[citation needed] After graduating from the grammar school at Drohobycz in 1910, he attended the philosophy faculty of Lwów University where he studied Polish philology[3] (i.e. language and literature).

Among his tutors were the renowned Polish philologists Wilhelm Bruchnalski [pl] and Józef Kallenbach,[3] He also attended lectures by Kazimierz Twardowski.

After the outbreak of World War I, Maczek interrupted his studies, hoping to join Józef Piłsudski's Polish Legions, but instead was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army.

As the only Polish battalion commander in Austria-Hungary's Alpine regiments, Maczek gained experience in mountain warfare, which proved valuable in his later career.

[citation needed] On 11 November 1918, after receiving news of the Armistice, Maczek disbanded his battalion and returned to the newly reborn Poland.

Assigned the command of a Krosno battalion, Maczek began a limited offensive against the forces of the West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR) with the aim of relieving his besieged hometown.

However, due to insufficient support, after initial successes at Ustrzyki, Chyrów and Felsztyn, the Polish offensive got bogged down and the Polish–Ukrainian War turned into trench warfare for the rest of the winter.

[citation needed] In April 1919 Maczek was withdrawn from his unit and became the organizer and commander of the so-called 'flying' company (Polish: lotna kompania) as part of Gen. Aleksandrowicz's 4th Infantry Division.

This unit, created on Maczek's initiative, was modelled after the German Sturmbataillone of World War I and was highly mobile, with horse-drawn vehicles (in the singular, taczanka, podwoda) from Austrian Army depots, and well-equipped with heavy machine guns.

Hence it served in a "firefighter" capacity, plugging holes that appeared in defensive lines, but also fighting with distinction in the Polish spring offensive.

It took part in some of the heaviest fighting of the war, including the battles for Drohobycz, Stanisławów, Buczacz, and finally the ZUNR capital, Stryj.

It took part in the Polish assault on Waręż near Zamość, a tactical counter-assault on the rear of Budyonny's advancing Cossacks directly preceding the victorious battle of Komarów.

After the Battle of Jordanów, Maczek's unit faced the entire German XVIII Corps of Gen. Eugen Beyer and successfully shielded the southern flank of the Polish forces, along the Beskids.

The brigade then fought as a screening unit, defending the bridges and fords in Lesser Poland, until it arrived at Lwów and joined the city's defences.

His aim was to preserve the integrity of his former unit and prevent the conscription of some of the best-trained Polish soldiers into standard infantry formations, where their experience would probably have been wasted.

However, immediately on Maczek's arrival the idea was abandoned and General Władysław Sikorski managed to persuade the British government to create instead a Polish armoured unit.

Initially serving in defence of the Scottish coast between Montrose and the Firth of Forth, the division was equipped by the British authorities with Churchill and M4 Sherman tanks in preparation for the Normandy landings.

The division twice suffered attacks of friendly fire from U.S. Army Air Force aircraft, yet achieved a brilliant victory against the Wehrmacht in the battles for Mont Ormel, Hill 262 and the town of Chambois.

In this series of offensive and defensive operations, which came to be known as the Battle of Falaise, 14 German Wehrmacht and SS divisions were trapped in the huge Chambois pocket and destroyed.

[8] After this decisive battle, Maczek's Division continued to spearhead the Allied drive across the battlefields of northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands and finally Germany.

The Division's finest hour came when its forces accepted the surrender of the German naval base of Wilhelmshaven, taking captive the entire garrison, together with some 200 vessels of Hitler's Kriegsmarine.

Recently acquired archive documents show that the Polish general secretly received a yearly allowance from the Dutch government, for the rest of his life.

[13] The government decided quickly and awarded Maczek an indexed general's pension, which was paid for by the Ministry of Foreign affairs from a secret budget.

Uninformed about his improved financial situation, the Dutch public responded at once in 1965 when news came that his chronically ill daughter needed costly medical treatment in Spain.

The Dutch population raised a substantial amount of money following a national radio broadcast for the Maczek family, helping out the general that liberated them.

[12][16] In 1989, the last Polish Communist Government of Prime Minister Mieczysław Rakowski issued a public apology to the General, and in 1994 he was presented with Poland's highest state decoration, the Order of the White Eagle.

In The Death of the Fronsac by Neal Ascherson, a Polish officer, Maurycy Szczucki, serves with General Maczek in World War II.