Stanisław Sosabowski: the Polish paratrooper of Arnhem

Stanisław Sosabowski built Poland's paratroopers to fight for the liberation of Warsaw. Instead they were dropped into the battle of Arnhem in 1944, a plan he had openly doubted. His brigade fought bravely at Driel, and he was made a scapegoat for a failure that many historians do not lay at his door.

Defender of Warsaw

Born in 1892 in Stanisławów¹, Sosabowski served in the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War and became a respected officer and teacher in the Polish army. In September 1939 he commanded the 21st Infantry Regiment in the defence of Warsaw.²

Poland's paratroopers

Escaping to France and then Britain, he created in Scotland the 1st Independent Parachute Brigade³, trained with the aim of dropping into occupied Poland to support an uprising. Under Allied pressure the brigade was eventually committed to operations in the West.

Market Garden

In September 1944 the brigade was assigned to Operation Market Garden, the attempt to seize bridges up to Arnhem. Sosabowski criticised the plan as too risky.⁴ Delayed by bad weather, his troops landed near Driel on 21 September³, on the south bank of the Rhine, and tried for several nights to cross the river to reinforce⁵ the trapped British 1st Airborne Division at Oosterbeek.

A scapegoat

After the operation failed, British commanders blamed Sosabowski, and in December 1944 he was removed from command under British pressure¹. Many historians now regard the treatment as unjust. After the war he could not return to communist Poland and worked as a labourer in a London factory¹.

Justice at last

Sosabowski died in London in 1967 and his ashes were buried in Warsaw's Powązki Military Cemetery¹. In 2006 the Netherlands awarded him the Bronze Lion posthumously⁶ and honoured his brigade with the Military William Order, and a monument to him stands in Driel.