Evening star., 1945-05-12
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Star War Correspondent.


PRAGUE, May 8 Delayed De
tails of the last great battle of the
war, which was fought here this
week, were given to me today by
three British Empire soldiers who
witnessed it.
1t was a battle so fantastic that
it rivaled anything gone before, as
the Czech underground army, aideo
by $4,000 Russian renegades in Ger
man uniforms, battled for Prague
against desperate SIS troops spurrec
on by screaming mailman, hysteri-
cally calling for vengeance
The Czechoslovakian gauleiter
Karl Hermann Frank, in the last
moments of his baneful career, was
Satiating his blood hunger by mas
sacring the Prague population and
marching women and children be-
fore flame -belching tanks to enable
the tanks to break through Patriot
road blocks.
Held in Political Prison.
The three who told me the story
were Sergt. Horace Eatell of Stains
Mlddlesex; Sergt. Alec Whittle OF
Melbourne, Australia, and Pvt. Ed
ward Abbott of Windsor, Ontario
The latter two had been taken pris-
onerS and were finally transferred
to Franks notorious political prison
in Prague.
They knew nothing of the war.
progress when, at noon Saturday
there was wild shouting among fel.
low prisoners and machine gun fire
outside the walls. From their win
dow they saw six German machine
guns strafing crowds in the streets
and a bomber dropping bombs just
outside the Jail.
The prison was in the neighbor-
hood of the first uprising of the
Czech patriots. This was a COM
plete success and was soon over
The SIS and Gestapo moved out
of the city and 500 Wehrmacht
troops surrendered with all their
arms.
They saw intermittent Strafing
through the afternoon and in the
early evening their prison doors
were thrown open. They were taken
to the headquarters of Gen. Kute-
vaSSy, leader of the Czech patriots,
and found them well organized and
armed with Germans weapons.
Truce Broken.
Tho &C hoI loft 1Iniar tr,1na
After midnight came word that
the truce was broken A message
was broadcast to all citizens to
build defenses and roahblocks. Men
in civilian clothes were armed with
German bazookas and light ma
chine guns.
The returning SIS troops started
their attack at 5 am There were
two columns-one from the east and
the other from the north Thou
sands of old men and women and
children were digging up paving
blocks and utilizing street railway
cars, trucks and logs for road blocks.
The three Britons made their way
with pass to the International Red
Cross where they were told that the
SIS troops left the city, waving white
flags, but started shooting civilians
In the outskirts.
The defenders lacked tanks or
other heavy weapons. Wild rumors
were abroad-that the Americans
were near the city on one side and
the Russians on the other. Appeals
for help were sent by shortwave
radio to both.
The only response at the time is
the strangeSt part of the story-a
radio message from Gen. Vlasov.
renegade Russian who had trained
an army of approximately $4,000
Russian deserters to fight their own
country. All were in German uni
forms and were we'll armed.
Only Loyalty to Wehrmacht.
In his message Gen. Vlasov saic
that his only loyalty was to the
Wehrmacht, not to the SIS troops
and hearing of the broken truce anc
the threat of massacre in Prague
that he was changing sides again
with all his forces. He already was