Vector: The Timberwolves meet a Polish Division

Within an army, there are divisions which operate in so-called divisional compartments. In West Brabant, these compartments spanned a distance of about 8 to 10km. The boundaries of these compartments were set by those higher-up the command, and the various Divisional Headquarters had to communicate very clearly to the lower units exactly where their compartment ended. This was to prevent troops of the different Divisions from not knowing exactly where the boundary was between them and the others, and so prevented their colleagues from being perceived as an approaching enemy. One such meeting of “friends” took place on a cold Monday on 30 October 1944.

The force that liberated West Brabant was truly an international force, comprised of British, Canadian and American troops as well as Polish. Most of the latter had experienced the German-Russian invasion of their country, the Russian forces having made many of them Prisoners of War. When Germany invaded Russia itself, Polish soldiers were able to leave the Prisoner of War camps. Via a huge detour, large numbers of them reached safety in England, where their government in exile had settled. One such refugee established the 1st Polish Armored Division, which in the following years came under the command of British General Montgomery, who had the fully motorised Division operate under the command of Canadian General Crerar.

After the Division's landing in Normandy (France), and its advance through Belgium and Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (Netherlands), they reached North Brabant in October 1944. Their main objective became the Dutch city of Breda, which they liberated on 29 October 1944. There was no time for celebration, as the German forces had to be driven out of all of West Brabant. As with the Timberwolves (US Division), the Polish troops were given the task of reaching the Hollands Diep river in the Netherlands as quickly as possible. The Polish Division's commander, Stanislaw Maczek, kept a close eye on both his flanks while carrying out this main task. After all, there could still be German forces there. On his left flank was the century-old 200-hectare Liesbos forest, an excellent place to hide as a German unit. On a night order, one of the tank units was sent from the Polish headquarters to the forest. The 2nd Pulk Pancerny Armored Regiment, equipped with some 50 Sherman tanks, was ordered to clear the Liesbos and the surrounding area of the enemy. It is not known whether the German troops were warned of approaching American forces, and it is reported that Liesbos was still just inside the divisional pocket of the Polish troops.

However, the Timberwolves were indeed not far away. On 29 October 1944, the American forces had been busy all day advancing from Rijsbergen town, their goal being to advance in the direction of the villages of Etten and Leur. The 414 Regiment was designated for this purpose. This meant an advance in a northwesterly direction, making it necessary to protect the left flank. To do so, the Divisional Headquarters in Rijsbergen commanded a small unit, the 1st Battalion of sister Regiment 413, led by Major John White. Around midnight they moved across the newly constructed Bailey Bridge over the Vaart Canal. Their assignment was to reach the connecting road between Etten and Breda to prevent the German forces from using this road for an attack on Etten. In this way both the troops from the US and from Poland were very close to each other geographically. At around 04:30 on 30 October, White and his men reached the vicinity of the crossroads near the large Liesbosch Seminary. The large buildings formed a clear marker in the darkness. By 07:45, they saw tanks approaching from the east, and White gave orders to bring the anti-tank guns into position. However, he knew nothing of the possibility that these were Polish tanks, indicating a lack of proper communication towards White. After all, he and his men were on the extreme boundary of the American divisional box. Just before he gave the order to open fire on the approaching tanks, the American forces observed that the looming tanks were actually in the shape of Sherman tanks, and so could not be German tanks but instead had to be their neighbours! An awful and embarrassing mistake was thus avoided.

Just how that encounter at the junction at Liesbos went cannot be known, these 80+ years later. No doubt it must have been difficult, because the average Polish soldier did not speak English and the American Timberwolves did not speak a word of Polish!