Village honours link with wartime heroes
Links between two patriots who assassinated a top Nazi during the war, and a family from a Shropshire village, are being marked with the unveiling of a commemorative stone on July 23.
Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik are heroes in their homelands of the Czech Republic and Slovakia for their exploit in which they ambushed the hated Nazi ruler of the then Czechoslovakia, Reinhard Heydrich, in Prague, in 1942.
Their top secret mission has been the subject of books, movies, and movies.
John Martin, who has written a book telling their story, has campaigned for years for some sort of memorial in their honour in the village of Ightfield, with which the pair had a special connection, and to raise the money needed.
They and compatriots who had escaped German-occupied Czechoslovakia were based for a time in the grounds of Cholmondeley Castle, and it was while there that the pair became friendly with the Ellison family in nearby Ightfield.
And now John's campaign has reached fruition.
"This historic friendship will be permanently immortalised in stone," he said.
"A memorial stone will be unveiled which will cover the Ellison family grave, in St John The Baptist Church in Ightfield. The stone has the full support of the Ellison family and also the families of the Gabcik and Kubis.
"It will be unveiled on Sunday, July 23, at 2pm, with two ambassadors in attendance and also members of the Ellison family."
The wording on the stone will be "This stone has been placed in recognition of the friendship and support given by the Ellison family to the Czechoslovak soldiers Jozef (Josef) Gabcik and Jan Kubis in 1940-41. The soldiers gave their lives to freedom in the aftermath of Operation Anthropoid in Prague, 1942. 'Remember please, your Czechoslovak friends who will never forget the nice time spent with you,' Jan Kubis wrote in a final note to the Ellison family of Sunnyside Cottage, lghtfield in 1941."
John said: "The stone is made of York Stone and is 2ft x 2ft square, and will be placed on the grave from the small step at the headstone, sloping downwards, so it doesn't fully cover the grave but is significant on it.
"The plan is to have it covered with Czech, Slovak and UK flags and it will be unveiled after a church service by removing the flags. The flags will be removed by Slovak Ambassador His Excellency Lubomir Rehak, the Czech Defence Attache Colonel Jiri Svatos, and on behalf of the Ellison family and the fundraising people, I will remove the UK flag.
"Owen Paterson MP has said he will attend and various local government dignitaries have been invited. Nearly 30 members of the Ellison family will also attend, including the children of Edna and Lorna who are named on the stone and who were also named in the last will and testaments of the soldiers. A number of authors who have written about the Czechoslovak soldiers will also attend.
"It is a public event so everyone is more than welcome to attend.
"My Facebook group, The Mirror Caught The Sun, has worked so hard over a number of years to have this historic link set in stone in Ightfield. We have even had badges made which we sell to raise some of the cost."
Kubis and Gabcik were stationed in the grounds of Cholmondeley Castle in 1940 and a friendship developed between them and Shropshire sisters Lorna Ellison, who was 15, and 17-year-old Edna, with the soldiers so far from their homeland staying with the family at Ightfield while on leave or at weekends.
They remained in touch after they left the area and began specialist training for the top secret mission for which they had been hand-picked, sending cards and occasionally meeting up.
The pair were parachuted into Czechoslovakia in December 1941 and the climax came in Prague in May 1942 when they ambushed Heydrich's open-topped car. Heydrich was injured but survived, and at first it seemed the mission had failed, but days later his condition deteriorated and he died.
The Nazi retribution was terrible. In the village of Lezaky, all men and women were killed. In the village of Lidice, all the men were murdered and the village was razed to the ground. Some estimates say that around 5,000 in all died in reprisals.
A huge reward was offered for information about the attack team. They were betrayed for the money and, holed up in a Prague church, the seven of them held off SS troops, but all died, either in the firefight or through committing suicide. Kubis had been mortally wounded and died in hospital without regaining consciousness and Gabcik was one of the last four who staged a desperate last stand in the crypt, during which they made an attempt to tunnel to safety. They shot themselves when their ammunition was nearly exhausted.
Edna Ruscoe, as she became, died in 1992, and Lorna Coombs in 2008.
