the invasion of Poland by the Soviet Union on 17 September. After two days, Marshal of Poland Edward Rydz-Śmigły ordered the brigade to cross the Hungarian border. Maczek's brigade was interned in Hungary. Although the unit had lost about half of its men, it had not been defeated in open combat, and therefore gained respect even from the enemy. It is considered to be the only Polish unit not to have lost a single battle in 1939. Maczek was not only esteemed by his superiors but also loved by his soldiers, who referred to him as , a traditional Polish highlanders' name for a shepherd. France, 1940 After the end of the September campaign Maczek made it to France, where he joined the re-created Polish Army and was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. He was made the commanding officer of the Polish military camp in Coëtquidan. He then prepared a detailed report on the workings of German Blitzkrieg tactics, and possible precautions against it. This report was, however, completely disregarded by the French general staff (the Germans captured it – unopened). He also started gathering any 10th Brigade veterans who had reached France in two camps in Paimpont and Campeneac. 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, the French command was initially not interested in the formation of a Polish armoured unit and the Polish 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade received almost no equipment. It was not until March 1940 that Maczek received a dozen obsolete FT-17 tanks for training, plus a few dozen cars and motorcycles. Everything changed when Germany invaded France in the spring of 1940, by simply bypassing the Maginot Line. General Maczek's unit suddenly received all the equipment it requested, under one condition: they had to go into action immediately. That proved impossible, because many of Polish soldiers had no experience with the new French equipment and there was no time for training exercises. General Maczek decided instead to lead a small force of his best-trained men, hoping that the rest of his unit would join them later. That small force was called the 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade () in honour of the "Black Brigade" from 1939. On 6 June, 10th Brigade had one tank battalion, two strong