significance of submarine and navy air forces is superbly described, as are the rapid evolution of ships (from classic Nelsonic type, to hybrid steam/sail ships, then armour-clad and the fully armoured Dreadnoughts and beyond) and weapons. The social history of officers and men - and sometimes women - always a key part of the author's work, is not neglected. Rodger sets all this in the essential context of politics and geo-strategy. The character and importance of leading admirals - Beatty, Fisher, Cunningham - is assessed, together with the roles of other less famous but no less consequential figures. Based on a lifetime's learning, it is the culmination of one of the most significant British historical works in recent decades. Naval specialists will find much that is new here, and will be invigorated by the originality of Rodger's judgements; but everyone who is interested in the one of the central threads in British history will find it rewarding.

The final instalment of N.A.M. Rodger's definitive, authoritative trilogy on Britain's naval history At the end of the French and Napoleonic wars, British sea-power was at its apogee. But by 1840, as one contemporary commentator put it, the Admiralty was full of 'intellects becalmed in the smoke of Trafalgar'. How the Royal Navy reformed and reinvigorated itself in the course of the nineteenth century is just one thread in this magnificent book, which refuses to accept standard assumptions and analyses. All the great actions are here, from Navarino in 1827 (won by a daringly disobedient Admiral Codrington) to Jutland, D-Day, the Battle of the Atlantic and the battles in the Pacific in 1944/45 in concert with the US Navy. The development and strategic significance of submarine and navy air forces is superbly described, as are the rapid evolution of ships (from classic Nelsonic type, to hybrid steam/sail ships, then armour-clad and the fully armoured Dreadnoughts and beyond) and weapons. The social history of officers and men - and sometimes women - always a key part of the author's work, is not neglected. Rodger sets all this in the essential context of politics and geo-strategy. The character and importance of leading admirals - Beatty, Fisher, Cunningham - is assessed, together with the roles of other less famous but no less consequential figures. Based on a lifetime's learning, it is the culmination of one of the most significant British historical works in recent decades. Naval specialists will find much that is new here, and will be invigorated by the originality of Rodger's judgements; but everyone who is interested in the one of the central threads in British history will find it rewarding.