From massacres and unnecessary loss of life in the last days of the Second World War, a part of the Příbram region was probably saved by a man after whom a battle tank - Abrams - is named.
In those moments Colonel Creighton Williams Abrams played an important role, for which he has only now, many years after the war, earned recognition and a memorial plaque in Kamýk nad Vltavou (is it sad that it is not bilingual?! JŠ).
For liberating our country, Abrams was awarded the Czechoslovak War Cross after the war by President Edvard Beneš. However, these facts soon fell into oblivion for many decades.
"One of the most difficult situations at the end of the war"
"These dramatic events brought Colonel Abrams to Kamýk nad Vltavou, where he dealt with one of the most complex situations at the end of the war in the future Soviet zone: the surrender of a group of many thousands of the enemy from the SS-Truppenübungsplatz Böhmen training area in the Benesov and Sedlčany regions," the historian explained.
The presence of Abrams, who was promoted to the rank of general after the war, became Chief of Staff of the US Army and had an M1 Abrams tank named after him, is evidenced by an entry in the school chronicle dated 9 May 1945 and period photographs.
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