On May 5, 1945, gunfire erupted through these streets. Czech resistance fighters stormed the radio station on Vinohradská Street and broadcast a desperate call: "Calling all Czechs! Come quickly to our aid!" Over 30,000 people answered. Civilians worked through the night building barricades. By morning, 1,600 blocked the streets. By the end of the uprising, 2,049. People tore down German signs, replaced Nazi flags with Czech ones, and seized weapons wherever they could. The German SS fought back hard. Bombers attacked on May 7. The Old Town Hall, centuries old, was nearly destroyed. The Astronomical Clock was damaged. German troops pushed through barricades using civilians as human shields. Here's where it gets strange. A division of the Russian Liberation Army showed up. These were Soviet prisoners of war who had been fighting for Germany. They switched sides mid battle and helped the Czech fighters with tanks and heavy weapons the resistance desperately needed. The fighting lasted 5 days. Nearly 3,000 Czechs died. Germany surrendered on May 7, but German forces in these streets kept fighting anyway. Soviet troops finally arrived on May 9.
Sources. Story: https://english.radio.cz/may-1945-prague-uprising-8642345, https://www.nm.cz/en/visit-us/buildings/national-memorial-on-vitkov, https://prague.eu/en/objevujte/old-town-hall-with-astronomical-clock-staromestska-radnice-s-orlojem/ Photos: https://www.esbirky.cz/predmet/150692, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
