We Served our Country :The Prague Spring and the Normalization at the 28th Fighter Bomber Wing in the Recollections of Witnesses
Abstract
The aim of this article is to analyse the course and the consequences of the Prague Spring at the 28th Fighter Bomber Wing in Čáslav based on oral recollections of the direct participants of the events and their comparison with accessible contemporary sources. The research is utilizes the method of oral history, focussing on the testimonies of six members of the Wing, who were dismissed from the Army during the normalization purges between 1968 and 1974.
The article is concerned with the important events of Prague Spring and with the reflection of these events by the formal members of the 28th Fighter Bomber Wing. The main part of the paper focusses on a detailed description of the events taking place at Čáslav airport during the entry of the Warsaw Pact Troops on the territory of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republik.
The conculusion is devoted to the methods of the normalization purges in the Army and their impact on the witnesses' lives.