Albert Ronald Nolan was a British Army soldier of World War II. He served in the artillery, took part in the landing of Normandy and the operation “Market Garden”, which started on 17th September 1944.

He fought alongside around 1,000 parachutists from the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade of General Stanisław Sosabowski.

Nolan said to Polishradio.24  in a heartwarming tribute to them: “Polish paratroopers, I always found them as the best soldiers I ever served with (…) What they went through nobody else could have done it”.

https://twitter.com/Historia_PR/status/1177120867639267328?s=20

Sosabowski, the commander of the legendary 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade, fought in the Market Garden, which ended with disastrous casualties of allied troops, including the Polish division.

He was made a scapegoat for the failure by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

After the war ended, Sosabowski learned that his son, a medic with the Polish Army, lost his vision during the Polish Uprising in 1944. He managed to evacuate his wife and son from Poland after the war. They settled in London. Sosabowski worked at a warehouse, living the rest of his life under a cloud of blame. He died in exile in Great Britain in 1967 and was buried in Warsaw. In 2006, he was posthumously granted the Order of the Bronze Lion by the Queen Beatrix of Holland.

Nel Badowska

Pictures: screenshot from Twitter @Historia_PR, WBH_2016