Memorial Free Czechoslovak Forces

Tekst on the Memorial:
IN TRIBUTE
TO ALL
CZECHOSLOVAK SOLDIERS, AIRMEN AND PATRIOTS
WHO FELL IN WORLD WAR II

FROM ROYAL LEAMINGTON SPA IN 1941,
VOLUNTEERS FROM FREE CZECHOSLOVAK FORCES
STATIONED IN THE TOWN WERE PARACHUTED INTO
THEIR HOMELAND TO RID IT OF THE TYRANT
"PROTECTOR" SS GENERAL HEYDRICH. TWO OF
THEM - JAN KUBIŠ AND JOSEF GABČĺK-
ACCOMPLISHED THEIR MISSION IN MAY 1942.
THEY AND THEIR COMPANIONS LAID DOWN THEIR
LIVES
FOR FREEDOM

The Czech Free Army came to Leamington Spa in 1940 after evacuation from France and was headquartered at Harrington House. This memorial, in the shape of a 7 sided parachute, commemorates the seven SOE parachutists, Adolf Opalka, Jan Kubis, Josef Gabcik, Josef Bublik, Jan Hubry, Jaroslav Svarc and Josef Valak. They died on 18th June having been trapped in the church of St Cyril and Methodius, Prague after Kubris and Gabcik had fatally wounded SS General Heydrick in an assassination attempt
The Germans exacted a heavy revenge for the assassination, included the razing the villages of Lidice and Lezaky and the deportation of their population. The memorial garden contains a plaque to Lidice and roses from the rebuilt Lidice area.

This story is fairly accurately portrayed in the 1976 film 'Operation Daybreak'.

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Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries
• Photos: Anthony (Sharky) Ward