DAY -1:
It is all happening right NOW. The Czech Few was launched on Friday, May 8th – date commemorating the 65th anniversary of the VE Day. The final preparations had gone without any hiccups – Richard had departed on Thursday to set up the basic camp at Nova Pec leaving behind the rest of the team in Prague. The rest of us managed to get away only the next day – missing the very first strokes of the journey to honour the Czech RAF veterans.
On one hand the late departure deprived us of giving our brave paddler the proper "launching hand", on the other hand at least for myself I can say that I enjoyed seeing that we were not the only ones remembering the historical events of 65 years ago. My colleague Olga was giving me a lift to Lipno where I was to join Richard and the rest of the team and near Milin. There we met several groups in WWII Allied vehicles coming to a rendezvous at what had been the demarcation line between the Soviet and American forces liberating Czechoslovakia at the end of the WWII.
An interesting by-line: Although the WWII officially ended on May 8th, frantic fighting was going on in Czech lands for a few more days – reason for this was the effort of the German units to at all costs avoid falling prisoner to the Soviet Red Army. And it was right near Milin where the last large World War II battle in the area of Czech lands took place.
On May 7, 1945 all German forces were ordered to surrender staying in their positions. Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner, the commander of the Army Group Centre deployed in Bohemia, however, ordered his units to force their way westwards and to surrender to American forces which reached the agreed demarcation line in the western Bohemia and stopped there. Since the Soviet Army was still days away from the demarcation line only the partisans had tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to stop the Germans who responded with reprisals against the local population. On several occasions Vlasov's army units (also trying to reach the Americans) skirmished with the Germans.
On May 9 1945 a large formation of German troops reached the area between villages Milín, Slivice (now administrative part of Milín) and Čimelice, near the demarcation line. Among them were parts of the Kampfgruppe Wallenstein and the infantry regiment Der Führer (SS Division Das Reich); the formation was commanded by SS-Gruppenführer and General-Lieutnant of the Waffen-SS Karl Friedrich von Pückler-Burghauss. The soldiers were accompanied by fleeing German civilians and administrators. Because the road toward the Americans was blocked by the local resistence von Pückler-Burghauss ordered to establish defensive lines here. Since May 9 the Americans closed the line and returned any surrendering soldiers to the Soviet side.
On May 11 partisan groups led by Soviet officer Yevgeniy Antonovich Olesenski attempted to storm the Germans and were decimated. In the afternoon of this day, finally, the Soviet army units arrived and attacked the Germans.
The attack started with artillery and rocket bombardment. The Soviet bombardment was supported by 4th tank division of the XII Corps (U.S. Third Army). Later, troops from 1st, 2nd and 4th Ukrainian Front attacked German positions. During the night the defense collapsed and around 3AM General von Pückler-Burghauss signed the capitulation. The American negotiators refused to take the General and his family; fearing revenge from the Russians he shot his wife, daughter and his deputy and then himself. About 6000 soldiers and large number of vehicles were captured.
(Source: Wikipedia)
However, back to OUR STORY:
Richard got to his ground zero at Nova Pec, made friends with locals that were prepared to let him use their garden to park his car and look after it for the time he was going to be paddling down the river. They even fed him thus acting as a substitute support team that was still Prague-bound and therefore useless for any practical helpJ!
Kayak was packed. New tent proved its merit – one can pitch it in about three minutes.
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