11378
Czech Radio 2 Praha
by Stanislav Motl
Traces – facts - mysteries
B R I T O N S A T C Z E C H O S L O V A K I A N
R A D I O
Speaking : author – Stanislav Motl
man - VA – Libor Vacek
The programme features extracts from a commemoration paper Pra?ské Povstání (The Prague Uprising) by Vladimír Kotinsky, published in proceedings Od mikrofonu k poslucha??m (From the microphone to the listeners) and from the book Cesty za oponu ?asu 3 (Journeys Behind the Curtain of Time 3) by Stanislav Motl
The programme also features live recordings from the Prague Uprising (Czech Radio Archives)
Literary advisor: Dan Moravec
Executive producer : Jaroslava ?ervená
Technical support: Jitka Borkovcová, I ng. Tomá? Gs?llhofer
Script advisor and production: V. Príkazsky
Music : 1. Julius Fu?ík – Stále kup?edu (2:30) out of which 1:45
Performed by Czech Army Central Band, conductor Viliam Bére?
PANTON - CAS – 81 1281 – 4 431 (1994)
2. Luis Reede : Bombardement (4:11) out of which 1:35
Electronic instruments – performed by the author
CD COSMOS 375.214 (1988)
Broadcast: 6. 5. 2012
Duration: 26:56
Suggested announcement
Two courageous Britons and more than 120 ridiculed, fooled SS men….That is the content of an unbelievable and long-forgotten story from the Prague Uprising back in 1945. Its major protagonists, apart from the two Britons mentioned above, are two more (nowadays likewise unknown) leaders of the battle for Czech Radio… Four brave men, who, in their unstinting efforts to save many innocent lives, came up with an incredibly crafty trick and managed to disarm a group of heavily-armed SS men who were undoubtedly capable of anything.
Signature of Traces – Facts - Mysteries
VA : Britons at Czech Radio
To fade out under :
Motl 1: (2:02)
An utterly inconspicuous document, which has long been forgotten. And yet – when you see it, it makes you wonder: what dramatic period saw it come into being? The date itself may be enough of a clue: May 7, 1945 Prague. Time: 11:40. We can also learn about the venue where this document saw the light of the day: Schule Bahnhofgasse, Nr. 1, now known as the “Na Smetance” primary school in Prague. It is a building, which (as many know) is located in close proximity to Czech Radio.
A document of surrender! The German guards based in the above mentioned school surrendered to representatives of the Czechoslovak Army, who were led by Staff Captain Záruba, and his deputy, Staff Captain engineer Václav Kopecky. And last but not least, there are two more names, which really don’t sound Czech at all: Thomas Vokes and William Greig. Both are listed here as Czechoslovak Army representatives.
A forgotten surrender document…and a lot of mysteries linked to it. And moreover – a real challenge for further investigation…
Music: Bomb V/O
First of all, however, let me remind you of a few historical facts. It was Saturday, May 5 1945. According to contemporary reports, it was a grim, cloudy day. And, as we also know, it was the beginning of the Prague Uprising.
A few years ago, Vladimír Kotinsky wrote a commemoration paper concerning the Prague Uprising. Among other details, he explained what actually anticipated the armed revolt of Prague citizens.
VA1: (0:43) muffled
On May 4 1945, some of the city quarters such as Nové Město, Královské Vinohrady and Nusle Valley had begun to see German signs and decrees disappear. The German currency was gradually being refused in shops and on trams. A somewhat explosive mood of resistance manifested itself as German gables and company signs were pulled down. By the evening, the first Czechoslovak flags started to emerge in the streets. People begin to rally, the tension grew…The Germans had already noticed this unusual tense atmosphere in the town. They ordered military guards be deployed at crossroads, in most important buildings, in the building of Czech Radio. They reinforced their troops and built roadblocks…
Motl 2: (0:46)
Let me add that on this very day the German troops seized all technical departments of the Radio. By the evening the SS troops banished most of the employees from the Radio building in today’s Vinohradská Street. Except for Zdeněk Man?al, the only reporter who remained inside. A day later, on May 5 1945, it will be he who commences broadcasting with the memorable words: “It’s just sechs o’clock…”
In the copious proceedings called “From the microphone to the listeners” published by Czech Radio in 2003, the following dramatic events are described thus:
VA 2: (0:43) muffled
Shortly before noon, Ferdinand Thürmer, German commissary and head of the Reichsfunk Radio Group of Bohemia and Moravia, summoned another seventy-odd heavily-armed German soldiers to the building. However, they failed to find their way because the Czech employees had been filing all of the German signs off. Thus, the summoned reinforcements were utterly disoriented and incapable of finding the broadcasting studios. The tension grew. At noon, the Czechoslovak and American flags were hung out of the building. Gunfire thwarted the plan to hang out the Soviet and British flags.
