He was born in Pisek, (Czechoslovakia) in 1910. At that time this part of Central Europe was in the hands of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Only after the First World War did Czechoslovakia become a free democracy – at least till the Second World War. At the age of 19, in 1929, my great uncle joined the French Foreign Legion. He was in the Foreign Legion till 1934 where he achieved the rank of a Sergeant. At the start of the Second World War, although Czech, he had Austrian nationality (as well as the Czech one) and therefore was conscripted to fight at the German side. Both his two brothers had to join as well. None of them wanted to stay in the German army. One of his brothers escaped and joined the Russian army to fight the Germans, where he died, the other, died on the German side before he could leave.
Vaclav fought in the German army for three years, first at the Russian Front, where he was wounded and then in Africa, before he saw his chance to abscond. As a NCO (of the 44th Division) he tried to subvert his men and was jailed. The prisoners were taken to Tunis for labour. At this point there are at least two different accounts of how he got to Britain. One (from an UK Interrogation report) he surrendered to the British army and via a POW camp was send to Edinburgh. From another report Vaclav made his way to his former Foreign Legion colleagues after escaping and asked to be transferred to the UK. What is documented is that he arrived in the UK at the end of 1943 on the ship Alcazar.
He was also in touch with the Czech underground while on leave in early 1943. During his leave he of course came home, and my father remembers the shock if seeing his favourite uncle in a Whermacht uniform.
In any case, once in the UK there was great interest in my Great Uncle from the SOE (Special Operation Executive). He knew France well and spoke French, German, Russian and Czech. After the establishment of SOE, the Czechoslovak intelligence officers founded a special department responsible for the training of men for special operations – Special Group D. SOE formed its own Czech Section, called MY, for operations in the Protectorate in the summer of 1940-41. (Therefore all the documents are from “MY” to x)
(This is Traigh House today)
His operation was code named OCHRE. He was to be the sole operator to be parachuted into France and the travel to Prague. There he was to carry out reconnaissance and gather intelligence before boarding a train back to France, near Lons Le Saunier, where he would be helped by the SOE to return to the UK.
Waiting to be send abroad he was residing in London in Bayswater (134 Piccadilly) and later at 47 Pentonville road in a lodging house of Mrs Willington under the name of “Franz Felsner”.
Sadly for him, the operation was cancelled, by the Czech command and I get the impression against the English desire. Subsequently, Vaclav Michal wanted to join the RAF, if not to fly as an air-gunner, then as a mechanic. To this end he was supported by his English Section Officer F.E.Keary. However, again this did not happen and somehow he ended up in an anti tank division.
(Francis Edward Keary became the longest serving ally of the Czechoslovaks. He had worked as an intelligence officer in Czechoslovakia before the war, under cover as a private English tutor and spoke Czech very fluently. In January 1943 he took command of the entire Czech Section.)
On 1st of September 1944 he was sent to France with the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade to Dunkerque. On the 4th of April 1945, age 35, he was killed. The last battles in this area – to capture the fort of Dunkerque, were fought in April. In the night of the 4th to 5th of April, there was a German attempt to re-capture the western part of the allied parameter. My great uncle fell in battle on the 4th of April 1945 – so I assume he was killed in this battle. He left a wife behind. Whether he had any children is not know.
He is buried at Longuenesse (St Omer) cemetery in France
