…Czechoslovakia 1945 to 1948
"In the closing days of World War II in Europe, soldiers of the U.S. Army were welcomed as Liberators by crowds of Czech civilians exuberant at being freed from six long years of Nazi tyranny and occupation. Just three short years later, the relation-ship between the U.S. Army and Czechoslovakia was dramatically different. Instead of allies, they were now adversaries. Due to the rapidly changing political situation in central Europe and the emergence of a Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the U.S. Army in Europe underwent a series of major changes in mission and structure which culminated with it being forced to assume a combat posture against the very same country and ally that it had helped liberate from the Nazi Germany in the spring of 1945. In just three and a half years, the U.S. Army performed the roles of a combat force / liberator, an occupation force / rebuilder, a police or constabulary force and ultimately, a combat force again in rapid succession.
It was the rapid disintegration and collapse of the German Army following the March 1945 Rhine River crossings that precipitated the U.S. Army's involvement with Czechoslovakia. Following its assault crossings at the end of March, General George S. Patton, Jr.'s Third U.S. Army undertook a rapid and often unopposed drive across central Germany. By the middle of April, Third Army was poised on the western borders of Czechoslovakia. Though some limited operations were undertaken across the Border, Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower shifted Third Army's advance southeastward to prevent the formation of the rumored National Redoubt.
Once the National Redoubt area had been occupied and proven to be a myth, Eisenhower agreed to Patton's repeated requests to liberate western Czechoslovakia. On the morning of 5 May, XII Corps and V Corps launched their six infantry divisions eastward to secure the mountain passes for the armored divisions to exploit. The next morning, the 4th Armored and 16th Armored Divisions and Combat Command A of the 9th Armored Division rushed through the infantry and headed east. At the Soviets' request, Eisenhower halted Third Army at a line that ran southeastward from Karlsbad through Pilsen and Budweis to the Austrian border. Though German opposition was virtually non-existent and elements of Third Army had reached the city, Eisenhower allowed the Soviets to liberate the Czechoslovak capital Prague. Altogether, Third Army liberated some 3,485 square miles of western Czechoslovakia, thousands of towns and villages and the cities of Cheb, and Plzen…."
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Amicalement
Armand