Veteran of the First Czechoslovak Army Corps, Miloslav Masopust, has died
Second World War veteran Miloslav Masopust has died at the age of 101. In 1944, he joined the First Czechoslovak Army Corps in the Soviet Union and took part in the liberation of Slovakia. Thanks to recorded testimonies, we can hear his story in his own words.
Announcing Masopust’s death on Monday, the Czech Army wrote that he had “devoted his life to serving his country.“ It added that he was “among the last direct witnesses and participants” in the Second World War, and praised his lifelong commitment to passing on his experiences to future generations.
Masopust shared his story, for instance, through the Memory of Nations, one of Europe’s largest publicly accessible archives of recorded testimonies of witnesses to 20th-century events. In a recording made several years ago, he introduced himself as follows:
“I was born on September 26, 1924 in the village of Český Straklov in Volhynia, in the Dubno region. It was then western Ukraine – until 1939 it belonged to Poland, after that it was occupied by the Soviet Union. I was a member of the First Czechoslovak Army Corps in the Soviet Union.”
Masopust joined the Czechoslovak Army Corps in 1944 after first volunteering for the Red Army, alongside his father and many others from his home village. In fact, ethnic Czechs from Volhynia then formed the backbone of the newly expanded corps. He later described the process of joining:
“Frontline units of the Red Army arrived in Volhynia. We helped them build trenches and observation posts, and then we voluntarily joined the Red Army. From our village of Straklov we travelled to Rivne and joined up there – as I say, voluntarily, as no mobilisation had yet been declared. Because Soviet equipment and weapons were stored as far away as the Urals, we were still in civilian clothes and instead of rifles we were carrying sticks. The commander taught us how to handle those sticks as if they were rifles.
“Later, the regimental commander assembled us and told us that the Soviet government had decided that Czechs and Slovaks could volunteer for the Czechoslovak unit that was being formed.”
Masopust was assigned to a submachine-gun battalion under the command of the renowned General Antonín Sochor, this time armed with real guns rather than sticks.
One of the bloodiest engagements involving the Czechoslovak Army Corps was the Dukla Pass operation, launched to support the Slovak National Uprising against the Nazis. The offensive, however, ran into a well-prepared and heavily fortified German defence.
Masopust took part in fighting near Krosno, where Czechoslovak submachine gunners advanced alongside Soviet tank units and quickly penetrated enemy lines. He later described one of these engagements:
“We set off as the second wave, then near Krosno we moved into the front line. Near Bóbrka we ran into German defences. An anti-tank fighter hit the first tank we were in. We destroyed the anti-tank fighter and a second tank arrived, which was also hit. Then a third tank. After that I ordered: ‘Dig!’ So we dug ourselves into a trench with our entrenching tools.”
Masopust was wounded in the leg and required medical treatment. After recovering, he was reassigned to the 5th Artillery Regiment. Serving as commander of a supply unit, he took part in the liberation of Slovakia. As in his earlier service, he later recalled that there was little time to rest:
“There was no free time with the submachine gunners, and there was no free time with the 5th Artillery Regiment either. Food, fuel and ammunition had to be delivered. Without ammunition they couldn’t fire, without fuel they couldn’t move the artillery, and without food they would starve. We were constantly on the move. Supply depots were far behind the front, railways were destroyed, roads were mined – if you drove off the road, you risked hitting a mine and losing the vehicle.”
After the war, Masopust and his father were allocated a farm near Litoměřice, confiscated from Germans expelled from the Sudetenland. In 1947, Masopust enrolled at the Military Academy and went on to serve in the army in a variety of artillery command positions.
Between 2002 and 2004, he served as vice-chairman of the Czechoslovak Legionary Community, often emphasising the importance of caring for war veterans. In 2020, he was awarded the Order of the White Lion, the Czech Republic’s highest state honour, by then-president Miloš Zeman.
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