Lazne Bohdanec, East Bohemia, March 23 (CTK) – A secret World War Two radio transmitter codenamed Libuse will call London again to commemorate a paratrooper from the Silver A unit after 75 years on April 1, Michal Borovicka, from the Rota Nazdar military history club, told journalists on Thursday.
The radio transmitter was used to prepare the assassination of Heydrich, deputy Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, on May 27, 1942. Heydrich suffered severe injuries to which he succumbed on June 4.
“We will be broadcasting from a replica of the transmitter,” Borovicka said.
“We have agreed with a man in England who will be waiting for it on Saturday early in the morning. We will be authentically broadcasting from the same place,” he added.
Helped by radio fans, Rota Nazdar assembled a replica of the British radio transmitter used by Czech radio officer Jiri Potucek, a member of the Silver A unit.
Between March 20 and April 4, 1942, he was broadcasting for a total of 24 hours.
It took one year to put together the replica.
The original aerial of the radio set was conserved on the scene. The Gestapo never found it, but it confiscated the rest of the machines.
Potucek used the Hallicrafters SX-24 Skyrider Defiant, weighing 15 kilogrammes, as a receiver.
The Saturday commemorative event will show a period camp of the Czechoslovak Independent Brigade in Britain, the training of Czechoslovak paratroopers from England and their deployment in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
There will be also an exhibition of period artifacts and equipment.
“The programme includes the transmission of radio fans and their connection with the whole world. We wonder where the broadcasting of our Libuse will be captured in the world and who will try to be connected with us,” the chairman of the association, Vilem Fencl, said.
After the assassination of Heydrich, Potucek was in hiding by a local farmer. After the Gestapo uncovered his stay, he managed to escape. However, he did not find any new refuge and being totally exhausted, he fell asleep in a local forest on July 2, 1942. A Czech police officer found him and shot him dead.
