Freedom in the air : a Czech flyer and his aircrew dog PDF
Preview Freedom in the air : a Czech flyer and his aircrew dog
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. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing. Typeset in Palatino by Phoenix Typesetting, Auldgirth, Dumfriesshire Printed and bound in England by Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Wharncliffe Local History, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics and Leo Cooper. For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk 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.”
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