
MAPA
THE GREAT POLISH
MAP OF
and the campaign to restore
General Maczek’s
GREAT POLISH MAP OF

The Great Polish Map of
Aerial image of the Great Map from Virtual Earth
Conceived by General Maczek and his Polish companions as a permanent
three-dimensional reminder of







21 May 2008: David Cameron,
Elizabeth Laudenslager and Roger Kelly discuss
restoration









General Stanisław Maczek
(March 31, 1892 – December 11, 1994) was the most accomplished Polish tank
commander of the Second World War. A
veteran of the First World War. the Polish-Ukrainian
and Polish-Bolshevik Wars,
he commanded Poland's only major armoured formation during the September 1939
campaign, led a Polish armoured formation in France in 1940, and was commander
of the famous First Polish
Armoured Division, and later of the First Polish Army
Corps under Allied Command in 1942–1945. Of Croatian extraction, Stanisław
Władysław Maczek was born in
Lwów in 1892 in Austro-Hungarian Galicia. Graduating from grammar school at Drohobycz
he attended the philosophy faculty of Lwów University where he studied Polish literature and language. After the outbreak of the Great War, Maczek
interrupted his studies hoping to join Piłsudski's
Polish Legions, but instead was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian
Army. Assigned to the Italian front, he rose to become the only Polish
battalion commander in Austria-Hungary's Alpine regiments. At the war’s end he
joined the Polish Army and took part in its later Ukranian and Bolshevik
campaigns. His experience in speedy
movement and rapid response led -after military college, colonelship and a
series of infantry commands- to his taking charge of Poland’s first fully
motorised formation during the 1938 Munich crisis.
When Poland was attacked in force in 1939 Maczek led the only Polish units
not to lose a single battle. His forces made a dogged defence under Blitzkreig
attack but these efforts became eclipsed when Russia invaded from the
rear. Appreciated by his superiors and
respected by enemy commanders, Maczek was loved by his soldiers, who called him
“Baca”, a Galician name for a shepherd like the Scots gaelic “Buachaille”. Ordered to take his brigade over the
Hungarian border, he made his way to lead some of the Polish forces in France
at the end of 1939, but French commanders left unopened Maczek’s detailed
reports on the Blitzkreig tactics they should prepare for. After the fall of France Maczek and many of
his men made their way through Africa and Portugal to London, and formed the
nucleus of a Polish armoured unit based in Scotland for four years. Trained at Blairgowrie and equipped with the
latest Churchill and Sherman tanks, the Poles took up the defence of the
Scottish shoreline between Montrose and Dundee.
In July 1944 the division transferred to Normandy, attached to the First
Canadian Army, and contributed decisively in the Battle of Falaise. General
Maczek's Division continued to spearhead the Allied drive across the
battlefields of France, Belgium, Netherlands, and finally Germany, where it
captured the port of Wilhelmshaven and accepted surrender of the garrison and
200 navy ships. After Germany
capitulated, General Maczek went on to become commanding officer of all Polish
forces in the United Kingdom until their demobilization in 1947.


General Maczek’s
Great Polish Map of Scotland stands in the grounds of
General Maczek
had been shown an impressive outdoor map of land and water in the
Set in the open air in the Peeeblesshire landscape at Eddleston,
General Maczek and his companions conceived The Great
Polish Map of Scotland as a permanent three-dimensional reminder of

General Maczek’s Great
Polish Map of Scotland
Aerial
image of the Great Map from Virtual Earth
General Maczek
died in 1994 aged 102 and is buried with comrades at

MAPA SCOTLAND
THE GREAT POLISH
MAP OF
and the campaign to restore General Maczek’s
GREAT POLISH MAP OF
SCOTLAND
Roger Kelly, David
Cameron and Elizabeth Laudenslager acknowledge the
help of Steven Sweeny, Deputy General Manager,
The project, the Great Map,
and General Maczek have been the subject of a fuller display (click to open) for
Penicuik Community Development Trust in the Cowan Institute,
Contact us at this address: roger@kosmoid.net
The Campaign to restore the Great
Map was started in 2008 by a small group including Roger Kelly (convener of the
Royal Town Planning Institute in Scotland and member of the Saltire
Society Council); David Cameron (former convener of the Saltire
Society and Edinburgh’s former Deputy City Planner, who worked with the late Kazimierz Trafas on urban
restoration in Cracow); Krystyna
Szumelukowa, Edinburgh’s former Director of Economic
Development; Keith Burns (Hydraulic engineer with a long-term interest in the
Map); and Alastair Nimmo
(Civil engineer and concrete specialist). A meeting to review and report
progress to Janusz Szewczuk
(one of the Great Map’s surviving cartographer-builders) was called by Keith
Burns at Hillend on Tuesday 11 August 2009 with Roger
Kelly, Barbara Conboy, David Cameron, Dave Peck, Nick
Macdonald and James Barton. A study group on Saturday 12 September 2009 at
Barony Castle, onsite at the water intake and at the Great Map itself was
hosted by George Futers with Keith Burns, Roger
Kelly, David Cameron, Anne Hardie, Barbara Conboy, Krzysztof Chuchra, Krystyna Szumelukowa, Dave Peck, Nigel Rose, Jim Barton and Adam
Ward. A further meeting was held at
Szkocja
w Szkocji –the Great Map’s construction described in
Polish by Janusz Szewczuk
Scotland in Scotland –translation
of the above
Black
Barony Hotel grounds in 1940 (just before the fall of
The Great Map
features in the Scottish Planner of June 2008 and in Cairt
–newsletter of the Scottish Maps Forum.
The Polish
Chamber Singers Affabre Concinui visited the Great Map while performing at the
2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Ż
SCOTLAND AND
POLAND: FINALISTS COPENHAGEN 2007 HOMELESS WORLD CUP ¸
The Murrays of Elibank were also associated with Thomas
Adams, the Carlops farmer who
became regional planner of New York.
Other
displays in the COWAN INSTITUTE PENICUIK
GENERAL MACZEK’S GREAT MAP
NUMBER 26 of the
KOSMOID
& MAKERS
webpages