Music: signature of Prague Radio Station – harp
Motl 4: (0:23)
It was shortly after half past twelve when a group of Czechoslovak policemen managed to break into the Radio building through the main entrance. The first shots were fired. There’s the first casualty among the policemen. His surname is rather symbolic – Svoboda (Liberty)…Let’s leave the floor now to the proceedings “From the microphone to the listeners”:
VA 3: (0:20) muffled
The battle for Czech Radio has just commenced. The policemen supported by the Czech employees took control of the broadcasting centre and “upper balcony” through which the programme was dispatched to the transmitters. The announcers barricaded themselves in the newsroom. That is where the first call for help was broadcast from at 12:33….
Motl 5: (0:23)
The Czech Radio archives still preserve the dramatic announcements of the Radio reporters and announcers. As a result, Czech Radio and Radioservis were able to release a disc entitled “The Second World War in the Czech Radio Archives”. Let me now invite you to listen to authentic extracts from the insurgent radio broadcasting.
CD – The Second World War: (2:20)
We are calling upon the Czech police, the Czech gendarmerie, the Czech army…. For some time music takes over…Everyone to Czech Radio…We’re broadcasting on 415-metre wave…The resistance in the Radio is gradually being suppressed. (calls for help, shooting) Block of houses around the ?ernín Palace…Prague is and will remain free.
Music: Fu?ík: Stále kup?edu ( Still forth )
Motl 6: (0:03)
The proceedings “From the microphone to the listeners” further reads:
VA 4: (1:04) muffled
The German guards fortified themselves on the ground, first and second floors, the Czech fighters were supported both from the side lane and from the roofs and basement. They entered the building through the entrance in the Balbínova Street, across the roofs of the adjacent houses and across the neighbouring courtyard at ?ímská Street No 13…Although the odds favoured the Germans, who were better armed, the Czechs were longing for freedom. Gradually the rebels managed to capture and take control of the upper three floors of the building and despite the chaos both inside and outside the building, they succeeded in maintaining the transmission. At 17:45, the German troops had no other chance but to negotiate and discuss terms and shortly afterwards they surrendered. By six o’clock in the evening the Czech Radio building was back in Czech hands… However, the battle in the neighbourhood of Czech Radio raged till the end of the uprising; the Germans made an all-out effort to silence the broadcasting. For three more days, the defenders of the Radio had to forestall reprisal attacks from air forces, artillery and infantry…
Motl:
Seventeen thousand fighters had joined the action by the evening of 5 May. Nearly 1,700 of them were killed. Nevertheless, the uprising spread all over the city of Prague.
A day later, on Sunday May 6 1945 at 17:40, a German jet plane dropped a bomb on the Radio building and destroyed, beside other departments, the newsroom in the basement. However, the broadcasting wasn’t interrupted for more than a couple of minutes. Now, they’re broadcasting from the building of the Stra?nice transmitter. Later they moved the broadcasting into the building of the Hussite congregation in Vinohrady, where they had prepared a broadcasting studio beforehand. Miroslav Disman, a repoter at the time, recalls revolutionary broadcasting on the disc entitled The Second World War from the Czech Radio archives.
CD – The Second World War Disman (0:40)
Our technicians as early as 1940…the Radio was the only one in Europe…which never ceased broadcasting.
Motl: (0:34)
As was mentioned before, the battle in the neighbourhood of the Czech Radio headquarters continued till the end of the uprising. Balbínova Street and the “Na Smetance” school became the centre of some tough fighting. And that is where the story of a mysterious surrender document and of two so far unknown men began to unfold. Let’s repeat their names – Thomas Vokes and William Greig.
The above quoted commemoration of the Prague uprising by Vladimír Kotinsky further reads about the raging battle:
Music: WAR Bomb
VA 5: (0:46) muffled
The primary school in Na Smetance Street No 1 in Vinohrady was a major Nazi stronghold at the beginning of the Prague uprising. The local SS guards participated in fighting from the very start of the battle for Czech Radio and mostly used machine guns.
