May 6, 1945: Wilhelmshaven Surrenders to General Stanisław Maczek

On May 6, 1945, General Stanisław Maczek’s 1st Armored Division accepted the surrender of the main German naval base at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Captured were 32,000 German soldiers and 1,900 officers, including a general and two admirals, along with over 200 ships of the Kriegsmarine.

Following the formal surrender of Germany on May 8 that ended the war in Europe, General Maczek was appointed commander of the Polish I Corps and charged with the administration of a 6,500 square kilometer area around Wilhelmshaven. He became commanding officer of all Polish forces in Britain until demobilization in 1947.

According to Mr. Jan Niebrzydowski’s article on the 1st Armored Division in the March 2013 issue of “Bulletin of the Polonus Philatelic Society,” the area under Polish I Corps administration resembled a mini-Polish state. Five thousand Polish refugees from German labor and POW camps reunited with their fellow countrymen in Maczek’s zone. The German town of Haren, within I Corps zone, became known as “Maczków” during this time. The I Polish Corps administered the area around Wilhelmshaven until 1948.