Names and faces of Polish soldiers, white-red emblem with Hussar wings and the inscription “1944–2024. NAC Breda thanks” – so Eredivisie club, the highest football league in the Netherlands, decided to celebrate the heroes of 1st Armoured Division of Gen. Stanisław Maczek. The 80th anniversary of the liberation of the city from German business became an occasion.
NAC Breda is simply a club with over a century of tradition. His footballers have the Netherlands championship and cup on account. The band spent the last six years in the back of Eredivis, which is the top-class gameplay, but the erstwhile period was highly successful for footballers. The winning barage decided to return to the top teams in the country. There's been a real madness in Breda. The passes for the next period spread almost on the trunk. Now the squad is preparing to resume the game. Last Friday, he presented T-shirts for the next season. This caused a stir far beyond the Netherlands. NAC Breda decided to celebrate soldiers from the 1st Armoured Division commanded by General Stanisław Maczek, 80 years ago, they liberated the city from German occupation.
The squad showed 2 sets of shirts. The base is yellow. It's usually cut by an oblique black belt. It is so this time, but the belt was created from the names of Poles who died in fighting for the city. The backup shirt is white. It shows the faces and silhouettes of the macaws marching through the liberated Breda. Both designs combine a tiny white-red emblem on the back with the date 1944–2024. It was surrounded by Hussar wings. A small above runs the inscription in Polish: "NAC Breda thanks". In yellow shirts, footballers will play at home and in whites on the way out. The outfits were designed by Myrthe Koppelaar, a graphic designer from Breda.
Meanwhile, the T-shirts became public long before the period began. The footballers photographed themselves on the war cemetery in Breda. That's where the soldiers who died fighting for the city rest. The presentations were besides accompanied by a short video. It features snapshots from modern Breda streets and 1 of the local pubs, as well as archival bistros. There are tanks of macaws and cheering inhabitants entering the city. “Freedom is possibly the most crucial thing in our lives. That we can go anywhere we want. But there were another times. erstwhile German occupiers and Poles came here, they had to free us. Thanks to these heroes, and what they've done for us, we can walk the streets carelessly, enjoying freedom. We owe it all to them. What could be better than ode to freedom? Play next period in T-shirts dedicated to our heroes!” says the narrator in Dutch. Only in the first 2 days the video on the X portal was screened 865,000 times, it gained over 11,000 likes, and a 1000 people made it available on their profiles.
– As a club, we are very close to our city, and we realize that if it wasn't for the courage of Polish soldiers, our city would not be the same as it is now," emphasizes Alex Knook, marketing manager at NAC Breda, in an email sent by the Armed Poland. It sounds like obvious, but NAC is Breda and Breda is NAC. We as a club as well as our fans are very attached to our city and its history," he adds. NAC, as he explains, has been working for years with the Museum of Maczek Memorial Breda, which functions in the city. The club had already commemorated the 1st Armoured Division soldiers. – In 2019, for example, on the day of the next anniversary of the liberation of the city, we played the Netherlands Cup match against FC Emmen. Our stadium was then temporarily named General Stanisława Maczka, and the game was symbolically started by relatives of 2 Polish veterans – says Knock.
1 The Panzer Division was formed in 1942. 2 years later, at the turn of July and August, General Maczka's soldiers landed in Normandy. They were subordinate to the Canadian Army and were part of the Allied forces commanded by British marshal Bernard Law Montgomery. In mid-August, they participated in Operation Tracetable. Its goal was to circumnavigate 2 German armies that retreated towards the Reich. This happened close Falaise. The plan worked. Then General Maczka's troops began their pursuit. In the following months, they liberated among others Ypres and Ghentawa in Belgium, as well as Dutch cities Gilze, Dorst and Molenschot. In late October 1944, Poles approached Breda. In order to minimize losses among the residents and spare the city's construction, gene. The poppy asked the Allies not to fire. Tanks moved on to attack without alleged artillery preparation. The goal was achieved in a comparatively short time. On October 29, Breda was liberated.
