Příběhy starých battledressů - Zapomenuté příběhy o statečnosti českých vojáků – Marek Jindřich (2023)

In the introduction, the author openly admits that he was drawn to this topic by another totalitarian dictatorship, as in the 1970s, during the harsh communist normalization, he was among those young campers whose dream, in an effort to distinguish themselves from the conformist majority, was the provocative wearing of components of British and American military gear. From a romantic boyish admiration for the past, the author gradually moved to a factual examination of historical reality. Nevertheless, Czech campers are the heroes of the first reports about their activities among the Spanish guerrilleros during the civil war there, when, after the victory of the Francoists, many of them ended up in the ranks of the Czechoslovak foreign army in Great Britain. The further narrative takes the reader through battlefields in the North African desert, during the siege of the French port of Dunkirk, and across Slovakia, where a larger group of Czech officers who underwent parachute training in Great Britain experienced a brutal Calvary during the battles of the 2nd Czechoslovak Independent Parachute Brigade in the USSR, as well as the true face of their Soviet 'allies.' The finale of this book brings the reader to Bohemia, where, along with a trio of Czech reporters (also with parachute training), he experiences the battle of American troops for Cheb, and learns about the bitterness of the first Czechoslovak unit from the West,...