Evan McGilvray
Marshal Piłsudski and his Wars for Polish Freedom
Poland's Conflicts with Ukraine, Lithuania and Soviet Russia
Pen & Sword, 2026
PiÅ‚sudski was the leading proponent of armed Polish resistance to Tsarist Russian rule in the early years of the twentieth century. During the Russo-Japanese War he went to Japan to seek armed and funds for a Polish uprising. In WW1 he skilfully walked a perilous line. He raised the Polish Legion to fight alongside the Central Powers against the Russians. In the war’s closing stages he distanced himself from the Central Powers and secured independence for Poland.
Having attained his great goal of a free Poland, he fought a series of wars. These little-known conflicts (with Ukraine and Lithuania) are illuminated in this book. When it became clear that Bolshevik Russia was preparing to invade Poland, Pilsudski launched a pre-emptive attack in 1920. Despite early successes, the Russians were able to gain the upper hand and were almost at the gates of Warsaw before Pilsudski’s masterful counterattack brought about ‘the miracle of the Vistula’ and turned the tide.
This is a fascinating and long overdue study of a key figure in modern European history.
General Wladyslaw Sikorski, 1881–1943
Pen & Sword, 2024
General Władysław Sikorski was the Head of the wartime Polish Government and Polish Commander-in-Chief, 1939-1943. Sikorski rose to prominence in Poland between 1910 and 1918 as part of the movement towards Polish independence, achieved in 1918. In 1920 Sikorski was largely responsible for the defeat of the Red Army. In 1926 he fell from favour following a military coup. During this fallow period, 1926-1939, Sikorski travelled, mainly in France. He also wrote influential military-science treatises.
In September 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and annexed Poland. Sikorski, his military offices refused by the Polish Government, fled to Romania. There he was intercepted by the French ambassador to Poland and taken to Paris where he established a Polish Government-in-Exile and rebuilt the Polish Army. In May 1940 France was overrun by Germany. Sikorski removed himself and his government to London. There he began to re-build the Polish army largely lost in France.
Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Sikorski was forced by the British Government to accept the Soviets as allies. This led to a larger Polish army being formed in the Soviet Union and sent to the Middle East, commanded by General Anders who was to become a thorn in Sikorski’s side. By 1943, the two men were clearly enemies. Sikorski died in an air crash off Gibraltar. The cause has never been satisfactory established.
De Gaulle and Churchill
Pen & Sword, 2024
De Gaulle and Churchill examines the tense and complicated relationship between General de Gaulle as leader of the Free French on the one hand and Winston Churchill and the British Government on the other.
De Gaulle was a career soldier, not a politician by any means, prior to 1940 but stepped into the leadership vacuum after the fall of France to provide a vital figurehead and rallying point for the Free French movement. His experiences in WW1, where he had served with distinction and was decorated but then was captured and so missed the nadir of despair expressed in the mutiny of 1917, meant he did not share the general defeatism of his peers in 1940.
De Gaulle had demonstrated between the wars that he understood modern warfare and the need for modernization and reform of the French forces.
Churchill valued the Free French contribution, particularly the French colonies as bulwarks to the British Middle East and jumping-off points for a Mediterranean counteroffensive, but demonstrated his ruthless willingness to ride roughshod over French sensibilities. This was most famously demonstrated by the sinking of the French fleet to prevent it falling into German hands.
This book outlines the difficult relationship from the dark days of the Fall of France, to the final victory, with de Gaulle by then installed as head of the provisional government of the French Republic. This fascinating study concludes with the immediate post-war period, by which time Churchill and de Gaulle had developed a warmer, more mutually respectful relationship.
First Polish Armoured Division 1938-47: A History
Pen & Sword, 2022
The First Polish Armoured Division was formed in Scotland in February 1942 from Polish exiles who had escaped first Poland and then France. Its commander, Stanislaw Maczek, and many of its men had previously served in Polish 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade (10 BKS), which had taken part in the Polish invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and given a good account of itself in the defence of Poland against German and Soviet invasion of 1939. Under Maczek’s leadership the division was trained and equipped along British lines in preparation for the invasion of France.
Attached to 1st Canadian Army, the division was sent to Normandy in late July 1944. It suffered heavily during Operation Totalize but went on to play a crucial role in preventing an orderly German withdrawal from the Falaise Pocket by its stand at Hill 262. They then played their part in the advance across Western Europe and into Germany.
This detailed history, supported by dozens of archive photos, concludes by looking at the often-poor treatment of Maczek and his men after the war.
Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck
Pen & Sword, 2020
Field Marshal Claude Auchinleck is a study not only of the individual but also of how the British Army, Indian Army and the Empire were transformed during his long military career. Auchinleck was commissioned into the Indian Army from 1904 and served with distinction against the Turks in Egypt and the Mesopotamian campaign, earning a DSO. Between the wars he was involved in the pacification of the Northwest Frontier (now Pakistan).
In the Second World War he briefly led a division in the ill-fated Norway campaign before being appointed Commander-in-Chief, India. He is best remembered for his controversial stint in command in North Africa, where he replaced Wavell in July 1941. He halted Rommel at the First Battle of El Alamein but was then replaced by Montgomery and resumed as C-in-C India, where his logistical support for Fourteenth Army was vital to success in Burma. Post-war he planned and oversaw Partition and British withdrawal from India. Here, as in North Africa, interference from his political masters added to the burdens of command.
