Luděk Dembrovský

Shortly before the war, Luděk Dembovský and his family move from Pilsen to the nearby village of Nová Hospoda. On the morning of 6 May 1945 Luděk watched an American convoy near his home village that was within sight of Plzeň.

He recalled: “At first there was this dark humming that kept getting louder. The sound was made by an immense number of tanks – I was unable to count them. The fence of the Plzeň airport was about one kilometre away from the village. There were Nazi machine gun posts on either side of the road to defend the airfield. When the Americans reached the curve, they saw Plzeň in the valley and both gun posts as well. Two American tanks raised their guns and aimed at the Germans. We all stood there, wondering what would happen. The Nazis pointed their guns up towards the sky and there was a bed sheet on one of them. One tank drove to the field towards one post and another drove towards the other post […] The tanks drove into a field with crops that belonged to the farmer Terš, and he ran to and fro and screamed that the crops were his property. The Americans did not understand at all.”

During the battle, American soldiers seized the family’s home in Nová Hospoda as temporary command post.