With General Patton in Czechoslovakia

     European WW II operations ended May 7, 1945. Prior to that date the Third US Army commanded by General George S. Patton had penetrated into what became Czechoslovakia as far as the City of Pilsen.At that time I had just begun my assignment as junior Aide de Camp to General Patton having been transferred to Third Army Headquarters in April, less than a month earlier. I had served over a year as an artillery forward observer in the Third Infantry Division, a unit of the Seventh US Army.

     I was very green and excited about my new job, and was privileged to accompany the General on a trip to what then was the front line of the Army’s advance. The Third Army had been ordered to advance and capture Prague, but that order had been countermanded by Generals Eisenhower and Bradley by reason of problems the British forces were having taking their objective - or it may have been a political accommodation for Soviet Union forces attacking from the east.

     For years I believed that trip was to Prague, but I can find no record of the General ever going to Prague which is some 45 miles northeast of Pilsen. So I have concluded my memory is faulty and that trip must have been to Pilsen - but I am not completely convinced. However, it is known that some Third Army reconnaissance units did reach Prague without resistance in the end days of the war in Europe.

     Whether it was Prague or Pilsen I was privileged to have been with the general when he met with President Benes.

     I have several distinct memories of the occasion. First when we arrived at what I had thought was the Presidential Palace of Czechoslovakia (but it wouldn’t have been that in Pilsen) for a formal luncheon, the General instructed me to remove my web belt with my forty five automatic attached and leave it with the driver of the command car in which we were riding as a matter of courtesy to our host.

     The second thing I remember is how very impressed I was with the beautiful very large and long room in which we were to eat. My guess is that there were at least forty place settings at a very long banquet table beautifully set with silver and crystal and linen napkins. It seemed to me to be typical old world grandeur. Before we sat down wine was served and there was a welcoming speech by President Benes and Czech military dignitaries to which General Patton responded with beautiful words praising the brave Czech people who had harassed their Nazi occupiers.

     I am not sure who else was with the Patton party but I believe it was the Corps Commander of the XII Corps which had spearheaded the drive into Czechoslovakia. That would have been Major General LeRoy Irwin on that date. He had a number of his officers with him. His Aide and I would have been the most junior officer’s present so we sat at the foot end of the sumptuous table, pretty much overawed by it all. The food was of course wonderful, especially for those of us who had been subsisting on army rations for a long time.

     Sometime during the festivities, as was the European custom, all members of the Generals party were decorated by the President. Those of us who were junior received the War Cross of Czechoslovakia, a beautiful medal with red, white and blue thin vertical stripes. To this day I cherish it because not many Americans have it.

     That was a fascinating afternoon in my memory. To be at such a high level ceremony was exciting and interesting, but it had its down side also which was singularly upsetting to us. After the meal and all had risen from the table, there was an informal social time when the Czech and American officers intermingled. I was cornered by a number of Czechs, as were my counter parts. Their one message was “You Americans must not let the Soviet forces into our country. We want no part of them or communism.” I was only a first lieutenant and higher ranking Czechs were taking time to give me the message while the President was delivering the same message to our generals. Those talking to me were emotional and very serious - actually pleading that I deliver their message to my boss.

     I, of course, delivered that message. But it remains an awful memory because we knew the deal had been made between the allies and the Soviets leaders which permitted them to occupy Czechoslovakia.

     Shortly after that meeting Soviet forces marched into the country and imposed their brutal occupation which took the lives of many thousands of Czechs. Without doubt among those were the very same good people we met that day.

     The lesson I learned reflecting back on that day is that political compromise with an evil entity accomplishes nothing other than compounding the evil. General Patton advised against that compromise but in the end obeyed orders.