In the village of Polomka in Horehron, a memorial service was held on Tuesday for members of the American and British Special Forces who perished during the Slovak National Uprising (SNP). The fallen soldiers were honored by representatives of the Ministry of Defense (MoD) of the Slovak Republic and the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic together with the ambassadors of the USA and the United Kingdom.
"When remembering the heroic actions of the SNP, we cannot forget the determined help from abroad. Today we pay our respects to the soldiers of the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who gave their lives in the fight against fascism far beyond the borders of their homeland," said the State Secretary of the Defense Ministry Marian Majer.
The US Ambassador to the Slovak Republic Gautam A. Rana and the United Kingdom Ambassador Nigel Baker and representatives of the diplomatic corps also paid their respects to the fallen soldiers in Polomka. The victims of the American and British Special Forces are commemorated by a plaque in the village.
Allied military missions were sent to the insurgent territory during the SNP, in addition to the Soviet military mission, members of the American Office of Strategic Services and the British Office of Special Operations also worked here. Both missions were landed in September 1944 at Tri Duby airfield.
"Subsequently, they performed their tasks with the intelligence agencies of the 1st Czechoslovak Army in Slovakia until December 26, 1944, when they were arrested near the village of Polomka by members of the German anti-partisan group Abwehrgruppe. They were interrogated in the Mauthausen concentration camp and executed on January 24, 1945," the defense ministry elaborated.
Source: TASR
