Stanisław Maczek's military career began long before the formation of the 1st Armoured Division, and though he later wrote a 300 page memoir detailing his experiences entitled Od Podwody Do Czołga, it has never been translated to English and a physical copy is extremely hard to come by. Despite this, there is still a story to be told.

Maczek grew up in Lwów, at the time a city in Poland under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he attended university and joined the Eastern Galicia branch of the Riflemen's Association in the years leading up to World War One. It was there that he received basic military training, allowing him to swiftly rise through the ranks once he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army. He spent the war serving in the alpine terrain of the Italian Front and had achieved the rank of Lieutenant by 1918. With the signing of the Armistice and subsequent collapse of Austria-Hungary, Maczek returned to Lwów to defend Poland's rightful territory from advancing Ukrainian forces during the Polish-Ukrainian War. Though it took many long, hard months of brutal trench warfare, Maczek's "flying" company as part of the greater 4th Infantry Division succeeded in relieving the city from the ongoing siege. His unit made extensive use of motorized infantry, machine guns, and mobile armor, paving the way for tactics Maczek would use during the Second World War. After the conflict, he was promoted to the rank of Major, but was given a desk job in turn. The outbreak of the Polish-Soviet war provided Maczek the opportunity to return to the field, where he contributed to Poland's victory over the Bolsheviks.

Though not even 30 years old by the end of hostilities in 1921, Maczek found himself in peacetime for the first time in many years. He opted not to return to university and finish his studies, but instead remain in active service. Over the next several years, he commanded many different units and attended Wyższa Szkoła Wojenna (Higher War School) where he received more formal training to become a higher ranking officer. By 1931 Maczek had risen to the rank of Colonel, and in October 1938 he received command of the 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade, the first fully-motorized formation in the Polish Army, and the only unit of its kind to be at full strength when Nazi Germany invaded less than a year later. 

On the eve of war, Maczek's unit was primarily equipped with TKS tankettes and Vickers Mk. E light tanks, supplemented by 37 mm anti-tank guns, infantry, and machine guns. No military unit in Poland was properly equipped to deal with Germany's superior panzer divisions, Polish armour was outdated, slow, and lacked the hitting power of their opponents. Despite the overwhelming odds, Maczek's men fought with tremendous skill, diminishing the powerful German blitzkrieg to a crawl, only when the greater Kraków Army began to collapse was the 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade forced to retreat. Two weeks into the invasion, all Polish forces east of the Vistula were ordered to retreat to Lwów where they were to hold out until Winter, supplies would arrive from Romania, and France was to launch an attack on the Western Front. The situation grew worse when the Soviet Union invaded Poland on 17 September, by which time the French Saar Offensive had failed. Polish military units began to withdraw across the border to Romania that same day, Maczek and his men were among the few tasked with keeping the retreating forces safe from the rapidly advancing Wehrmacht and Red Army. Only two days passed before even Maczek's brigade was ordered to evacuate from Poland. Despite having lost nearly half it's men, the 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade had not been defeated in open battle and was now temporarily safe in Hungary. The same could not be said for the remainder of Poland, which suffered more than 800,000 casualties in total.

Many surviving members of the Polish Armed Forces made their way to France in the weeks following the Polish defeat, among them were Colonel Maczek and his men. He was promptly promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and given command of the Polish military camp in Northwest France. Unfortunately, the French Military was not too keen on providing the Polish with the equipment necessary to from valuable armored units, and they were not interested in listening to Maczek's account of German blitzkrieg tactics and how to outfox them. Though it was France who failed to uphold their promise to help Poland in September of 1939, the French blamed Poland's defeat on poor military strategy, while they assumed that Germany would never be able to topple France in the same way, owing to the "impervious" Maginot Line. Unfortunately, the inevitable attack on France came not from the Maginot Line, but from the North, from the Low Countries. The German invasion of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands forced France to equip every trained fighting man at their disposal, including Maczek's group of soldiers. By May of 1940, the Polish troops in France had been provided with all the equipment they could possibly need, though there was no time for training as they were ordered into battle immediately. Rather than risk the lives of all his men, Maczek instead chose to lead a smaller group of only his best men, all of whom were veterans of the 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade. They reformed as the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade and set off for Reims in Northeast France. Much like their previous engagements, they could do no more than cover the retreat of their brothers in arms, the blitzkrieg was simply too much for the defenders. In mid-June, Maczek and his men were among the last defending forces in the area, nearby French forces were either in total retreat or completely destroyed. The general sent his surviving men off in small groups through enemy lines with the aim of reaching the South of France and finding transport to Great Britain, as the French authorities were extremely reluctant to help Polish soldiers evacuate with the rest of the British and French armies. Maczek, along with those who were brave enough to follow him, escaped German-occupied France on foot, trudged through Vichy France, North Africa, and Portugal before finally finding transport to Britain. 

The German war machine had already swallowed up both Poland and France, now it seemed Britain was next in line. Preparing for yet another invasion, the majority of Polish forces in the country were consolidated along the Scottish East Coast, and they may have stayed there for the remainder of the war had General Maczek not made it to Britain. Returning with him were numerous battle-hardened members of the original 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade that had fought with tremendous courage defending their home country a year prior. Now that they had the proper leadership, Polish I Corps received permission from the British government to establish a mechanized unit, forming the 1st Armoured Division. In the years that followed, the 1st Armoured retrained with British and American equipment, participated in war games with other units, and ultimately received orders to head for Normandy in July of 1944.

