Rehabilitation General Sosabowski

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Rehabilitation General Sosabowski

#1

Post by OMG » 04 Aug 2004, 21:06

Market Garden Foundation aims for rehabilitation General Sosabowski:

The Foundation has been working on a new aim for the past months, the rehabilitation for General Stanislaw Sosabowski.

It's about a renowned general who was ousted by his British superiors because of his honesty but who remained a hero in the hearts of his soldiers and the Dutch people. Sosabowski's forced discharge from the Polish army was the beginning of tragic events. He had become a pawn in a political game. Poland was sold out at the Jalta Conference to Stalin and became communist after the war. Stalin didn't want a strong man (like Sosabowski and others) with western ideas. Sosabowski and his children never saw Poland again. His division, originated to be put into action when Poland would rise up against the Germans, was not dropped during the Warsaw uprise like supposed to. This is where Sosabowski had trained his men for. This is what he had been waiting for all those years. The liberation of his country. But when the Warsaw uprise began the Brigade was denied to be flown in and at the same time the Russians did not offer any assistance to the uprise. We all know the consequences. In stead the Brigade was used for Montgommeries daring plan; Operation Market Garden. Dispite the deception Sosabowski and his men fought hard and earned respect for that. Returning to England, Sosabowski ended his life, embittered, as a supply clerk.

It is unacceptable that during the past 60 years Sosabowski was never fully rehabilitated and that is the reason why we are going for it for the coming 60th aniversary in September !
A special support book has been opened on their website: http://www.marketgarden.com/sguestbook/

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#2

Post by _The_General_ » 04 Aug 2004, 21:48

I have posted this artikel on http://forum.wo2.nl in Actueel. Maybe you can comment on it there?[/list]


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#3

Post by Musashi » 05 Aug 2004, 00:45

Thank you, friends. He really deserves for that. He was one of the best Polish commanders during WW II. During Polish campaign in 1939 two of three regiments of 8th Infantry Division were routed during the battle. Only 21st Infantry Regiment was not routed.
Guess who was its commander? :D
During operation Market-Garden his soldiers had to land on heads of Germans and then Monthy and company ordered them to cross the Rhine using small pontoons - a task for kamikazes. However even kamikazes wouldn't have been able to do it!
And don't forget Polish soldiers built the first parachute jumping tower in the UK.
Best regards,
Chris

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#4

Post by Steen Ammentorp » 05 Aug 2004, 08:10

Why does Sosabowski need rehabilitation? Please don’t misunderstand me; I’m just unaware of any wrong done to him. Could you or Musashi elaborate on this?

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Steen Ammentorp
The Generals of World War II

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#5

Post by Ogorek » 05 Aug 2004, 20:44

While the other commanders of Market Garden were decorated, Sosabowski was smeared by the British, and lost his command.

Though not easy to find, the excellent POLES APART by Cholewczynski details all of this, and includes the famous Browning letter.

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#6

Post by OMG » 05 Aug 2004, 21:09

While the other commanders of Market Garden were decorated, Sosabowski was smeared by the British, and lost his command.

Though not easy to find, the excellent POLES APART by Cholewczynski details all of this, and includes the famous Browning letter.

for your information.there will be a reprint coming out around mai/june 2005

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#7

Post by Steen Ammentorp » 05 Aug 2004, 21:37

While I agree that "Boy" Browning's critique of the Polish drop was clearly wrong, I find too strong to say that he was smeared by the British and I never encountered anything else that might have affected the reputation of Sosabowski. In fact in the literature Sosabowski always receive high praises.

But admittedly I haven't read the abovementioned book, which I'll do.

Personally I don't think that one can talk of a need for rehabilitation. But that he and his brigade may not have received proper public recognition is another matter.

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Steen Ammentorp
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#8

Post by Musashi » 06 Aug 2004, 00:27

Steen Ammentorp wrote:Why does Sosabowski need rehabilitation? Please don’t misunderstand me; I’m just unaware of any wrong done to him. Could you or Musashi elaborate on this?

