Memorial Lidice and Ležáky (Czech Republic) Foy

On June 2, 2023, a new monument was unveiled in the Peace Forest near Bastogne for the destroyed villages of Lidice and Ležáky. It was ceremonially inaugurated by Ambassador Pavel Klucký and several civil and military representatives, including those of the Czech Republic and the villages involved.

The monument is the original foundation stone of the Švanda mill in Ležáky, in which the Libuše transmitter was hidden.
The stone, the information board and three Czech lime trees remain here as a permanent reminder of the horrors of the war and the need to preserve them in memory so that they do not repeat themselves. A plaque clarifies the symbolism of the lime tree.

The transmitter of the SILVER-A group, known by the codename LIBUSE, consisted of a Mk.VI transmitter and receiver mounted in a single wooden box and transported in a case intended for a Mk.III. However, the receiver proved to be inefficient in Great Britain and for this reason the LIBUSE set was supplemented with a commercially produced receiver SX24 Skyrider Defiant from the American company Hallicrafters.
The Mk.VI was developed and produced in Great Britain during 1941 and 1942. Depending on production design and capacity, the sets were divided into four variations marked from A to D. The set supplied to the SILVER-A group was a Mk. VI variant C.

The "Libuse calls London" was an activity of the SILVER-A group, dropped from Great Britain into the Böhmen und Mähren protectorate (occupied Czechoslovak territory), during the Second World War.
Three Czechoslovak soldiers were sent by the Czechoslovak government in exile and trained by the British SOE. They were dropped together with two other groups, ANTHROPOID and SILVER-B, on the night of December 28-29, 1941.
SILVER-A was one of the most successful operations of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Defense in exile. The group, which consisted of commander 1Lt Alfred Bartos, SSgt Josef Valcik and radio operator L/Cpl Jiri Potucek, successfully completed all missions. They managed to restore the interrupted radio link between the Czech resistance movements and the Czechoslovak government in London. They were also able to reconnect with their own extensive resistance network and make contact with their key resistance figures.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Marie-Christine Vinck