Lieutenant General Stanisław Maczek (; 31 March 1892 – 11 December 1994) was a Polish tank commander of World War II, whose division was instrumental in the Allied liberation of France, closing the Falaise pocket, resulting in the destruction of 14 German Wehrmacht and SS divisions. A veteran of World War I, the Polish–Ukrainian and Polish–Soviet Wars, Maczek was the commander of Poland's only major armoured formation during the September 1939 campaign, and later commanded a Polish armoured formation in France in 1940. He was the commander of the famous 1st Polish Armoured Division, and later of the I Polish Army Corps under Allied Command in 1942–45. Family Stanisław Władysław Maczek was born on 31 March 1892 in the Lwów suburb of Szczerzec (now Ukrainian: Shchyrets), then in Austro-Hungarian Galicia. His father was a lawyer, who after retiring opened chambers in Drohobycz. His family was of distant Croatian extraction; he was a cousin of the Croatian politician Vladko Maček. Education After graduating from the grammar school at Drohobycz in 1910, he attended the philosophy faculty of Lwów University where he studied Polish philology (i.e. language and literature). Among his tutors were the renowned Polish philologists and Józef Kallenbach, He also attended lectures by Kazimierz Twardowski. During his studies he served in the Strzelec paramilitary organization, in which he received basic military training. 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. World War I After receiving a brief officer training, Maczek was sent to the Italian Front of World War I. Initially an NCO in the Tyrolean Regiment of the Imperial and Royal Army, he was promoted to second lieutenant in 1916 and then in 1918 to lieutenant. 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. Poland's borders On 11 November 1918, after receiving news of the Armistice, Maczek disbanded his battalion and returned to the newly reborn Poland. Three days later he arrived at Krosno, where he joined the Polish Army. 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