NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 39, 15 February 1941, Page 12

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

CZECH AIR FORCE

RECORD IN THE WAR

A DOUBLE ESCAPE

The story of the Czechoslovak air force, which is mentioned in a cablegram from London as having dealt Hard blows to the Nazis in recent months, is one of the romances of the present war. ,'

On the eve of Munich, Czechoslovakia had an air force of more than 1000 machines, 1300 first-class pilots, and the necessary number of gunners and observers. Apart from its admitted technical quality," the Czech air force also had a remarkable degree of popular support. ' Many air pageants , were organised by the Masaryk League, and they were popular festivals. Gliding was taken-up as a sport by schoolboys and schoolgirls. World Records Made. Machines turned out by the Czech aeroplane factories made some world records, and one of the pilots who created a world record is now Military;1 Attache at the Czech Legation in London. It was at the Czech, air force that the Nazis dealt their first blow: when they • occupied the country in, March, 1939. An immediate order was' Issued that no one must* take to the air. Only a few Czechs are reported to have been able to fly their machines out of the country, but in the following months a persistent trickle of aviators streamed across the borders of Hungary and Poland into Yugoslavia, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Syria. When war threatened in Europe a few months later many of these airmen made their way to France,' and were given the opportunity to fly again. ' The nucleus of the present force was thus formed on French soil. Some of the men had enlisted in the French Foreign Legion before war began, and others crossed the Atlantic "from North America, where more than 1,500,000 Czechs and Slovaks are settled. At the end of October, 1939, the first Czech pilots appeared on the Western-Front. Given Old Machines. In the beginning the Czechs were usually working with out-of-date machines, and certainly with planes-which were strange to them. After the organisation was .complete the Czechs and Slovaks formed about one-quar-ter of the personnel of the fifteen squadrons which were attached to the Czecho-Slovak army formed in France to fight for the freedom of the country. When the blitzkrieg began these men paid in effort arid blood for the faith ■ the French had placed in themV The French had no great supply of pilots or. machines, and Czech airmen were sometimes on duty from 3 a.m? until 11 pin., and were often in the air three times a day. In this phase of the war they performed great feats, shot down more than" 100 German machines, and were awarded a number of decorations. . On June 1 the French agreed to the formation of a separate Czech air force, which was to work under Czech command and to meet the Germans in. machines bearing distinctive markings. But the collapse, of France had already begun, and this plan came to noth» ing. . Planes Locked Up. . . ' The first that the Czechs. knew of the armistice was when their machines were locked in hangars by French orders—a shameful act, for as "rebels" the Czechs were liable to execution, by the Germans. Few of them were able to get their machines away, some to England, others to. North Africa, and one bomber flew right across Italy and landed in the Balkans. But again most of the men escaped, they , received what aid their countrymen iin London could give them, and on June 17 the British Air Ministry took over responsibility for Czech airmen, and messages were sent out by President Benes through the 8.8.C.'s Czech service telling them to make their way to England. How they escaped is a tale of many chapters. Thirty-eight of them flew over to Britain in a single British bomber which had 50 men aboard; the remainder were British and French. Many took ship for North African ports, then went on to Gibraltar, ■ and so reached England in naval convoy. At Bordeaux two Czech officers managed to charter a French cargo ship, which usually sailed between France and Saigon, and 270 Czechs and Slovaks, soldiers and airmen, escaped on it, sailing past the menace of Nazi bombing attacks and torpedoes.. The Germans had tried to block the mouth of- the Gironde with minefields, but the ship, which also had'l26 women on board, made the passage. New Organisation. When the ship was at sea an order was sent out to all French ships to return to their home ports, but the captain and crew (possibly helped by the passengers) decided to join General de Gaulle. They took the ship on to Gibraltar and there were placed, in a British convoy.. 1 The creation of the Czecho-Slovak air force then began anew in Britain. The nucleus of so many, men who had not only had active service but had distinguished themselves made matters relatively simple.; ■'. ; But the Czechs had to be given their own organisation, to arrange for the training-of reinforcements, and to establish complete plans for co-operation with a nation speaking a foreign tongue Nevertheless the organisation as a fighting force was quickly in action. Though little publicised, its men were st on in British skies. Re-equipping and retraining with new planes (but this time with machines immensely superior to the old "crates" which were given them in France) kept them busy for a time. On September 14, when the Germans suddenly launched their biggest raid against London, the Czechs were' among the forces sent against them and Czech airmen shot down five Nazi planes. ■'•••■' A Fighter Force. At .that time, it seems; they wera using Hurricanes,, and their whole organisation was as ■. a fighter; force. There may have been a deliberate decision to put available pilots into • fighters at this time, in order to stave off; the Nazi attacks, or it niay . have been simpler to get a fighter squadron into action than to make the Czechs a bomber, force. But with the lapse of time more organisation" has been possible, and today there are both fighter and bomber planes manned hjf Czechs and Slovaks, and dealing destruction to the Nazis whom they.havt twice escaped. , "a