The return of legions

The members of Italian and French legions returned to their homeland already in December 1918 or in January of the following year.

For political as well as technical reasons, the last to come back were the members of Russian legions, who stayed in the Far East until almost two years after the end of World War I. The first transports of invalids and ill legionaries took place in January 1919, through the United States.

The evacuation as such was launched on the 9th December 1919 after the first Czechoslovak Shooting Regiment of Mister Jan Hus had sailed away and successfully crossed Czechoslovak borders on February 1st. On their arrival in Prague, the soldiers led by lieutenant colonel Karel Kutlvašr were welcomed in the Old Town Square by Dr. Edvard Beneš, the Minister of National Defense Václav Klofáč and by the Head of General Staff, French General Maurice Pellé. A triumphant march through Prague followed.

The last transport left Vladivostok on September 2nd, 1920. Some of the soldiers made a journey ‘around the world’, across Canada or the United States, and disembarked in German or French harbors. Others chose the so called southern way through Japan, China, India, and the Suez Canal to Europe and then from Italian harbors by train transports to their homeland.