After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the recently mobilized airports were transformed into training bases of the German Luftwaffe. During the war, approximately 15% of all German pilot training was concentrated in our territory ...
The Dieppe Raid aftermath resulted in a series of reports confirming key lessons for future Allied amphibious assaults against Axis held territory, including the need for overwhelming fire support from naval and air forces, more armoured vehicles in the first wave, and the danger of attacking fortified ports.
It is three hours and thirty minutes in the morning of August 19, 1942. Landing craft, with members of No.3 British Commandos crowded on board, are crossing the dark waters of the Atlantic. Ahead of them, the outline of the French coastline looms in the darkness. Somewhere in the darkness, the boat crews sense their destination. Meanwhile, the port city of Dieppe, 30,000 strong, sleeps peacefully.
Of the czechoslovak units in operation Jubilee participated in 310. and 312. squadron, while 313. squadron remained in the exeter sector, where in the absence of their sister units kept on standby. Operation Jubilee was thus to be attended by two Czechoslovak squadrons, which from May 1942 had been operating together as part of the newly formed Czechoslovak Wing.
At 04.45 the German Naval Command West received the following message: "At 03.50 our naval convoy was attacked 4 kilometers from Dieppe by enemy surface forces. This is most likely a routine attack on convoys." Meanwhile, on the surface of the Channel, a drama that few of the planners of Operation Jubilee had anticipated was unfolding.
German Luftflotte 3 was in the area of the landing active since the early morning hours. At 06.20, two Focke-Wulfs took off from Abbeville-Drucat airfield with the task of carrying out a reconnaissance at the mouth of the River Somme. The pilots of JG 26 Schlageter Oblt. Horst Sternberg and Uffz. Peter Crump made a low flight over the beaches at Dieppe, where they saw a number of boats and soldiers rolling up the coast.
Looking at the list of casualties, Operation Jubilee appears to be a bloody failure. Ground troops failed to achieve their objectives and casualties exceeded 50%. The Navy lost several dozen landing craft and one destroyer. It became clear that no major landing could be contemplated without fire support from large ships. The Air Force, which had the most important task of covering the ground forces, suffered considerable losses in the course of its performance.
Saviors of Prague or traitors? Heroes or cowards? Who were the Vlasovs, and what led them to our territory at the end of World War II? There are a lot of questions about Vlasov himself and his troops. I'm not trying to answer the unresolved questions, but I'm going to try to get a realistic view of this contradictory group of people.
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