Hi from Australia! I’ve been listening to the Family Stories episodes of the We Have Ways of Making You Talk podcast and it’s renewed my interest in seeing if I can find out any information about my grandfather Franz Kopecky’s time working as an interpreter at the end of the war with the Sherwood Foresters in Austria in 1945. Because he was a civilian he’s not in army records. However I know from my mum that a soldier got into trouble for sending a letter that grandpa wrote to his English wife’s (aka Grandma) family in London via the army post. When he found out where they were, Grandpa collected Grandma, my mum & uncles and the whole family moved thru Austria with the Sherwood Foresters. So I’m hoping there might be a mention of him/them in diaries or whatnot. I would appreciate some direction on where best to look for information. Thanks, Carmel
Hi Carmel I am writing a history of the 5th Battalion Sherwood Foresters who were the only battalion of the regiment in Austria in 1945 (my father served with them). I have all the diaries, but cannot recall a Kopecky immediately. Do you have any more information about your grandfather, e.g. which town or village did he live in, it is possible that I may be able to pin things down a bit further with more information. Michael Somerville
Hi Michael, Franz was from Vienna. My mum knows that she spent most of her time in Halbenrain with the army and she went to school in Bad Radkersburg by bus that would go around collecting kids for school. They went back to Vienna from Halbenrain. Hope that helps. Is there anywhere for me to access the diaries online myself? Thanks, Carmel
Bad Radkersburg was one of the main border posts with Jugoslavia and garrisoned by B Company 5th SF. I visited the area back in 2017. Unfortunately none of the WW2 war diaries are on line. I have had to spend many hours in our national archive at Kew taking photographs. I've attached a transcript of the daily war diary during their time in Austria. There is no specific mention of translators in this. I have seen such in the diaries during the battalion's time in Greece, but only because they had been taken hostage by communist forces! There are various generic references in some of the detailed orders about translators accompanying troops - for example during the November 1945 elections. If you are interested I could send you a draft of my chapter on the period which may give you a flavour of the post-war situation in this region of Austria. Hope this helps a little. I can try and have a further look through some of the detail in the WD, but not sure when I will be able to do this. Regards Michael Somerville
