About Czechoslovak pilots during WWII
On 15 March 1939 Germany occupied Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic), the Luftwaffe confiscated all Czechoslovak Air Force aircraft. Emigration was strictly controlled and former air force personnel were not allowed to leave the country Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (
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After France capitulated to Germany on 22 June 1940, many Czechoslovak airmen escaped to the United Kingdom. The RAF quickly created new squadrons formed of Czechoslovak pilots. The first fighter unit was No. 310 Squadron RAF (
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Many of the Czechoslovak pilots died during WWII. Their memorials are located in many places in Western Europe, but also in Czech Republic. The monuments have different shapes and sizes. One of the typical forms is the memorial plaque located on the houses where the pilot was born or where they lived for some time.
Plaque Inscription:
ZDE ŽIL
VÁLECNÝ PILOT PLK. JOSEF BRYKS,
PRÍSLUŠNÍK RAF, VEZNENÝ NACISTY I KOMUNISTY.
ZEMREL VE VEKU 41 ROKU V URANOVÝCH DOLECH
V JÁCHYMOVE V ROCE 1957.
KONFEDERACE POLITICKÝCH VEZNU
Josef Bryks, MBE, (18 March 1916, Laštany – 11 August 1957, Ostrov nad Ohrí) was a Czechoslovak cavalryman and fighter pilot who escaped the German occupation of Czechoslovakia and became a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He flew a Hawker Hurricane with No. 242 Squadron RAF until he was shot down over German-occupied France in 1941.
Bryks was a prisoner of war for four years, in which time he escaped and was recaptured three times. After his third escape he served in the Polish Home Army in Warsaw, where he helped to get supplies to Jewish resistance fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
After his third recapture Bryks was moved to Stalag Luft III where he helped in The Great Escape, and then to Oflag IV-C in Colditz Castle, where he remained until it was liberated by the US Army in 1945. In 1948 the United Kingdom made Bryks an MBE for his escape attempts and for helping others to escape.
In 1945 Bryks returned to Czechoslovakia and his Czechoslovak Air Force career. He was promoted to Major in 1946 but after the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état the Communists purged Bryks and many other officers who had served in Free Czechoslovak units under French or UK command.
In 1949 the Communists sentenced Bryks to 10 years in prison and stripped him of his rank and medals. In 1950 20 years' hard labour and a heavy fine were added to his original sentence. In 1952 he was moved to a prison where he was forced to work in a uranium mine. Bryks died of a heart attack in a prison hospital in 1957.
Bryks was rehabilitated after the 1989 Velvet Revolution ended the Communist dictatorship.
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