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Steen Ammentorp
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First the Britons accused him of failure of whole Market-Garden operation :x
Secondly, they dieprived him of the command of Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade :x :roll: After that Polish soldiers began hunger strike.
Cheers,
Chris (back in home after 12 hours in Germany)

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#9

Post by Pizarro » 06 Aug 2004, 10:32

Somebody had to pay for the failure of Market-Garden and, it's obvious, Eisenhower didn't want to be in anger with the UK dismissing Monty nor everyone of the comanders of the 1st (UK) parachute, 82nd (US) 101 (US) divisions or the XXXth Armoured Corps.

So, it was clear who will be charged ...

Maybe the head of the intelligence services of the Allied Armies would have been a better choose, because it was him who denied the existence of Bittrich's panzer force in the Arnhem area.

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#10

Post by Steen Ammentorp » 07 Aug 2004, 16:14

I have just finished reading Victor Dover's The Sky Generals and it deals with the relationship between Browning and Sosabowski. According to Dover the relationship were difficult from the beginning (if not bad). From the establishment of the 1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade in September 1941 Browning tried to bring it under the command of the British forces, which final succeed in August 1944 when it was subordinated to 1st British Airborne Division just before Market-Garden. Then::
Following "Market Garden", what was left of the 1st Polish Parachute Brigade returned to England and the rancour between Browning and Sosabowski continued. The climax came when Browning was granted one of Poland's highest military awards, the star of the Order Polonis Restitua; Sosabowski wrote and congratulated him. Browning replied, saying that although he considered the award an honour, it was unfortunate, in view of his relationship with and his Brigade. Sosabowski continued to press for the independence of his Polish brigade and made representation to the highest authority; the outcome was that he was removed from his command. He was magnificent fighting general who earned the deep respect of the men he commanded, but it was ironic that the love he had for Poland was, perhaps, the major cause of his losing command of the Brigade which meant so much to him.

Victor Dover: The Sky Generals. (1981). pp. 147-1948
So according to Dover the reason for Sosabowski's removal were the differences between Browning and Sosabowski and only secondly the Market Garden operation (due to their clashes). Still this does not leave any marks on Sosabowski reputation and does IMHO not call for need for rehabilitation. When two officers are unable to work together it is usually the junior, who has to go, nothing wrong in that. Besides I would have thought that Polish high command must have been involved in this issue. However I'm unsure of this.

[quote="Musashi
First the Britons accused him of failure of whole Market-Garden operation
[/quote]

I have read a lot about the commanders involved in Market Garden, and I have never encountered anything or anyone who blamed him for the failure of the whole Market-Garden operation. After all it was public a 90 % success according to Montgomery himself. I was wondering whether you could say, who blamed Sosabowski, when and where? Besides Browning's critique of the Polish drop who has criticised the actions of 1st Polish Parachute Brigade

Again I haven't read Cholewczynski's Poles Apart (I'll receive it next week) but there must be other sources?

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Steen Ammentorp
The Generals of World War II

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#11

Post by Andreas » 11 Aug 2004, 19:21

Steen - working from memory, I believe that there is an account of the meeting between Sosabowski and the British generals Browning, Horrocks (XXX Corps) and Thomas (43rd Wessex), right after the failure at Arnhem, where Browning more or less blames Sosabowski for everything that went wrong.

The account seemed to indicate that the whole meeting was set-up to blame the Poles for the failure.

