Oldřich Kvapil

Doc. Ing. Oldřich Kvapil, CSc., a major general now retired, was born on November 12th, 1918, in Rovensko pod Troskami in the region of Český ráj (Bohemian Paradise). He joined the army in 1937, but was forced to leave the country because of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by German forces in March 1939. He fled to Poland on the eve of war on August 12th, 1939. After Poland was attacked by Nazi Germany he retreated with other Czechoslovakians to the east but still managed to take part in the defense of the city of Ternopil against a German air raid. After the Czechoslovak soldiers fled to the USSR, they were held in an internment camp. According to the words of Oldřich Kvapil, the Soviets chose groups of Czechoslovaks and helped them to escape from the camp. However, Mr. Kvapil wasn't among those who were able to escape. He stayed and was one of the soldiers who formed the so-called Oran group that was meant to become the core of the newly formed Czechoslovak army corps in the Soviet Union. Mr. Kvapil was interned from 1939 - 1941. In September of 1941 he joined the Oran group and began to drill Czechoslovak soldiers in Buzuluk. He attended a training course for reserve officers there himself and attained the rank of a company sergeant. A year later, he led a platoon into the battle for Sokolovo and Kiev. In the battle for Rudá, he suffered his only war-time wound when he turned partly deaf from a grenade blast. The battles continued at Bila Cerekev and Buzovka and after the Czechoslovaks from Volhynia joined the army corps, he temporarily became the commanding officer of the second battalion of the first brigade. He participated in the battle for the Dukla pass as the chief of staff of the second battalion of the first brigade and the deputy commander of the second battalion of the first brigade. Since February 1945, he was the deputy of the chief of the division of operations of the fourth brigade and in this rank he entered Czechoslovak territory in the spring of 1945. After the war, he studied at the War College and afterwards remained in the army. In the years 1967 - 1969, he was the dean of the 1. Faculty of the Military Academy in Vyškov. He was dismissed from the army on May 1, 1975, and since then he made a living as a worker. In 1967 he was promoted to the rank of a general and he retired in 1984. He died in January 2011 in Prague.

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