The article describes the issue of recruiting former POWs from the Wehrmacht for the Czechoslovak army-in-exile fighting alongside the British Army during the Second World War. The article offers a basic comparison with the Polish army where the situation was almost the same: During the last two years of the war, former POWs became the most numerous recruitment source for both armies. At the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, they formed up to one-third of their entire manpower. Despite this, their importance, value, and numbers have been constantly marginalised for long decades after the war. The phenomenon did not fit into the generally perceived image of the national resistance.