Equipped with some of the best tanks the Allies had to offer such as the Cromwell and Sherman Firefly, the well-experienced men of the 1st Armoured Division led by Brigadier General Maczek went into battle for the first time on 8 August 1944 during Operation Totalize. By this time, the German Army had been dealt blow after blow and defeat after defeat in France, while the continued success of the Soviet's Operation Bagration in the Eastern Front left no reinforcements available. Just four days after the 1st Armoured entered combat, the Battle of the Falaise Pocket begins. Maczek and his men push up to Mont Ormel, a major high ground in the area where the German Army plans to escape the Allied encirclement. During the battle that followed, Polish and German soldiers who had fought in Poland nearly six years earlier came face to face. Only this time, Maczek did not have to retreat. His 1st Armoured Division emerged victorious. They would continue to claim victory after victory until the once mighty Third Reich was destroyed, just as Poland, France, and countless others were destroyed years prior.

Now that the Allies had broken out of Normandy, Maczek's 1st Armoured moved north, following the English Channel toward Belgium and the Netherlands. They liberated numerous towns, among them the city of Breda in the Netherlands, which was done so without a single civilian casualty. On 29 October, Maczek organized a successful outflanking of the city, taking the occupying forces completely by surprise and thus preventing any major battle from occurring. The 1st Armoured remained in the Netherlands during the winter, situated south of the Rhine. Early in 1945, they resumed the push toward Germany with the other Allied forces. Just one day before the German Instrument of Surrender was signed, the 1st Armoured Division arrived in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, where General Maczek accepted the total surrender of the major Kriegsmarine (German Navy) base there. This yielded upwards of 100,000 prisoners of war and 200 naval vessels. The war ended the following day, Maczek was assigned overall command of Polish I Corps, promoted to the rank of Major General, and later became the commanding officer of all Polish forces in Britain. The 1st Armoured's occupation duties ended in 1947, allowing the men to return home for the first time in eight years. 

For many members of the 1st Armoured Division, there was no home left to return to. Their homes and families already destroyed, now a new communist government was in place. Maczek himself was not allowed to return to Poland, his citizenship revoked by the Soviet Union's puppet state. He officially left the army on 9 September 1948 and moved to Scotland, where he had already spent many years between the Battle of France and the Normandy Invasion. He was refused a job or pension by the British government, who feared any former Polish soldier to be a communist spy. While the Netherlands was much more accepting of foreign veterans, relatively few Polish soldiers settled there, most likely no more than a thousand, possibly owing to the shrinking of the Dutch population in general, as many locals left their war torn home country to start new lives in the United States or Canada. A soldier's salary was far from enough to relocate across the Atlantic, leaving some 200,000 Polish soldiers with nowhere to go in Britain alone. Like many other Poles living in Britain after the war, Maczek was forced to perform unskilled labor to make ends meet, some worked in the fields or factories, the general worked as a bartender.

It was not long before news of his difficult financial situation crossed the English Channel. In Breda, a city saved from destruction by Maczek, Mayor Claudius Prinsen appeals to the Dutch government to help the struggling general. In 1950, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs establishes a secret budget to provide Maczek with a general's pension, however this information would not be revealed until the end of the Cold War. The Netherlands had no desire to increase tensions with communist Poland and the Soviet Union, nor were they eager to point out Britain's lack of chivalry toward a revered war hero. Despite finally receiving a pension, Maczek continued to work as a bartender over the next several years, as his daughter suffered from a chronic illness that would require costly treatment. Hearing of this, the Dutch public decided to raise a large sum of money to further assist Maczek and his family. The launched a national radio broadcast in 1965, all donations helped pay for Maczek's daughter's treatment in Spain. Seven years later, the Polish Catholic Society in the Netherlands made an appeal to the Dutch government, asking for compensation of lost pension for Polish soldiers who aided in the liberation of the country. Though Maczek's pension was still kept secret, the Dutch government concluded that any non-Dutch persons needed to be affiliated with the Dutch Armed Forces at some point during the war, thus Polish soldiers were not eligible to receive funds from the government. 

Maczek continued to live a quiet and happy life in Edinburgh until the end of the Cold War. In 1989, Poland's last communist prime minister issued a public apology to the general, formally returning Maczek's citizenship, though he declined to return to Poland. In 1994, the new Polish government bestowed upon him Poland's highest honor: the Order of the White Eagle. He passed away at the age of 102 on 11 December later that same year, having served in the military for more than 30 years, fighting in four wars, and reaching the rank of Lieutenant General. He was also awarded France and Romania's highest honors: the Legion of Honour and Order of the Star of Romania, respectively. In accordance with his last wishes, General Maczek was laid to rest alongside his fellow soldiers of the 1st Armoured Division at the Polish Military Cemetery in Breda, Netherlands.

Monuments honouring Maczek can be found in Normandy, Tielt, Breda, Stadskanaal, Kraków, Gdańsk, and Warsaw. Money is currently being raised to construct a monument in Edinburgh's Meadows, which Maczek visited often while living in the city. Inscribed upon the monument in Warsaw is a quote from Maczek that reads "A Polish soldier fights for the freedom of all peoples, but dies only for Poland". The 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade, which Maczek commanded in France in 1940, is still an active unit today. They operate state-of-the-art Leopard 2 tanks based at Żagań in western Poland. Though it is unlikely that the general population has even heard Maczek's name before, it is of the utmost importance that they learn his story, because only then can one begin to understand what it means to have determination. No matter how many time he was forced to retreat, Stanisław Maczek came back. Not for glory, but for freedom.