Major-General Antonin Petrák RIP

Kyt · Mar 10, 2009

Major-General Antonin Petrák: Czechoslovak veteran | Times Online Obituary

The death of General Antonin Petrák is a reminder of the contribution made by Czechoslovak soldiers and airmen to the Allied cause in the Second World War. Many, the airmen in particular, fled when the German Army marched into Prague in March 1939, but most of the soldiers made their way out by a variety of routes, one large contingent remaining to fight alongside the Red Army in Russia after the German invasion of 1941.

As a regular army lieutenant, Petrák reached France in 1939 via the Balkans, Turkey and Lebanon to join the Free Czechoslovak Forces there. When France fell in June 1940 he was evacuated to England and became an instructor at the Czechoslovak section of the Special Operations Executive training school at Traigh House in Inverness-shire. This unit trained the two Czech sergeants who, after parachuting into their homeland, assassinated SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, the so-called “Protector” of Bohemia, in May 1942. Petrák arrived at Traigh shortly after this operation, which was a triumph for SOE but a disaster for the people of Lidice, whom the Nazis massacred in reprisal.

The Czech resistance was badly shaken by the violent German reaction to the killing of Heydrich and with little prospect of being sent there himself, Petrák left SOE in 1943 to join the 1st Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade Group training in England for the Allied invasion of Normandy. As the commander of support company of the motor battalion in this brigade, he saw active service in prospect at last. The task allocated during the campaign in Northwest Europe was remote from the swiftly moving battle for which it had been trained. Montgomery’s 21st Army Group had reached the Franco-Belgian frontier on September 2, 1944, but Channel ports remained in German hands. Hitler had ordered the garrisons, each of divisional strength, to hold out and destroy the port facilities. Even so, Dieppe and Ostend were taken without a fight, and Boulogne and Calais surrendered quickly. Dunkirk, however, with its garrison of 15,000 German troops, held out. The Czechoslovak armoured brigade was placed under command of 1st Canadian Army to relieve Canadian troops besieging the port. The brigade put pressure on the defenders but met determined resistance. The German garrison surrendered only on May 9, 1945, after the overall surrender of the German forces in Northwest Europe was signed at Lüneburg Heath on May 4. Petrák remained with the motor battalion throughout, distinguishing himself by leading a daring raid into the enemy positions east of Dunkirk on October 28 — the National Day of Czechoslovakia — destroying defences and taking prisoners.

Later he led a fighting patrol to destroy vehicles and stores of a supply convoy, before returning with useful information on the enemy’s dispositions. These actions led to the award of the Military Cross. After the German surrender, the brigade was released to march into Prague on May 18, 1945, eight days after the Czechoslovakian troops under the communist General Ludvik Svoboda had entered the city.

The communist takeover of the country in 1948 resulted in the imprisonment of many citizens who had fought on the Western Front. Petrák was imprisoned on the ground of “negligent handling of state secrets”. He was released in 1960 but allowed to do only menial work as he continued to be designated politically unreliable. Defeat of the communists and the election of President Václav Havel in 1989 brought about his rehabilitation, recognition of his military service and grant of the rank of major-general.

He formed an association of Slovak ex-servicemen who had fought with the Western Allies in the Second World War, many of whom were living in extreme poverty. For this he was appointed MBE in 1996. He was also awarded the Order of the White Lion by President Havel and appointed to the Legion of Honour by France. In 2002 he returned to Traigh House to unveil a plaque in remembrance of Czechoslovak servicemen who had trained there with SOE in 1942-43.

He is survived by his wife, Rudolfina, and a daughter.

Major-General Antonin Petrák, MBE, MC, Czechoslovak veteran, was born on April 14, 1912. He died on February 8, 2009, aged 96
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Antipodean Andy · Mar 10, 2009

Another proud countryman. It would appear that if he fled his country for Russia instead of the west, he would not have been persecuted...even though he fought the same enemy.

RIP.

Kyt · Mar 11, 2009

He probably would have been mate, as even those who served with the Soviet forces often got treated badly after the war.

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