Americans in West Bohemia 1945

Exclusive Pictures
Zdenek Roucka ©2000
ISBN 80-238-5081-4

Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

This book provides a very interesting look into the American liberating forces in west Bohemia in 1945. The pages are filled with large clear photos of US troops as they moved through Czechoslovakia, freeing cities and towns from German control. The book is broken down into specific towns that the US forces moved into and covers how they were received, both by the defending Germans and the Czech population.

The first part of the book has a few pages on the German occupation and the resultant bomber raids. After that, everything is focused on US ground troops, first at Plzen, then Domazlice, Klatovy and several others. The last days of the German Wehrmacht and their attempts to stave off the Russian advance is also outlined.

After the war, many memorials were erected to US troops and these are included in photos. After the Communists took over, however, most of these memorials were sadly destroyed, leaving these few photographs as the only record of their existence.

The great sacrifice made by both the native population and the American soldiers pressing on from France are given their due in this book and I for one am glad to have it on my shelf. If you are at all interested in the face of liberation this is definitely a book you'll want to track down.