Today at the Thank you, America! monument we said goodbye to wonderful person, WWII veteran, liberator, hero, friend and humble man, George Thompson, 16th Armored Division.

Lest we forgot his memory!

For the book 500 Hours to Win in 2011, George stated:

I volunreered for Army service when I was 19 years old in May of 1943 After a very long time of training and going to schools at the Armored School in Ft. Knox Ky. I was sent to my new Divison, the Sixteenth Armored. After more training on repairing tanks, trucks, Half tracks and Jeeps we were finally orsdered to ship out to France. After a very rough ride across the North Atlantic in February 1945 and were attacked by German submarines we made it to Le Harve France in 12 days. Even tho we rreached the Le Harve harbor safley, we could not reach the dock to unload. The harbor was filled with sunken ships making it impossible to reach the docks untill high tide.

After a few days in Le Harve preparing our vehicles for the road and rail we moved inland to Forges Les Eaux. My company stayed in a large old Chateau. Some of the other men and I stayed out backl in the barn loft. We stayed there repairing the  divisions vehicles. While there  a request (order) came down from Gen. Patton that he wanted a more powerful Jeep. Some of our Tech trucks had auxiliary Ford 100 Horse power V8 engines in them. We  installed one of those in a Jeep and sent it back to him. I understand that today, that Jeep is in the Patton musuem in Ft. Knox Ky.

On about the 15th of April we started to  move up through France and Germany. We did so after being straffed and under artillery fire which struck a friend who was standing next to me, nearly severing his leg. We reached the place in which we would jump off into Czechoslovakia at Furth Germany. In our advance our Company was ordered to take the city of Nyrany near Plzen. We captured  many Germans and sent them on to  holding areas where they could be prossed and sent  home..While marching the prisoners down the street, The Czechs would beat them with what ever they could find. Our medics treated many more Germans for wounds than our own men. Although I understood the Czech’s anger, I tried to  prevent the beatings as best as I could.

After spending the night in Nyrany, we went directly to the Plzen Airport. On the Airport there were parked hundreds of captured German vehicles. All of them had been dissabled by pulling the wires from under the insterment panel. As a mechanic, my job was to go down the line and start as many as possable. After we got them running, we turned them over to the City of Plzen for their use. We spent V E Day (Liberation Day) on the Plzen airport with a bottle of German champagne that I had liberated back in Germany.

After VE Day, we were sent to Leskov and later to Marianbad then back to Regensburg Germany. We were not in Czechoslovakia very long after the war’s end. I was sent  home in May of 1946. I later married a Girl with the last name of Havel, Her and the war are my links to the Czech”s. I first returned again to the Czech Republic in 1991 and have been back many times since. I know of no other country whose people appreciate their Freedom more than the Czech’s.

Remember, Freedom is not Free but for the Brave.

During the commemorative ceremony, the flag of the 16th Armored Division, donated by George Thompson, flew at the monument.

Photo: plzen.eu – Martin Pecuch