Freedom in the air : a Czech flyer and his aircrew dog

343 Pages·2015·3.2 MB·English

by  Bozděch

From:
Phoenix Typesetting,
14 Auld Brig View,
Auldgirth, Dumfriesshire

FREEDOM IN THE AIR

P D F

For
Pen & Sword

Date: 01:02:2007

First published in Great Britain in 2007 by
Pen & Sword Aviation
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
Copyright © Hamish Ross, 2007
9781781594544

The right of Hamish Ross to be identified as Author of this
Work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.

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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Part I
CHAPTER ONE - Master Aircrew
CHAPTER TWO - Young Democracy
CHAPTER THREE - Another Flag
PART II
CHAPTER FOUR - Rebirth of an Air Force
CHAPTER FIVE - Night Bombing
CHAPTER SIX - Training School
CHAPTER SEVEN - Bridge of Sand
PART III
CHAPTER EIGHT - Laurels and Ashes
CHAPTER NINE - Path into Exile
CHAPTER TEN - Antis DM
CHAPTER ELEVEN - The Road Not Taken
PART IV
CHAPTER TWELVE - A Memoir
CHAPTER THIRTEEN - Gentleman of the Dusk
CHAPTER FOURTEEN - Distant Landfall
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Foreword
During WWII more than three and a half thousand
Czechoslovak airmen served with the RAF. More than five
hundred were killed. Each of them could make an excellent
subject for a novel.
The life of Václav Robert Bozděch, that Hamish Ross depicts
in his book, is in many ways similar to that of most of his
comrades.
After the Munich Agreement escape to Poland and then to
France, after her fall another escape, to Britain, to a camp in
Cholmondeley. Here, in the grounds of Cholmondeley Park on
7th July 1940 the Czechoslovak Forces in Britain were formed.
Not only in Cholmondeley but also in many other parts of
Cheshire local people still remember the cheerful and brave
‘boys’.
“The memory of those Czech and Slovak soldiers and airmen
has lived with us all the time. Although the number of the
contemporaries is now rapidly declining, the heart-felt attitude
towards the memory and their country has survived and the
feeling is being shared by the second and even the third
generation,” says Robert Robertson, a member of the Parish
Council. “People of Cholmondeley were doing for us all they
could. Nobody could complain about us either. We would also
do for them all we could,” adds František Kaplan from the
Association of Czechoslovak Legionaries, Cholmondeley
Branch.
Czechoslovak airmen as well as soldiers of the Czechoslovak
Army fighting in France, who managed to leave after her fall,
were stationed at Cholmondeley. All together there were 3,500
of them. They formed the core of future Czechoslovak
of them. They formed the core of future Czechoslovak
squadrons serving in the RAF as well as the Czechoslovak
Brigade.
During the following war years 3,563 Czechs and Slovaks
served with 4 Czechoslovak squadrons, which were an integral
part of the RAF and other mixed ones as well. A further 5,623
soldiers served in the Czechoslovak Brigade.
Czechoslovak airmen represented, after the Commonwealth
nations, the second largest national contribution (after the
Poles) to the Allied Forces during the Battle of Britain. There
were 88 Czechoslovak pilots who took part in the Battle and 8
of them lost their lives.
Only a few people realise that the Ace of Aces of the Battle of
Britain was a Czech pilot. His name was Sgt Josef František.
During a short period of only six weeks he managed to shoot
down 17 enemy aircraft.
To some extent the words written in the pamphlet ‘There’s
Freedom in the Air’ published during the war apply also to
Václav Bozděch.
“In peace we talk of war; in the middle of war we begin to
talk of peace. The plans for peace are often grandiose, vague
and illusory. But in the presence of thousands of young foreign
airmen in Great Britain we have a fact from which a new
international understanding, idealistic yet free from
antipathetic ideologies, might grow to benefit the world. These
men have lived in Britain and, while fighting for their own
countries, have fought for Britain and the ideals, which will live
while Britain lives.
We on our side must never forget this. ( . . . ) They, too, on
their side, will never forget. Living in Britain, these men have
seen our life. They have been into British homes, have become
familiar with British customs. They have married British girls.
Already some of them have families. The roots of Central
Europe reach out and take new life in the English Midlands, in
Edinburgh and London, in the mountains of Scotland and
Wales, in the blitzed cities.”