„I was a shooter at the armoured train Žižka. There three barrel flack were fired by left and right hand at a firing rod. I was hit just fighting in Michle in my right hand, which shot off all my fingers. Of course I could not know at the time, as the pain was terrible bad. And in all that pain they took me from Michle to Vršovice station, where there was a staff of armored trains. From the Vršovice loading station I was transported on stretcher all the way to Vinohrady hospital, where actually an expert senior concultant doctor operated on my and four and half fingers and half of my palm.“
„German soldiers had so called thee barrel anti-aircraft, but those were in boxes. We found out in the ETA factory, we took the boxes, dismounted them and mounted them back together again, some of them are shown here. Those are the guns that allow us to aim at aircrafts, first make a salvo from one barrel, because each fourth charge was lighting, so it was possible to see it from the earth where it´s going and if it´s heading towards the aircrafts.“
„The train platform was deployed with reinforced concrete rings that are normally used on a water pipe with a large diameter. Into these concrete rings are placed three-barrel flacks, or artillery and other guns, and there was at least a minimum protection of those who stood by those weapons to be covered. Then wooden barriers were added so that the crew was still somehow protected.“
Karel Sedláček was born in 1927 in a Prague worker´s quarter of Michle. His father worked for rail transport. His mother took care of the household. He spent his school years in Michle, where he attended elementary school, and later in Vršovice to the second grade of elementary school. After finishing school attendance he started apprentice field of electromechanics at a company Reostat in Vršovice and also attended so called continuing school. In May 1945 he participated in the Prague Upraise as a shooter in an armoured train called Jan Žižka. He was heavily wounded on his right hand by a German shiper. After war he studied the Secondary Engineering School of Electronics in Prague, Na Příkopě and the High School of Economics in Prague. Following the studies he started at the Czech Planning Commission and then worked at the ministry of fuels and energetics, also as a spokesperson and later in a State Planning Commission. He was the founding member and the first head of the Freedom Fighters Association in Prague 10 - Hostivař. Currently he lives in Home care for war veterans in the Central Military Hospital in Prague-Strešovice. Is was awarded the Czech War Cross 1939 and a number of other medals and a number of other medals from top representatives of the Czech Republic.
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