Houses were set ablaze in Klenčí pod Čerchovem before the American army arrived. On April 30, several incendiary bombs were dropped from US Air Force planes. On the right side of Klenčí, opposite the church, several buildings were set on fire. The attack was not without reason—a convoy of soldiers fighting for the Germans was passing through this town in the Sudetenland, and shots had been fired from it at American low-flying pilots passing the town. They were rumored to be fighting under the turncoat General Vlasov. The surrounding area was heavily shelled by artillery as well.
The first to arrive in Klenčí was Colonel Matt Konop, whom General Walter M. Robertson, the 2nd Infantry Division’s commanding officer, had appointed as the commander of the 2nd Infantry Division’s vanguard due to his Czech roots and fluency in the Czech language. Col. Konop set up the American army’s local military headquarters at the Klenčí post office.
A memorial plaque on the building of the new town hall in Klenčí pod Čerchovem bears the inscription: “Na věčnou památku americké armádě, které vděčíme za své osvobození 1. května 1945. In memory of the United States Army to which we owe deep gratitude for our liberation on May 1, 1945.”
Železná Ruda, Rozvadov, Špičák – 2nd CRS
Díly — 3rd Div
Klenčí, Chodov Trhanov, Postřekov, Pec, Tlumačov u Domažlic – 90th 1st Div.
The Paths of Liberation—The Pilsen Region