Representatives of Polish and French authorities met in Potigny, in the northern French region of Normandy, to honour the soldiers of Gen. Stanisław Maczek’s Polish 1st Armoured Division, who liberated the town from German occupation in 1944.

Polish Ambassador to France Jan Emeryk Rościszewski and the Head of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression Jan Józef Kasprzyk, laid wreaths at the feet of the monument dedicated to the 1st Armoured Division, located in the centre of the town at a square named in their honour.

A mass for Gen. Maczek and his soldiers was celebrated at the Grainville-Langannerie Polish war cemetery, the only Polish WW2-era cemetery in France, where 696 servicemen are interred. On the occasion, a plaque with the name of Cpl. Mieczysław Szymański was attached to his grave marker. Cpl. Szymański was killed in combat on August 8, 1944, but his remains were not identified until recently.

The 1st Armoured Division was established in February 1942, and was transferred to Normandy in the summer of 1944, where it was attached to the 1st Candian Army. The 1st Armoured Division and other Polish units were instrumental in closing the retreat of the German forces from the so-called Falaise Pocket. Almost 6,000 German soldiers and SS paramilitaries were taken prisoner.

The Polish 1st Armoured Division later went on to fight in Belgium and The Netherlands, until on May 5, 1945, it reached the German city and naval base in Wilhelmshaven on the Weser River.

Commemorative ceremonies were also held the day before, on Saturday, in Saint-Sylvain, liberated by the soldiers of the Podhale Rifles Batallion, and in Soignolles, liberated by the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade. Ambassador Rościszewski was present at the celebrations in Montormel, commemorating the 78th anniversary of the conclusion of the Battle of Normandy, where he reminded the assembled crowd and officials of the ongoing struggle of the Ukrainians against the Russian invaders, saying that “today they [Ukrainians] fight for the values that are the foundations of Europe”.