1st Independent Parachute Brigade (Poland)

The 1st (Polish) Independent Parachute Brigade was a parachute infantry brigade of the Polish Armed Forces in the West under the command of Major General Stanisław Sosabowski, created in September 1941 during the Second World War and based in Scotland.

Originally, the brigade's exclusive mission was to drop into occupied Poland in order to help liberate the country. The British government, however, pressured the Poles into allowing the unit to be used in the Western theatre of war. Operation Market Garden eventually saw the unit sent into action in support of the British 1st Airborne Division at the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944. The Poles were initially landed by glider from 18 September, whilst, due to bad weather over England, the parachute section of the Brigade was held up, and jumped on 21 September at Driel on the South bank of the Rhine. The Poles suffered significant casualties during the next few days of fighting, but still were able, by their presence, to cause around 2,500 German troops to be diverted to deal with them for fear of their supporting the remnants of the 1st Airborne trapped over the lower Rhine in Oosterbeek. Some of the Polish paratroopers, including Stanislaw Kulik, managed to get across the Rhine to support the 1st Airborne, but when the retreat order came there were not enough boats to get everyone back across. The Dutch underground then helped shelter some of the paratroopers for around a month, until they could be rescued in Operation Pegasus.