Good leader when sure of his ground and obeys orders to the last detail. He is surprisingly good at signalling.
Also appears to have technical knowledge, perhaps of use (worked in poison gas factory).
Physical training: very good
Fieldcraft: good
Close combat: very good
Weapon training: good
Explosives: good 86%
Communication: very good 12 words/min in Morse code
Reports: very good
Map reading and sketching: fair 68%
Driving:
bike yes
motorbike no
car yes
JAN KUBIS:
A good reliable soldier, quiet, comes in for a certain amount of good-natured teasing.
Physical training: very good
Fieldcraft: good
Close combat: very good
Weapon training: good
Explosives: good (90%, slow in practice and instructions)
Communication: good
Reports: good
Map reading and sketching: very good (95%)
Driving: bike motorbike car
You can’t imagine my joy at discovering this document at the army museum in Prague. Natacha is the only one who could describe it to you, as she saw me feverishly copy down these precious notes.
These reports allow us to sketch the contrasts in style and personality between the two friends: Gabčík, the small one, is a fiery ball of energy, while Kubiš, the tall one, is more thoughtful and easygoing. All the witness accounts I’ve found support this view. What it meant in concrete terms is that they were allocated different tasks: Gabčík got the machine gun, and Kubiš the explosives.
Other than that, what I know of Gabčík leads me to believe that the officer who wrote the report scandalously underestimated his intellectual capacities. And my feeling is corroborated by Gabčík’s boss, Colonel Moravec, who writes in his memoirs:
During the training, he showed himself to be talented, clever and cheerful, even in the most difficult situations. He was open, warm-hearted, enterprising and resourceful. A natural born leader. He overcame all the difficulties of training without ever complaining and with excellent results.
About Kubiš, on the other hand, Moravec confirms that he was
slow in his movements, but with great stamina and perserverance. His instructors noted his intelligence and imagination. He was very disciplined, discreet and reliable. He was also very calm, reserved and serious—the complete opposite of Gabčík’s merry, outgoing personality.
This book,
“If you’re lucky enough to escape death during the assassination attempt, you will have two options: try to survive inside the country, or attempt to cross the border and make your way back to the base in London. Both possibilities are extremely risky, considering the likely reaction of the Germans. But to be perfectly honest, the most probable outcome is that you will be killed on the spot.”
Moravec summons the two men separately, in order to give them the same speech. Neither shows any emotion.
For Gabčík, the mission is a war operation, and the risk of being killed goes with the job.
Kubiš thanks the colonel for having chosen him for such an important mission.
Both men say they would rather die than fall into the hands of the Gestapo.
You are Czech or Slovak. You do not like it when they tell you what to do, nor when they hurt people—that’s why you decide to leave your country and join up elsewhere with your compatriots who are resisting the invader. You go north or south, through Poland or the Balkans, and—after numerous complications—you reach France by sea.
When you get there, things become even more complicated. The French make you join the Foreign Legion and send you to Algeria or Tunisia. But you do finally end up with a Czechoslovak division formed in a town full of Spanish refugees, and you fight alongside the French when they in turn are attacked by the Nazis. You fight courageously and take part in all the retreats and defeats. You cover the never-ending retreat while planes roar through the skies. You suffer through this long agony, which the French call La Débacle, and for you it is both the first defeat and the last. In the conquered south of France everything is in chaos, but you manage to take off again and this time you land in England. In recognition of your courage in heroically resisting the invader and redeeming March 1939, President Beneš decorates you in the middle of a field. You are exhausted, and your uniform is crumpled, but you are standing next to your friend when Beneš pins a medal to your coat. And then it’s Churchill himself, leaning on his walking stick, who inspects you and your comrades. You have fought the invader and in doing so saved your country’s honor. But you are eager for more.