Abstract
The present biographical study explores the war-time experience of Pravoslav Kubišta (1913-2000). Between 1942 and 1945, Kubišta served as a member Czechoslovak Foreign Army in the ranks of British 9-th Survey Regiment of Royal Artilery.
In the morning hours of 7-th July, 1944 he became the first Czechoslovak ground forces soldier to land on the beaches of Normandy. The article includes an edition of five letters written by Kubišta between late May and early November 1944 to his friend Antonin Pokorný, a Czechoslovak Independend Armoured Brigade Group officer.
The letters describe Kubišta's combat experiences from Normandy and the Western front. Following Communist coup of February 1948, Major Kubišta become a victim of the persecution of Western soldiers and for the rest of his life worked in manual professions.
He was rehabilitated after November1989, nonetheless his life story still remains unjustly half-forgotten.