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17th AB / 194th Glider Infantry Regiment, D Company Re-enacting group Prague, Czech republic


poch
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Welcome,

we would like to introduce our re-enacting group from the Czech republic.

17th AB / 194th GIR, D Company Re-enacting group was established only a year ago (2009) but all members have a lot of experience from other re-enacting groups. Because our members have been interested in US military history and airborne troopers for a very long period (for more than 10 years) we made decision to start a quality living history project. The main aim of our activity is to bring people the history of US airborne troopers, especially 194th Glider Infantry Regiment, D Company.

Heroes who were fighting, bleeding and dying mustn´t be forgotton. Their fight against the Nazism in Europe saved us from the reign of evil. They sacrificed themselves so we could live in democracy. And we can not say „Thank you“ enough to them. As the time passed people forgot history and some politicians want to people forget what happend. And we can´t allow this!

Althought the majority of us are from Prague, our members are from the cities from the whole Czech republic and one member is from the Netherlands. We have been in contact with the member of D Company Pfc. John J. Schumacher since we were established. It is a big honour for us that he agreed to be our honorary commander. We are also in contact with other veterans such as Jack Ariola, from B Company, 194th GIR. Contact with veterans gives us a great source of information about life of the gliders and paratroopers during the Second world war. We also study other historical materials from this period.

Our recent activity

This year was full of work for us. Our small group is growing up and we participated in a few re-enacting events. Here are some of them:

Bussum Bridgehaed – public military event in the Netherlands

West Front – public military event in Czech represented Operation Varsity http://www.youtube.com/theglidergang#p/a/u/0/Fi3_tKxFSH8

http://www.youtube.com/theglidergang#p/a/u/1/80Ly4eoJ8cw

West Front France – public military event in Czech represented Operation Overlord

Sahara 2010 – public military event in Slovakia, where our period camp was avarded as the the best camp

During the year we started a very close cooperation with two other re-enacting groups from the Czech republic: 82nd AB / 508th PIR from Kladno and 101st AB / 506 PIR from Chomutov. Together with these two groups we realised our last project: Lucky Strike Camp in Kovarska on 11th September. Every year on this day local people remembered the biggist air battle above our country in 1945. Air museum in Kovarska asked us for the support of this memorial day. We prepared for the public presentation of the period military camp that showed life of soldiers in 1945. This ceremony was visited by Col. Charles Huber Wilson, US Army Attaché in the Czech republic.

 

Our plans for the future

During the next few years we would like to consolidate US paratroopers re-enacting groups in the Czech republic in one big association that will be able to present history of 17th AB, 82nd AB and 101st AB to the public during military events. The west part of our country was liberated by American Infantry and Armored divisions so people know very little about Airborne divisions. They know them just from movies like Saving Private Ryan or The Band of Brothers. And our aim is to collect and present information about those brave men who helped to save Europe.

 

For more information about us please visit our website: www.194thgir.com

Videos from military events can be found on: www.youtube.com/theglidergang

Pictures and contact with us is possible through www.facebook.com We are there as The Glider Gang

 

Pictures here are by Viktor Plas, Jan Sulc and Adam Marsal.

 

We will welcome any help with our work.

 

God bless soldiers fighting for the democracy.

post-10064-1286920502.jpg

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Last picture for today:-)

If you are interested more pictures could be post.

We are really loking forward your comments.

 

Greetings from Prague

post-10064-1286921782.jpg

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Great group you have!

 

My father-in-law was in the 194th, 17th AB, during WWII. I believe he was in D Company, but not sure.

 

My father was in CCB of the 9th Armored Division and ended the war near the German/Czech border. His Company pulled border duty on the German side, while the Russians pulled it on the Czech side.

 

Thanks for the info and the pics.

 

Charles

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Only for explication: Vojta isn´t 17th AB! He has military club 101st Airborne Division - Association West from Pilsen

 

This foto (covered patch is the 101st AB):

 

 

DSCN0494.jpg

 

Sry!

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Excellent Job! It is impressive to me how much effort your group has put in to recreating a "foreign" unit. They look better than some of the stateside reenacting groups that I have seen. :thumbsup:

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Great group you have!

 

My father-in-law was in the 194th, 17th AB, during WWII. I believe he was in D Company, but not sure.

 

My father was in CCB of the 9th Armored Division and ended the war near the German/Czech border. His Company pulled border duty on the German side, while the Russians pulled it on the Czech side.

 

Thanks for the info and the pics.

 

Charles

 

 

Hi Charles,

thank you.

 

Can you send me more information about your father-in-law? We are interested in every member of 17th A/B.

 

Thank you,

Pavel

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Excellent Job! It is impressive to me how much effort your group has put in to recreating a "foreign" unit. They look better than some of the stateside reenacting groups that I have seen. :thumbsup:

 

Erick,

thank you for your comment. 17th AB is not "foreign" unit for us because a lot of members had their family roots here in Czechoslovakia.

 

Pavel

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