Język Polski
English
Charles Katek, a Friend Devoted to Our Cause. A Case of American-Czechoslovak Intelligence Cooperation, 1943–1945 (1948)
Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989, No. 22 (2024), pages: 305-347
Publication date: 2025-02-04
https://doi.org/10.48261/arprl242210
PDF (Język Polski)
Abstract
The key official of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) responsible for communication with the representatives of Czechoslovak government-in-exile was Dr. Charles Katek (1910–1971), an intelligence officer whom the OSS director Brigadier William J. Donovan approved first as liaison officer and subsequently a head of the Czechoslovak section of the Secret Intelligence Branch of the London OSS station.
After being assigned to the OSS Detachment, European Theatre of Operations in early November 1943, Katek began a series of regular conferences with a representatives of the 2th (intelligence) Department of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Defence and started communicating with the officials from individual ministries of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile.
At the turn of August and September 1944, Katek participated with the Central European Section of the Secret Intelligence Branch OSS/MEDTO in Italy in preparation of the plans for the deployment of operational teams to Slovakia, which were transported to the insurgent territory on 17 September and 7 October 1944. In addition to further assistance to Czechoslovak resistance, Katek – with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) – actively supported the redirection of the 859th Squadron of the 492nd US Bombardment Group to carry out special operations over the territory Bohemia and Moravia, as well the transport of weapons and other material for the resistance movement.
In mid-April 1945 Maj. Gen. Donovan appointed Katek as the head of the small Czech Special Forces Detachment which accompanied the Third US Army into the Czechoslovak territories. On 7 May 1945 Katek arrived to the liberated Pilsen, from where he continued with several colleagues to Beroun, and in the afternoon of 10 May 1945 they arrived to Prague.
Under Katek‘s leadership, the Prague Mission became the productive part of the OSS Mission for Germany, and subsequently of the Strategic Services Unit/Germany (October 1945), the Central Intelligence Group (after January 1946) and finally the Central Intelligence Agency (after September 1947).
The Soviet intelligence apparatus, working through the Czechoslovak security forces, played an intelligence game with the US intelligence Field Station in Prague which culminated shortly after the communist coup in February 1948. Katek was forced to leave Czechoslovakia for American Occupation Zone in Germany.
Until the end of his professional carrier he served in the CIA in charge of organizing intelligence activities concerning Czechoslovakia and other communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. On November 19, 1971, Katek died of a heart attack at his home in Potomac, a suburb of Washington, D.C.
Keywords
Biuro Służb Strategicznych • Office of Strategic Services (OSS) • londyńska placówka OSS • Secret Intelligence Branch • operacje specjalne • Wydział Kontynentalny • Sekcja Czechosłowacka • Oddział Czeski Sił Specjalnych • Centralna Agencja Wywiadowcza (CIA) Office of Strategic Services • London OSS station • Secret Intelligence Branch • Special Operations • Continental Division • Czechoslovak Section • Czech Special Forces Detachment • Central Intelligence Agency
References
National Archives at College Park, MD (NARA).
Security Services Archive (SSA Prague).
Military Central Archive – Military Historical Archive (MHA Prague).
Alvarez, David J., and Mark, Eduard Maximilian. Spying Through a Glass Darkly. American Espionage against the Soviet Union, 1945–1946. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2016.
Andrew, Christopher. For the President’s Eyes Only. Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995.
Bartoš, Antonin, Kunc, Radimir. Clay Eva volá Londýn: hlášení z let 1939–1945. Praha: Melantrich, 1992.
Casey, William J. The Secret War Against Hitler. Washington D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1988.
Downs, Jim. Druhá svetová vojna: Tragédia OSS na Slovensku. Bratislava: Magnet-Press, 2004.
Hanzlík, František, Pospíšil, Jan, Pospíšil, Jaroslav. Sluha dvou pánů. Vizovice: Lípa, 1999.
Hymoff, Edward. The OSS in World War II. New York: Ballantine Books, 1986.
Jelínek, Zdeněk.“Západní paraskupiny a spolupráce s domácím odbojem v letech 1941–1945.” Odboj a revoluce 1 (VIII) (1970).
Kitchen, Martin. British Policy towards the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan, 1986.
Kokoška, Stanislav. “Americké dodávky zbraní Slovenskému národnímu povstání.” In SNP v pamäti národa. Materiály z vedeckej konferencie k 50. výročiu SNP Donovaly 26.–28. aprila 1994. Ed. J. Lipták. Bratislava: NVK International, 1994.
Ličko, Miroslav Ján. USA v Banskej Bystrici 1944. Bratislava, Banská Bystrica: NVK International, Múzeum SNP, 1994.
Lorenc, Jan J. “Osvobození Prahy 1945, II.” Dnešek 46 (1948).
Lukes, Igor. On the Edge of the Cold War. American Diplomats and Spies in Postwar Prague. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Lukeš, Igor.“Selhání tajných služeb: Československo 1945–1948.” Securitas Imperii 1 (15) (2009). MacDonald, Charles Brown. The Last Offensive. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Military History, United States Army, 1973.
MacPherson, Nelson. American Intelligence in War-time London. The Story of the OSS. London – Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass Publishers, 2003.
Marek, Jindřich. “Čs. výsadková a zásobovací báze v jižní Itálii: (únor-květen 1945).” Historie a vojenství 1 (62) (2013).
Minot, Rodney G. The Fortress That Never Was. The Myth of Hitler’s Bavarian Stronghold. New York, Chicago, San Francisco: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964.
Mitrovich, Gregory. Undermining the Kremlin. America’s Strategy to Subvert the Soviet Bloc, 1947–1956. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000.