Poland and the Second World War, 1938-48
Pen & Sword, 2019
Beginning in 1938 and finishing in 1948, this work examines the role of Poland in World War Two from when Poland invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938 during the Munich crisis and the collapse of diplomacy through 1939 leaving how Poles were spread across the world fighting as well as fighting in Poland. The book concludes with how after 1943 Poland began to descent into civil war as nationalists and communists began to battle for a post-war Poland but once the Red Army went onto the offensive during 1943, Poland’s fate was sealed as the Red Army moved westward towards Germany and brought communism into Poland in the wake of the Soviet advance. By 1948, the Soviet occupation of Poland was complete.
Red Trojan Horse - The Berling Army and the Soviet Annexation of Poland 1943-45
Helion, 2019
An examination of how the Soviet Union was able to annexe Poland relatively easily using a Soviet supported Polish army under the command of the controversial figure, Colonel Zygmunt Berling, who helped to form a Polish Army on Soviet soil which was supposed to be pro-Soviet – it wasn’t as the narrative reveals.
Anders' Army
Pen & Sword, 2018
A biography of the controversial Polish Second World War Two general, WÅ‚adysÅ‚aw Anders. Anders is considered a hero by many Poles but not all. Anders was captured by invading Red Army troops during the September campaign of 1939 when both Germany and the Soviet Union invaded and partitioned Poland. Hundreds of thousands of Poles in the annexed Polish lands were deported into the Soviet Union, into the wastelands of Soviet Asia where they were used a slave labour. Anders was also ill-treated by the Soviets who refused to treat his wounds which he received in the fighting during September or treat him as a prisoner-of-war. In 1941 once, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Anders fortunes changed, and he was suddenly courted by the Soviets and was instrumental in getting many Polish captives released as he began to build an army to help defend the Soviet Union but instead was able to take thousands of Poles, including women and children out from the Soviet Union and eventually to the west. That is why many Poles see him as a hero; there is also evidence to suggest that he was a traitor. Nevertheless, Polish Second Corps or ‘Anders’ Army’ distinguished itself fighting alongside the British in the Italian campaign, notable at Monte Cassino. Many of Anders’ veterans and Anders himself were never to see Poland again and settled in the west. This work mainly used original Polish sources.
Narvik and the Allies. The Polish Brigade at Narvik, 1940.
Helion, 2017
A study using original sources especially Polish archive resources which re-examine the events of the Norwegian campaign, largely forgotten and often considered to be a failure while the reality was that it was a victory but the Fall of France caused the British to abandon Norway to, quite understandably, prepare to defend the UK from a possible German invasion which did not come in the end – in the popular imagination the RAF and its allies defeated the Germans in the air but at Narvik, the Royal Navy destroyed the German surface fleet, a blow from which Nazi Germany never recovered and would have been a factor if the Germans had tried landing troops from the sea onto British territory, capital ships of the Royal Navy would have been able to destroy German invasion barges easily as the Germans in the summer of 1940 had insufficient ships to defend these smaller craft. Another interesting discussion of Narvik was who was the enemy as in the first year of the war, many including Britons considered that the Soviet Union was a larger threat than Germany. By the end of the summer of 1940 and the arrival of Winston Churchill as the prime minister of the UK, everyone was very clear who the enemy was – clearly it was Germany.
Hamilton & Gallipoli. British Command in an age of Military Transformation
Pen & Sword, 2015
An examination of the life and career of General Sir Ian Hamilton, especially his command during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. Using original papers, including the papers of Hamilton, the military-politics of the First World War are examined as it is quite clear that Hamilton and Winston Churchill got the blame for the failed Gallipoli campaign when the real villains were the dead hero Kitchener and the media.
Man of Steel and Honour. General Stanisław Maczek
Helion, 2012
This is quite simply a biography of General Stanisław Maczek (1892-1994) from his schooldays through his early military career firstly with the Imperial Austrian Army, serving in the high Alps of the Italian front from 1915 until 1918 when he returned to Poland, newly independent and having to fight for its survival as other newly independent states, including Poland, began landgrabs as they tried to establish their borders. In the Polish-Ukrainian War, 1918-1919, as a junior officer, Maczek distinguished himself, leading what can only be termed as commando units in raids against the Ukrainians, often coming from behind Ukrainian lines.
This work covers Maczek’s entire career during the Second World War from the September 1939 campaign, the French campaign of 1940, the establishment of the First Polish Armoured Division and his successful campaign across north-west Europe in 1944-45 including his fantastic victory at Mount Ormel which sealed the allied triumph in Normandy.
Maczek’s post-war life is also discussed as he went from being a Polish general and brilliant commander of armour to be an Edinburg barman.
A Military Government in Exile. The Polish government-in-exile, 1939-1945. A Study of discontent.
Helion, 2010
This is a study of the wartime Polish government-in-exile based in London had already had its seeds of destruction sown during the inter-war period in Poland from 1926 as the army ruled Poland and was more fascist than the British and American governments were comfortable with especially once the leader of the exiled Poles, General Władysław Sikorski, was murdered, probably by his Polish opponents. After the death of Sikorski, it became quite clear that the exiled Poles were not democrats or wanting to establish democracy in Poland but were clearly hell bent in establishing their own form of personal rule as had been the tradition in Poland since medieval times. This is an account of just how Poland was yet to be prepared for independence or democracy owing to its legacy of being occupied and suspicion of most ideas from outside of Poland.
Forthcoming Books
Forthcoming books will be listed here