Operation Silver A
Silver A was the code name of a parachute operation carried out by the Czechoslovak Army in Exile against the Nazi occupation during the Second World War in the area of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (part of occupied Czechoslovakia ).
This fourth in a series of agent operations was prepared by Group D (intelligence) of the Ministry of Defense of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London and implemented with the help of the British Royal Air Force (RAF).
Operation group
- Members of Operations Group Silver A
Lieutenant Alfréd Bartoš
leader
Sergeant Jiří Potůček
radio operator
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The three-person operations group consisted of
- the leader Lieutenant Alfréd Bartoš ,
- his deputy, NCO Josef Valčík
- and Sergeant Jiří Potůček , cryptographer and radio operator.
tasks
The operation was to parachute specially trained soldiers as agents on the territory of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , who had to ensure radio communications with London there. For this purpose they had a radio station with the code name Libuše .
The second task of the operations group was to set up an intelligence cell to coordinate the activities of the other parachute agents. The most important task, however, was to establish contact with staff captain Václav Morávek of the Three Kings resistance group (Tři králové) , who had put in contact with Agent A-54 Paul Thümmel , an officer of the German Abwehr , who was the main German informant for the intelligence department ( Department D) of the Czechoslovak government in exile during World War II.
course
The plane with the group took off on the evening of December 28, 1941. The jump took place after midnight on the following day. The originally planned landing site near the village of Vyžice near Chrudim was missed by about 40 km due to inaccurate navigation with Senice near Poděbrad . Josef Valčík, who was the last to jump off the plane, lost contact with the other two members of the group. He met the leader Alfréd Bartoš on December 31st in Mikulovice in the Pardubice district .
Bartoš managed to establish contact with the resistance, for example with Vladimír Krajina from the ÚVOD (Czech Ústřední vedení odboje domácího , German Central leadership of the resistance in the home ) as well as staff captain Morávek and a member of the resistance organization Obec sokolská v odboji (OSVO). In Pardubice, the group began to build an extensive network of employees, which at the time of its greatest activity comprised more than 140 members. With their help it was possible to organize a number of illegal housing and formal employment for Alfréd Bartoš and Josef Valčík. Valčík worked as a waiter in the Hotel Na Veselce .
The radio operator Potůček got in touch with London on January 15, 1942 from the Hluboká quarry near Miřetice . In view of the constant threat, the radio station was moved several times, for example to the fishery research station in Lázně Bohdaneč , a mill in Ležáky and a school in Bohdašín near Červený Kostelec .
Václav Morávek was able to contact Paul Thümmel. In the town of Lázně Bělohrad , the group set up a contact point for parachute agents at the printer Jan Vojtíška.
In March 1942 the Gestapo became aware of possible secret service activities and set a trap, which Josef Valčík escaped. He was ordered to Prague to help guide the bombers at the Škoda Works in Pilsen . Then he joined the Anthropoid Operations Group and helped with the preparations for the assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich .
After the assassination, he and six other parachute agents hid in the crypt of the Orthodox Church of St. Cyril and Method (originally Karl Borromeo ), where he and his comrades committed suicide on June 18, 1942 after a hopeless fight against an overwhelming number of 800 persecutors.
Arrests in the Pardubice region began in mid-June. The Gestapo managed to get the addresses of the safe houses used by Alfréd Bartoš. Bartoš's archives were found in one of these apartments, which led to another wave of arrests and executions of fellow activists. On his return to the already exposed apartment on Smilově Street in Pardubice, Bartoš fell into the trap of the Gestapo. In the hopeless situation he pointed his weapon at himself. He was fatally wounded and taken to hospital, where he died the next day.
Radio operator Jiří Potůček moved to Bohdašín, where he broadcast until June 26th. He was then hidden by the farmer Antonín Burdycha.
The Gestapo ambushed on June 30, but Potůček managed to escape after an exchange of fire. He sought refuge at several addresses, but was turned away everywhere. Exhausted, he fell asleep on July 2, 1942 in the bushes near the village of Rosice nad Labem , where he was shot in his sleep by the Czech gendarme Karel Půlpán.
In revenge for the group's activities, the Germans burned the village of Ležáky on June 24, 1942 and killed 37 members of the resistance from the Pardubice region and 15 from Červený Kostelec. Among those murdered were the friend and mother of Alfréd Bartoš as well as the father, mother, siblings and five other relatives of Josef Valčík.
Rating
Silver A is considered to be one of the most successful operations of the Czechoslovak government in exile in London. The group was able to fulfill all the tasks set and its members were characterized by bravery and moral quality.
Movie
In 2007, director Jiří Strach shot the two-part television film "Operation Silver A". Although the film received several awards, it was heavily criticized by members of the resistance movement.
References
literature
- Martin Reichl: Cesty osudu . Svět křídel publishing house, Cheb 2004, ISBN 80-86808-04-1 .
- Zdeněk Jelínek: Operace Silver A . Naše vojsko publishing house, Prague 1992, ISBN 80-206-0112-0 .
- Pavlína Nývltová: Příběh odvahy a zrady: Jiří Potůček Tolar, radista desantu Silver A . Pavel Mervart Publishing House, Červený Kostelec 2007, ISBN 978-80-86818-40-5 .
- Vítězslav Hanák: Muži a radiostanice tajné války . ELLI print publishing house, Dvůr Králové nad Labem 2002, ISBN 80-239-0322-5 .
Web links
- Silver A on Militaryzone
- Silver A on Fronta.cz
- Pardubice in the footsteps of Silver A
Remarks
- ↑ After the name of the legendary fortune teller and wife of Přemysl , the mythical ancestor of the Bohemian ruling family.
- ^ Václav Morávek (1904–1942), Czech captain in the General Staff, was shot on March 11, 1942 in a gun battle with the Gestapo .
- ↑ Vladimír Krajina (1905-1993), professor of botany at the Charles University . Arrested in January 1943, survived the war as a “celebrity prisoner” in the Theresienstadt concentration camp . From 1945 general secretary of the anti-communist party ČSNS and member of the Czechoslovak parliament. Emigrated to Canada in 1948.
- ↑ Obec sokolská v odboji (OSVO, later also called Jindra or Jindra-Vaněk) was a resistance organization during the German occupation in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The members were recruited from the banned Sokol . Main activities: secret service, propaganda and sabotage.
- ↑ Vítězové ceny na Elsa www.tyden.cz .
- ↑ Odbojáři si stěžují na inscenaci Operace Silver A na www.novinky.cz .