Nedbal, Lubor. Operace KARAS. Zpravodajec mjr. Jaroslav Krátký ve službách Československa za druhé světové války. Praha: Academia, 2019.
O’Connor, Bernard. Churchill and Stalin’s Secret Agents. Operation Pickage at RAF Tempsford. Stroud: Fonthill, 2012.
O’Sullivan, Donal. Dealing with the Devil. Anglo-Soviet Intelligence Cooperation During the Second World War. New York: Peter Lang, 2010.
Ogden, Alan. Through Hitler’s Back Door. SOE operations in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria 1939–1945. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Aviation, 2010.
OSS against the Reich. The World War II Diaries of Colonel David K.E. Bruce. Ed. Nelson Douglas Lankford. Kent Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1991.
Pacner, Karel. Českoslovenští vyzvědači 1945–1968. Praha: Kniha Zlin, 2020. Persico, Joseph E. Casey. From the OSS to the CIA. New York: Viking, 1990.
Persico, Joseph E. Piercing the Reich, The Penetration of Nazi Germany by American Secret Agents during World War II. New York: Viking Press, 1979.
Piffer, Tommaso.“Office of Strategic Services versus Special Operations Executive: Competition for the Italian Resistance, 1943–1945.” Journal of Cold War Studies 17, 4 (2015). DOI: 10.1162/ JCWS_a_00596.
Posch, Martin. Spojenectvo z núdze. Spolupráca SOE a československej spravodajskej služby počas 2. svetovej vojny. Bratislava: VEDA; Historický ústav Slovenskej akadémie vied, 2021.
Ranelagh, John. The Agency. The Rise and Decline of the CIA. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.
Reichl, Martin. Cesty osudu. Životní příběhy československých parašutistů vycvičených v letech 1941–45 ve Velké Británii. Cheb: Svět křídel, 2004.
Sládek, Oldřich. Zločinná role gestapa. Nacistická bezpečnostní policie v českých zemích 1938–1945. Praha: Naše vojsko, 1986.
SOE in Czechoslovakia. The Special Operations Executive’s Czech Section in WW2. An Official History. Barnsley: Frontline Books, 2022.
Smist, Frank John. Congress oversees the United States Intelligence Community 1947–1989. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1990.
Smith, Bradley F. The Shadow Warriors. O.S.S. and the Origins of the C.I.A. New York: Basic Books, 1983.
Šindelářová, Lenka. Einsatzgruppe H. Působení operační skupiny H na Slovensku 1944/1945 a poválečné trestní stíhání jejích příslušníků. Praha, Banská Bystrica: Academia, Múzeum Slovenského národného povstania, 2015.
Šolc, Jiří. Bylo málo mužů. Českoslovenští parašutisté na západní frontě za druhé světové války. Praha: Merkur, 1991.
Šolc, Jiří. “Zbraně nebudou! K dodávkám zbraní do českých zemí na jaře roku 1945.” Historie a vojenství 40 (3) (1991).
Troy, Thomas F. Donovan and the CIA. A History of the Establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency. Frederick, MD: Aletheia Books, 1981.
Walker, Jonathan. Poland Alone: Britain, SOE and the Collapse of the Polish Resistance, 1944. Stroud: Spellmount, 2010.
Warner, Michael. “Salvage and Liquidation: The Creation of the Central Intelligence Group,” Studies in Intelligence 5 (39) (1996).
Weiner, Tim. Legacy of Ashes. The History of the CIA. New York: Doubleday, 2007.
Zápisy ze schůzí československé vlády v Londýně 1945 (V.). Ed. Jan Němeček, Ivan Šťovíček, Helena Nováčková, Jan Kuklík, Jan Bílek. Praha: Právnická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy: Historický ústav Akademie věd ČR, v.v.i.: Masarykův ústav a Archiv Akademie věd ČR, v.v.i., 2016.
Žáček, Pavel. “Charles Katek, oddaný přítel naší věci. Nástin americko-československé zpravodajské spolupráce v letech 1943–1945.” Historie a vojenství 3 (72) (2023).
Žáček, Pavel. “Charles Katek z amerického pohledu. Tichý Američan v Praze?” In Strážci svobody: Příběhy osobností z let 1945–1948. Sborník. Ed. P. Borčevský. Praha: U.S. Ambassador’s Youth Council, 2022.
Žáček, Pavel. “Cílový prostor: Slovensko. Příprava a vysazení operačních týmů OSS/MEDTO v září a říjnu 1944.” Paměť národa 2 (2024).
Žáček, Pavel. “Contest for Prague: Czechoslovakia and the Intelligence Efforts of the Allies in 1945.” Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies 2 (2020).
Žáček, Pavel. “Jaromír Nechanský a pražské povstání I., II.” Historie a vojenství 2 (2005). 3 (2005).
Žáček, Pavel. “‘Když je Bůh s námi, kdo proti nám?’ Americké přípravy na válečný konflikt. Zpráva Blahoslava Hrubého o rozmisťování vysílaček v Československu v letech 1948–1949.” Securitas Imperii 42–43 (2023).
Žáček, Pavel.“Odluky osob v padesátých letech (únosy v režii československé Státní bezpečnosti).” In Za svobodu a demokracii III. Třetí (protikomunistický) odboj. Ed. Lukáš Babka, Václav Veber. Hradec Králové: Evropské hnutí v České republice, Univerzita Hradec Králové, Ústav filosofie a společenských věd v nakl. M&V, 2002.
Žáček, Pavel. “Projekt ‘Jonquil’ a Mělník. Snahy OSS o vytvoření operační základny v protektorátu, 1944.” Confluens. Vlastivědný sborník Mělnicka 10 (2017).
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Aparat Represji w Polsce Ludowej 1944-1989
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
