Thompson George

Freedom Isn't Free
George Thompson, Ex-President, 16th Armored Division Association

I volunteered for service in the Army in May 1943 when I was nineteen years old. After a very long training and taking courses at the Armored Forces School at Fort Knox, Kentucky, I was sent to my new division, the 16th Armored. After more training in servicing tanks, trucks, semi-trucks and jeeps, we were finally ordered to move to France. After an arduous journey across the North Atlantic in February 1945, with German U-boats attacking us, we arrived in Le Havre, France after twelve days. Although we got to Le Havre safely, we could not disembark at the docks. The harbor was full of sunken ships, which made it impossible to enter the dock until the tide came in.
After a few days in Le Havre preparing the vehicles for the land and rail journey, we moved inland to Forges Les Eaux. My company was billeted in a large old chateau. I lived with a few other men in the attic of an outbuilding. Here we repaired the division's vehicles. During our stay, a request came from General Patton that he wanted a more powerful jeep. Some of our technical trucks were equipped with a Ford auxiliary eight-cylinder engine of 100 horsepower. We mounted one of these engines in the jeep and sent the truck back. Today, this jeep is said to be in the Patton Museum in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
On or about April 15, we started moving through France and Germany. Along the way we were strafed by battle planes and artillery, the fire of which hit a friend who was standing right next to me and who almost lost his leg. We arrived in Fürth, Germany, the place from where we were to start for Czechoslovakia. During the advance, our company was ordered to take the town of Nýřany near Pilsen. We captured many Germans and sent them to a holding area where they were sorted and sent home. As we marched with the prisoners through the street, the Czechs beat them with everything they could get their hands on. Our medics treated many more wounded Germans than our soldiers. Although I understood the anger of the Czechs, I tried to prevent these beatings as best I could.
After spending the night in Nýřany, we drove directly to the Pilsen airport. There were hundreds of “captured” German vehicles parked there. All of them had been put out of service by ripping the cables out of the dashboard. My job as a mechanic was to go through the entire line and start as many of them as possible. When the vehicles were put into service, we handed them over to the city of Pilsen for use.
After the 8th of May, we were sent to Lestkov, later to Mariánské Lázně and then back to the German city of Reisgau. We did not stay long in Czechoslovakia after the end of the war. I was sent home in May 1946. Later I married a girl whose surname was Havlová. She and the war connected me to the Czech Republic. I returned to the Czech Republic for the first time in 1991 and have been here many times since then. I know of no other country where people value their freedom more than the Czechs.

Remember, freedom is not free and is only for the brave.

From the book 500 Hours of Victory by Karel Foud, Milan Jíša, Ivan Rollinger