One thing to be remembered though is that not just the Poles were asked to conduct Kamikaze operations. 4th Dorsets experienced the same fate when ordered to cross on a suicide mission. A perfectly good battalion wasted with over 300 casualties.
The 4th Dorsets had the same difficulties with their craft as experienced by the Poles on the previous night. However, they did manage to get 315 of their men across, but these landed in small and scattered groups, directly amongst the German positions. The Dorsets never had a chance to form up as a Battalion and were easily rounded up by the Germans. Only 75 men actually made it into the Oosterbeek Perimeter to take up positions alongside the ragged and exhausted Airborne troops.
From http://www.arnhemarchive.org

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#12

Post by Steen Ammentorp » 18 Aug 2004, 18:23

I have now finally read George F. Cholewczynski's Poles Apart : The Polish Airborne at the Battle of Arnhem. On the whole a very interesting and readable book.

However I must say that nowhere did I find any evidence or claims that the British accused Sosabowski or the Polish Brigade for the failure of Market-Garden. What becomes clear IMHO is that the dismissal of Sosabowski was on personal, rather than military, grounds, because of the friction between Sosabowski, Browning and the other British commanders. Sosabowski acknowledged this.

In that case it is, as I have stated, very normal to have the junior commander removed, and it is military sound. If the commanding general doesn't feel that his subordinated officers is obstructive there is no other way than to have them removed.

Having reread the Browning's letter I must also admit that I don't find it as harsh as some of you. Other generals have received far crueller words in assessments made by their superiors. Just take a look at Alexander's assessment of Gatehouse:
"I think he is a borderline case. There is no doubt that he is slow and stupid". Alexander went on: "Against this he has more experience of actually fighting armour than anyone else. He has the confidence of his subordinates. He handles artillery well. His battle technique is to manoeuvre and win his battles by standing back and knocking out the enemy by his gunfire. He is not a thruster.

B.H. Reid: Alexander : Field-Marshal Earl Alexander. In: Churchils' Generals. / ed. by John Keegan. NY. Grove Weidenfeld, 1991. p. 113.
And one most remember that Alexander is always described as a very diplomatic person.

However in our case it of cause a question of national pride. I fully understand why Poles might feel that injustice was done to Sosabowski (I may had done so had he been a Dane), but in all fairness I don't think that this calls for a rehabilitation of Sosabowski – there is no need to.

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Steen Ammentorp
The Generals of World War II

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#13

Post by Andreas » 18 Aug 2004, 22:57

Steen - I do think the letter is extremely harsh. I work in a Whitehall environment, and certainly an assessment like this would be a complete deathknell for the career of anyone I work with.

If you extract what he says:

'Difficult to work with' - doesn't toe the line, obstreporous, 'not a team player' in Montgomery's words, both towards his commander and with other officers. Devastating assessment for a commander.

'Unable to adapt himself to the level of a parachute brigade commander' - this is only slightly softened by the preceding 'capable soldier'. Basically saying he would be a good battalion commander or senior NCO. If that much.

'Attempted to treat his brigade as if it were a much higher and bigger formation' - does not know his place, too big for his boots, delusions of grandeur

'officer proved himself quite incapable of appreciating the urgent nature of the operation' - no grasp of the situation, thickheaded, slow, again a devastating assessment

'showed himself both argumentative and loath to play his part in the operation' - primadonna, incapable of working with the team, a liability

I am working from the copy of the letter that is published on the Sosabowski family's site. http://sosabowski.com/mg4.html

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#14

Post by Steen Ammentorp » 19 Aug 2004, 15:59

Andreas – it is of cause a matter of interpretation and I wont claim to be an expert on Whitehall English, not after seeing Yes, Prime Minister on the TV.

Although I think that you have interpretated too much on some of the statements I wont argue that it was Browning's letter that caused the removal of Sosabowski. Nor will I argue that it is a hard assessment of Sosabowski.

However I think that Browning called the shots as he saw them. To him Sosabowski was argumentative, obstructive and single minded, and as I have said in that case the junior officer has to go.

I don't think that the letter rules out any further employment for Sosabowski, just not under a British officer. The letter includes several positive statements on Sosabowski as well.

But as I said - a matter of interpretation.

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#15

Post by Ogorek » 16 Sep 2004, 18:20

The Sosabowski guestbook has really taken off since a Dutch television program has told his story...

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