The duo is preparing for War Veterans Day. Students from local schools and the army get involved. PRAGUE 2 WITH NEW EYES
30/10/2022
Photo: MČ Prague 2 (as well as other images in the article)
Description: A picture from last year’s Veterans Day
War Veterans’ Day has been held regularly in Prague 2 since 2015, and this year will be no different. The entire program will be created on November 11 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Náměstí Míru. The event will commemorate war veterans, the fallen and the 80th anniversary of Operation Anthropoid.
The entire event is organized by the Municipal District of Prague 2 in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic, the Army of the Czech Republic, the Military Historical Institute, the Czechoslovak Legionary Community and the Association of War Veterans of the Czech Republic. So what can you look forward to?
Worship program
The devotional part of the program begins at 2 p.m. In addition to honoring war veterans and commemorating the fallen, it will commemorate this year’s 80th anniversary of Operation Anthropoid with the participation of important guests from political, civil and military life.
Mayor Alexandra Udženija v cross grove
“We will remember our soldiers who gave their lives in the service of the country. It is the Day of War Veterans, so selected military veterans will also be awarded a commemorative medal of the Association of War Veterans of the Czech Republic and the Czechoslovak Legionary Community. As part of the story from Prague 2, the fate of Colonel Janšta will be presented directly by his daughter, Jana Zachová. Throughout the day, it will be possible to visit the grove of crosses and place a flower here or place a cross and remember our modern-day fallen soldiers,” the press spokeswoman for Prague 2, Mgr. Andrea Zoulová. The festive program will end at 16:25 after prayer and intercession for those who died in war conflicts.
Competitions for primary and kindergarten schools
Starting at 10 a.m., a very popular conscious competition for valuable prizes will take place among elementary schools from Prague 2, the theme of which was Operation Anthropoid and everything related to this military action. “We assume that it will also contain questions on current security issues. There will be a total of ten questions, if necessary supplementary questions will also be prepared,” said KL Andrea Zoulová. After 11 o’clock, the program for kindergartens begins, which will be in a similar spirit. During the evaluation of the competition, the project Preparation of citizens for the defense of the state, or POKOS, will be presented.
A picture from the day of war veterans at the Basilica of St. Ludmila from last year
As part of the event, pictures of the children of representatives of the Army of the Czech Republic will also be handed over. These pictures will be part of the gifts for our soldiers on foreign military missions before the Christmas holidays.
Another program
There will also be an exhibition of Nurses of the Czechoslovak Red Cross in Great Britain between 1939 and 1945. There will be a number of presentation stands of the army and various organizations associated with the army on the square. You can also look forward to a cultural program in the form of military music, a music group from ZŠ Sázavská and the Blue Squadron Pipe Band.
Traditionally, by purchasing a poppy, they will be able to contribute to the Military Solidarity Fund for direct assistance to our heroes and their families. The poppy is a symbol of respect for war veterans and other freedom fighters.
Exhibition of military equipment
During the whole day, there will also be a presentation of historical and modern military equipment. From historical military equipment, it will be a British-made Morris Commercial C-8 FAT military tractor, including a Limber ammunition cart and a 25-pounder cannon howitzer. These vehicles were used by our soldiers on the Western Front.
Presentation of historical military equipment
You will also be able to view the Avia M-337 AK engine with propeller (originally named Walter M-337), which is a Czechoslovak air-cooled six-cylinder in-line inverted aircraft engine constructed in the late 1950s by the then Motorlet company. The presented version will be with a modified system allowing unlimited long flight on the back and short-term aerobatics.
ACR’s modern technology will be represented by several pieces. You will see, for example, two specials on the chassis of the Pandur vehicle, namely a reconnaissance and a command and staff vehicle. The grand premiere of the show will be the Czech-made AP-25 Bivoj drone. A public collection of drones of this type was recently carried out, and after their purchase, they were sent to the Ukrainian Army. The company Tatra and the company LOM Praha, sp
Ppresentation of modern military technology
The Army of the Czech Republic will also present the Land Rover Defender 130 “Cayman” vehicle at Náměstí Míru. The vehicle is designed to perform combat and special tasks in the formation of an airborne battalion. It can be airlifted and dropped by parachute or helicopter. This technique was introduced to the Czech Army in 2009 in the number of 79 pieces, in three versions. Soldiers of the 43rd Parachute Mechanized Battalion from Chrudim will transport the fully equipped and armed vehicle to the square. The Caymans were deployed operationally for the first time on the territory of the African state of Mali. A trio of vehicles from the equipment of the 43rd Parachute Mechanized Battalion operated there since March 2013 in the EUTM mission (European Union Training Mission – editor’s note).
The dashboard of the Mi-8 helicopter will also be on display with flight instruments – an artificial horizon, speedometer, altimeter, variometer, compass indicator and instruments for checking the operation of engines and reducers. It also has a fuel gauge with a selector for individual tanks, a cabin thermometer and an on-board clock.
It will be possible to inspect the equipment and visit all the stands on the square until 6 p.m.
Day of the war veterans
Veterans Day is celebrated annually on November 11. Its date was chosen to mark the end of World War I in 1918. It is celebrated worldwide as Veterans’ Day or Remembrance Day, and since 2001 it has also been a day of the Czech Republic. Prague 2 established the tradition of commemorative events for this day on Náměstí Míru already in 2015.
