Z Chotěbořska do zahraniční armády 1939–1945 – Plachý Jiří (2025)

The book by historian PhDr. Jiří Plachý, Ph.D. from the Military Historical Institute in Prague primarily follows the life stories of 27 natives from the pre-war political district of Chotěboř, who served in the Czechoslovak foreign army units in the West and the East during World War II. It also notes those who were born elsewhere but were connected to some municipality in the Chotěboř region by the institute of domicile law and mentions those who, although they appeared before conscription commissions abroad, for some reason did not join the Czechoslovak units.

Readers will find, among others, the stories of Miloslav Kruml (one of the founders of the Czechoslovak military unit in Poland, from the so-called Krakow Six), Josef Vrzáček (commander of the Mixed Reconnaissance Unit 1 in France), RAF pilots Josef Stránský, DFC and Karel Vykoukala, and other soldiers like František Nedělka (paratrooper of the CHALK group), Jan Harus (2nd Czechoslovak Parachute Brigade), Stanislav Kobrle, a prisoner of the Soviet gulag who fell at Dukla, Ladislav Kafka, MBE, or Jiří Pujman (both from the Czechoslovak Independent Armored Brigade). The author also paid attention to one of the youngest soldiers, Milan Stránský, and Anna Stoklásková, who served in the British Army during the war and...