Karel Macháček

“After some time spent in our military hospital in London I got transferred to the air force. And for me it was a very emotional experience, to be with these boys, who distinguished themselves so bravely and excellently in combat and in all their positions, and who through their actions have won unforgettable friends for Czechoslovakia. In England the air force was considered the crown of the armed forces, although traditionally it had been the navy which enjoyed this admired position, because it was the oldest and the most powerful of them. In this new war, air force played a great role, for without air dominance it was not possible to wage the war on the ground. And when after the fall of France the Germans attacked England, and this conflict developed in the Battle of Britain, her glorious victory was attained also thanks to the contribution of our pilots. The English will never forget that, they feel grateful to us to this day, and it is being commemorated at various occasions. In Westminster Abbey, which is the oldest cathedral, there is a book with the names of all airmen who have perished in the Battle of Britain, and this book is permanently kept open on a page with the list of all Czechoslovak pilots who died there. This also helped a lot to strengthen the friendship between our nations, and even today Czechs enjoy very good reputation in England and they are being received very kindly.”

“When I was leaving my country, I took the difficult way: via Slovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey to Beirut. The crossing of the fist three borders was illegal and dangerous. With the first border crossing, I was aided by an engine driver of a train, which was operating from Veselí in Moravia to Slovakia, and then it was going back. It was at night, I sat on the floor of the engine, which the German police officers did not check, and when we crossed over to the Slovak side, the driver let me get off. I was there with a friend of mine, and from there we moved on. We crossed over to Yugoslavia on the New Year’s Eve. There were six of us. The French embassy helped us, the consulate, which organized a guide for us, who then led us to the Hungarian border and showed us a way along a disused railway leading to Yugoslavia. We walked for a long time, it was in winter and there was snow. It was tiring, we did not know how long we would need to walk before we get there. Suddenly, out of the darkness, it had to be around 2 a.m., we heard the word ´stoj!´ and we knew we were already in Yugoslavia. We gathered around a guard who took us to the station, another officer interviewed us and he was very kind to us. We were freezing so much that this officer ordered those soldiers to get up and go out for sentry, and he let us sleep in the warm beds. This was a wonderful reception, and for me, this feeling of being in a friendly territory after such a long time is unforgettable.”

“I was assigned to the 311th squadron in autumn 1944. The squadron was based in Scotland at Tain airport and it was terribly cold there. It was so cold that if we left water in a washing basin overnight, in the morning it was solid ice! But still, we did wash ourselves, naturally. At this time, our boys´ task was hunting German submarines between Norway and Iceland, and this required long flights (14 – 16 hours) and they always returned completely exhausted. It was so tiring. I felt very sorry for them, because they were so exhausted after the flights, they were hardly able to walk away from their Liberators, and they had to go to the office and report about the result, about what happened during the flight. The atmosphere there was a bit tense. Not that they would be depressed, but their situation was in stark contrast to that of the fighter pilots, who were much more cheerful and lively, simply dandies. When the fighter pilots took off, their mission lasted half and hour and they were back. For the bombers´ crew, the long hours in the airplane during long flights made them feel tense. I always tried by various means to cheer them up, to encourage them, reminding them that all this would be over one day, which was what kept them going, this hope that it was not forever. But what I found out was the closeness of friendship among those crew. Once a crew was set up and they began flying together, they became inseparable friends, one depending with his life on the other. And even when it happened that they did not feel well, they always tried to deny it, and for me it was sometimes difficult to find out what troubled them; I could possibly ban them from the flight, because if they flew in less than perfect medical condition, they might actually put the other crew members at risk, if they would not be able to perform perfectly. But overall, it was amazing to be among them, because they were very friendly not only toward each other, but to everyone around, and I felt very well among them, we were on very good terms. When one gets into such group, he becomes one of them. Although I did not fly with them, they knew that they needed us, their ground support. There was a wonderful company. In the officers´ mess hall, there was a piano, and one of them would start playing, and there would be singing, and even practicing somersaults and what not, anything which would help you relax.”

“I arrived to France on February 2nd 1940 and at first we were registered in Marseille and the next day we were sent to our army, which was being formed and organized in the town of Agde on the southern coast of France. There were already many people there, at that time perhaps five thousand of our soldiers. Not all of them were refugees from the Protectorate. Some arrived there from other countries, and some of them were actually seasonal labourers, who got stuck in France at the beginning of the war and they were simply drafted in mobilization. And many of them were also Slovaks, and they did not like it too much, because they had their own Slovak State and they would have rather returned home. But there was no way to do that.”

“When our country granted us permission to form an organization, we founded the Central Union of Czechoslovak students in the foreign army, in order to represent our students abroad. In the first place, we contacted the association of British students with the aim to explain to them what had actually happened in our country, because the rest of the world had no clue about it. In war, news cannot get from one side to another, and thus it was completely new for them to learn what had happened in Prague and in Czechoslovakia. (alluding to events related to the closing down of Czech universities in November 1939 – ed.´s note) And they were very kind to us and they promised us all help we would need. We wanted to organize a big demonstration in London, where we would communicate these issues. And during the preparations for it, there was a suggestion that this day (November 17th) be declared the International Students´ Day. This was enthusiastically received by the Englishmen and they assisted us by contacting the other Allied governments and persuading them to recognize this day. They obtained for us fourteen signatures from governments who committed to observing that day. And this declaration was organized in London in November 16th 1941 in the auditorium of Caxton Hall with the participation of representatives of those fourteen governments, and this was spread to the whole world. At all British universities, not only in England, but abroad as well, lectures were interrupted and the memory of Czech students was observed. And this also immensely helped our government, which at that time was struggling for recognition of Czechoslovakia in her pre-Munich borders. Till that time there was uncertainty as to whether the Sudetenland ought not to be annexed to Germany. But we succeeded. Munich has been recognized as illegal, and thus the Munich agreement became annulated. Our President was very happy and grateful to us that in this way we turned the attention of people worldwide to the injustice that has been committed in our country; since that time we were received in an audience by the President on every November 17th, by which he demonstrated that we also have played a role in that.”