Polish 1st Armoured Division Memorial

Coudehard, FR

The Polish 1st Armoured Division Memorial at Mont Ormel honours the soldiers of General **Stanisław Maczek's** division who fought and died holding Hill 262 — the Maczuga — during the closing of the Falaise Pocket in August 1944. The division, formed from Polish troops who had escaped the fall of Poland in 1939 and subsequently fought in France, Great Britain, and North Africa, arrived in Normandy in August 1944 as part of the **1st Canadian Army**. At Mont Ormel, they performed one of the most consequential acts of the Normandy campaign — holding a ridge that controlled the last German escape route against desperate attacks from both inside and outside the pocket. The memorial stands as a testament to a force that had travelled from Poland to France, through exile and defeat, to return and play a decisive role in the liberation of Western Europe. The **1st Polish Armoured Division** went on to fight through Belgium and the Netherlands, ending the war in Germany — but Maczuga remains their most celebrated battlefield in Normandy.