The Germans established very strong battle positions in the school. Two heavy machine-guns were placed on the first floor and controlled both the surroundings of the school and the entirety of Balbínova Street, causing a good deal of casualties among the resistance fighters. Therefore it was vital to stop the gunfire coming from the school. At first, the Prague soldiers had the building under a rather disorganized fire. Soon, though, engineer architect Václav Kopecky, Staff Captain in reserve, took over the command.
Motl 8: (0:23)
As the available documentation has it, the guards based in Na Smetance consisted of 123 well-armed men, mostly with frontline experience from the Eastern Front. Thus, it’s more than obvious these soldiers were determined killers, capable of anything.
And yet, they showed little resistance to being disarmed….how come?
Music: War – II – muffled
VA: The investigation of Stanislav Motl continues
Motl 8a: (0:59)
The aforementioned Thomas Vokes and William Greig finally appear on the scene. According to contemporary witnesses, they were barely twenty years old.
I first learnt about them when I got to read the written memoirs of the then Staff Captain Václav Kopecky who – together with Staff Captain Jaroslav Záruba – became one of the commanders in the battle for Czech Radio on May 5 1945.
Mr Kopecky recalled, among other things, how those two young boys came to the Radio building on May 5. They had British uniforms on and introduced themselves as Sergeant Thomas Vokes and Private William Greig.
How come the young Britons ended up in Prague? Architect Václav Kopecky recalled after the war:
VA 6: (1:09) muffled
They told me how they had been captured by the Germans and had been sent to a detention camp somewhere in the Reich. One night, under rather dramatic circumstances, they had managed to escape. A few days later they crossed the border of the then Protectorate and got to the village of Slatina near Kralupy upon the Moldava. They were hiding in the nearby woods. They were lucky enough to be discovered by a couple of locals who helpfully supported them as they could. They supplied them with food and other necessary things as they hid. Sometime in April 1945 they met Miki Mu?íková, a student from Prague and her friend Jaroslav Husák. These two saw to it that the young soldiers were taken to Prague. Jaroslav Husák and his friend Daniel Vilenica lent the runaways their “kencards” (ID cards in today’s parlance) and the trick was successful. Both Britons found their new home in Prague, in the then Hopfen?tokova Street, in the flat of Miki’s parents.
Motl 9: (0:44)
Another trace took me to the then Hopfen?tokova Street, today’s Navrátilova Street. The house that had hosted both Britons is still standing. More than a decade ago, I found a very old woman there who had been living in the same building since the German occupation. She told me she remembered the Mu?íks very well, including their young daughter called Míla, who was always called Miki. She was said to be very beautiful and brave. She spent the whole uprising at the barricades.
Again, let’s go over to the memoirs of engineer architect Václav Kopecky, Staff Captain:
VA 7: (0:17) muffled
If I recall correctly, Miki Mu?íková had a cousin, whose name was Karel Bu?ek. And it was he who brought both young Britons to the Radio building. I know precisely that it was just the first day of the uprising, on Saturday May 5 1945.
Motl 10: (0:53)
The fact that both foreigners were dressed in British uniforms would later play a vital part in further fights.
As the memoirs of architect Václav Kopecky have it, the SS troops were shelling both Balbínova Street and part of what was then called “Fo?ovka”, i.e. today’s Vinohradská Street. They kept it under fire on May 5 as well as the following day and the morning of May 7. At that point, some of the rebels decided to use the interconnected system of cellars in Balbínova Street in order to get as near to the school as possible. The group included both Britons. MD Pavel Jedli?ka, who later became a renowned professor, lived with his parents in one of the houses and met one of the Britons in the cellar personally.
I recorded his narration back in 1995:
VA 8: (0:34) muffled
I remember one of boys very well, indeed. His very young age caught my attention first. He was just a boy. I also remember that he had a uniform on which was without any rank badge. I could speak fairly fluent English from school, I remember we exchanged a few words but I can’t tell you with this hindsight of so many years what we were talking about. There was no time for lengthy conversation.
Motl 11: (1:12)
Both Britons and the Czech fighters got as far as the block of flats standing basically opposite the school. They climbed up to the highest floor of the house and started shooting at the school’s windows.
On Monday May 7 the situation became dramatic. There were continuous casualties. The SS guards in Na Smetance refused to surrender. And then, as many were on the verge of succumbing to despair, one of the Britons came up (according to architect Václav Kopecky it was Thomas Vokes), and presented a seemingly foolish idea: “We’ll go to talk to the Germans in person! We’re going to negotiate and discuss terms with them in the name of the Queen.”