Encyclopaedia MČ Praha 2 writes: “On November 11, 1918, an armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany near the northern French town of Compiègne. This marked the end of World War I on the Western Front. The main signatories of the armistice were the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces Marshal Ferdinand Foch (today’s Vinohradská třída in Prague 2 was named after him between 1920 and 1940) and the German representative Matthias Erzberger.
Already on the first anniversary of the end of the First World War, commemorative events took place on November 11 in London, Paris and other cities of the Entente states. American President Woodrow Wilson of the same year officially declared November 11 as Armistice Day. It became an official holiday in 1926. In 1954, Congress renamed Armistice Day Veterans Day. In the United Kingdom, this day is commemorated as Remembrance Day. The closest Sunday, November 11, is then Remembrance Sunday.
The poppy flower became the symbol of Veterans Day. This has its origins in the poem On the Fields of Flanders, written in 1915 by Canadian surgeon John McCrae, who served on the Western Front, near the Belgian city of Ypres. The poppy was then used as a symbol for fallen soldiers of the First World War and in 1921 it became a symbol for a collection to help war veterans and invalids.
In the Czech Republic, respectively in Czechoslovakia, another date related to the end of the First World War, the date of the establishment of the republic on October 28, 1918, prevailed in wider awareness for a long time. However, in modern history, the Czech Republic is increasingly involved in honoring war veterans precisely on November 11. Since 2001, War Veterans’ Day has been a state-recognized day of the Czech Republic. Various organizations organize events related to this day, including public fundraisers (e.g. Military Solidarity Fund, Post Bellum – Project Memory of the Nation).”
Memorial events in Prague 2
As one of the first places in the Czech Republic, Prague 2 was one of the first places in the Czech Republic to establish, on the initiative of Mayor Jana Černochová, the tradition of annual commemorative events for War Veterans’ Day on Náměstí Miru – the former Purkyň Square, which was renamed Mírové náměstí in 1926 at the beginning of the peace arrangement after World War I. The names of the cities and countries of the Agreement are also named after the surrounding streets.
On Náměstí Míru, not only war veterans and fallen heroes of both world wars are remembered, but also soldiers from current foreign missions. As part of the day-long event, a place of worship with symbolic crosses and poppies is set up every year, educational activities take place, including exhibitions and demonstrations of combat equipment, as well as events for the youngest generation. The day closes with a reverent mass in the Basilica of St. Ludmila. Other organizations cooperate in the event (Association of War Veterans of the Czech Republic, Army of the Czech Republic, Military Historical Institute, Czechoslovak Legionary Society, Military History Club, etc.).
Monuments of heroes
War veterans and heroes in Prague 2 are also commemorated by numerous monuments, we borrowed the description from the Encyclopedia of the City of Prague 2: “Let’s start with the First World War and stop by the legionary monument Prague to its victorious sons in Pod Emauzy square. The author is Josef Mařatka, and the monument from 1932 itself has an eventful history during subsequent wars. The monument did not survive the Nazi occupation, but thanks to the garage master Oldřich Riegro, it was possible to save the box with the charter. After 1945, however, it was not found, and after 1948 it was not even looked for, as there was no attempt to restore the monument. This happened only after social changes in 1989. Models of the monument and photo documentation were preserved in the archives, and therefore the monument could be rediscovered. According to the original designs, it was made by the academic sculptor and restorer Kateřina Amortová. This happened during the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia on October 28, 1998.
Legionary monument Prague to its victorious sons in Pod Emauzy square, photo MČ Prague 2 / Milan Polák
The Monument to the Fallen Samaritans in the area of the former Novoměstské Jesuit college (today VFN) is also dedicated to the victims of the First World War, next to the church of St. Ignatius on Charles Square. It has recently been renovated, including statues and plaques featuring the same soldier medics who lost their lives while rescuing the wounded.
The 2nd World War also brought a number of heroes and victims, whom we meet in our surroundings. One of the most famous places is the church of St. Cyril and Methodius in Resslova street, in whose crypt paratroopers from Operation Anthropoid and other paratroopers who hid here after the Heydrichiad fell. Let’s remember not only the names and fates of the paratroopers, but also all those who were then executed for providing help – courageous clergymen and civilians. Even events and heroes are commemorated every year by these monuments above the crypt in Prague 2.
Heroes and witnesses who went through one or both wars can also be found among the personalities of Prague 2. Some of them were awarded honorary citizenship of Prague 2. Let’s remember their fates and the places where we come across their names. General Alois Eliáš and writer František Langer fought in the First World War, for example. Veterans of the Second World War include Joy Kadečková, František Müller, Alexander Beer, Tichomir Mirkovič and veteran aviator Josef Duda, whose name is named after a new street in Prague 2. Veterans from the Western Front had one thing in common – instead of being honored, they received persecution under the communist regime.
Let’s also not forget the participants of the domestic resistance, who helped the homeland as civilians and put the highest price, their lives. Among the honorary citizens we can find the names of Irena Bernášková and Vladimír Kotinský. Others are captain Karel Pavlík and falcon Karel Evald.
The fact that the Czechoslovak legionary community has its seat in Prague 2 is certainly worth mentioning.
(sources: City Council of Prague 2, Encyclopedia of Prague 2)
Posted by: Andrea Morkusová