Czechoslovak & Canadian troops at Dunkirk 1944-45

[janhyrman]

Hello,

I'm doing a research on the siege of Dunkirk in 1944 and 1945 by the Canadian and later Czechoslovak troops. I found some interesting pieces of information by the Historical Section of the Canadian Military HQ at http://www.forces.ca/, but the information is only a part of two reports on the clearing of the Channel ports during Autumn 1944.

Does anyone have additional information, particularly a listing of units involved in the encirclement of Dunkirk in 1944 and its siege till 6th October 1944 when the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade Group took over and relieved the 154th Highland Infantry Brigade? Also, there was a Canadian anti-aircraft formation which became famous on 26th October 1944 for shooting down all three mail planes which had been supplying the German garrison with their mail. This was the 2 Cdn H.A.A. Rgmt (2nd Canadian Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment?).

If anyone has a full order of battle for the whole period of Dunkirk's encirclement by the Allies, I would be delighted if you could share the information.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I believe the book THE LONG LEFT FLANK by Jeffery Williams discusses this operation in some detail.  Do you live in Canada?  If so, you can obtain a copy by inter-branch loan at your local library.  The Czechs were under First Canadian Army at that time, I think....certainly the Canadian Divisions fought at Dunkirk - many regiments of the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Divisions have Dunkirk 1944 as a battle honour.

 

[janhyrman]

Hello,

Many thanks for the info about the book, the problem is that I'm actually located in the Czech Republic  :-\. I will look for the book in the online bookstores, though.

Yes, it was under the command of the First Canadian Army, but then, when the 1 Cdn Army HQ moved to far off from Dunkirk, it was transferred under direct command of 21st Army Group HQ.

Regards,
Jan

 

[janhyrman]

Okay, does anyone know anything more about the 2nd Canadian Heavy Anti-aircraft Regiment (or "2 H.A.A. Rgt")? I found parts of their war diary in a report by the Canadian Military H.Q., but that's just about everything.

Thanks,
Jan

 

[David McLean]

Jan,

I am in the UK but in the process of tracing my father who was in the Czech Army in England I have come across a document with the Czech Brigade structure in 1944.  The URL is:  www.fireandfury.com/britinfo/firstczech.pdf      Maybe you could give me some help too.  I have several photos of my birth father (Iwas subsequently adopted) in Czech Army uniform and some details of where he was in England during the period 1940-44.  I also believe that after his return to Czechoslovakia he was very active in the trade union movement (through the World Trade Union Congress which now has its HQ in Prague.  I hope that our Canadian colleagues will forgive me for using this forum to contact you and if I can be of any help to them (I have had a great deal of contact with the British Army) then would be happy to do so.

Best wishes,

David

 

[Whiskey_Dan]

http://www.forces.gc.ca/dhh/Downloads/cmhq/cmhq184.pdf
That link there will give you tonnes of information, just make sure you have Adobe Acrobat reader first.
Hope you find what your looking for.
Cheers

 

[janhyrman]

Dan,

Many thanks for the link, I've found that one already - actually, it was this link which started my interest in the topic of Czechoslovak & Canadian troops at Dunkirk. I knew that there were some Canadian and British units in the area preceding the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade Group, but I never thought of trying to find out more details about them.

You're right, there are tons of information included in the CMHQ reports - I actually took the majority of information from them when I was writing my article about the WWII history of the French port of Dunkirk - it turned out to be a rather lenghty article in the end. If you're interested, you can find it at
http://www.geocities.com/nasenoviny/DunkirkEN.html

Thanks for trying to help, I really appreciate that. Merry Christmas ;D

Jan

 

[janhyrman]

I am in the UK but in the process of tracing my father who was in the Czech Army in England I have come across a document with the Czech Brigade structure in 1944.   The URL is:    www.fireandfury.com/britinfo/firstczech.pdf       Maybe you could give me some help too.    I have several photos of my birth father (Iwas subsequently adopted) in Czech Army uniform and some details of where he was in England during the period 1940-44.   I also believe that after his return to Czechoslovakia he was very active in the trade union movement (through the World Trade Union Congress which now has its HQ in Prague.    I hope that our Canadian colleagues will forgive me for using this forum to contact you and if I can be of any help to them (I have had a great deal of contact with the British Army) then would be happy to do so.

David,

I'm very sorry for missing your reply - I actually came across it only now by complete coincidence. I know the URL you mentioned in your message - as there are very few websites related to this particular topic, I think I know about nearly every single one concerned with Czechoslovak units under British command. The information there is fairly useful, although it has a few shortcomings. For example, the 3rd Armoured Regiment of the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade Group did not have any Churchill tanks, they had Cromwells and Challengers/Fireflies as the other two regiments. Here's a picture of a bunch of newly arrived, still unmarked Cromwell tanks with Czechoslovak tankers aboard (the picture has been forwarded to me by Mr. Jan Bulik, another son of a wartime Czechoslovak soldier:

I do suppose I could give you some information as to the Czechoslovak units stationed in Great Britain during WWII and if you have your father's name and date of birth, you could contact the Czech Army Historical Archives here in Prague to find out what they have about your father.

If you have any questions you want answers to, please let me know either through this forum, or via email at [email protected]

Happy New Year 2005 to all readers!

 

[Spr.Earl]

"I hope that our Canadian colleagues will forgive me for using this forum to contact you and if I can be of any help to them (I have had a great deal of contact with the British Army) then would be happy to do so."


David,no sweat,most of us here have one or two feet on the Sceptred Isle.
Pass the word on we have many who cover our and your and others History.

The neat thing is,is that Mike has created a Cornucopia of knowledge here with in our History Site.

 

[janhyrman]

Hello again,

I already did a short profile on Bernard Law Montgomery as the commander of the 21st Army Group in NW Europe 1944-45, and would like to write a similar article on Henry Duncan Graham Crerar, the commander of the First Army, but so far I have found very little about him on the internet. I'm sure there must be several biographies available in books, but as my access to books in English is limited, I'm drawing most of the information from the internet.

So far, I found following sites:
http://www.junobeach.org/e/3/can-pep-can-crerar-e.htm
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/fourth_dimension/2003/mar03/19_fd_e.htm

Both articles are about as short as the one I'd like to write, so I was wondering whether I missed any website of interest in this matter ???

By the way, I'm still looking for information about the 2nd Heavy Anti-aircraft Regiment, part of Crerar's First Army, as I mentioned already. If anyone has a story to tell or any details about the outfit, please let me know

Thanks,

 

[Horse_Soldier]

You need to get the book The Generals: The Canadian Army's Senior Commanders in the Second World War by JL Granatstein
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/item.asp?Item=978155238176&Catalog=Books&N=35&Lang=en&Section=books&zxac=1  I have the hardcover published 8-9 years ago.  It has a good profile of Crerar.

 

[janhyrman]

Thanks, Horse_Soldier,

Will consider getting that book. Any idea whether there's anything similar on the net? I'm located in the Czech Republic, so it's always a bit difficult to get the books over to Europe :'(

Many thanks again for the suggestion.