Maczuga Ridge

Coudehard, FR

**Maczuga** — the Polish word for mace or club — was the name given by the soldiers of the **1st Polish Armoured Division** to the distinctive elongated ridge of Hill 262 they captured and defended in August 1944. The name reflected both the shape of the terrain and the brutal, close-quarters nature of the fighting that took place there during the closing of the **Falaise Pocket**. General **Stanisław Maczek's** division had landed in Normandy only weeks earlier and had fought continuously through the August breakout. At Maczuga, they became the stopper in the bottle — positioned to block the escape corridor that tens of thousands of German troops desperately needed. The ridge was attacked from three directions simultaneously: Germans trying to break **out** of the pocket from the south, and German reinforcements trying to break **in** from the north and east to open an escape corridor. The Poles held with artillery, anti-tank guns, and infantry fighting that at times descended into hand-to-hand combat among the trees. The stand at Maczuga is considered the defining moment of Polish participation in the **Normandy campaign** and is commemorated in Polish military history alongside Monte Cassino and Arnhem.