František Fajtl
Czechoslovak general and pilot (1912-2006)
Lieutenant General František Fajtl (20 August 1912 – 4 October 2006) was a Czech fighter pilot of World War II. He was a British Royal Air Force (RAF) squadron and wing commander and led a group of Czechoslovak fighter pilots who formed an air regiment under Soviet Air Force command, supporting the Slovak National Uprising in 1944. He was dismissed from the Czechoslovak Air Force and was held in prison for a year and a half without a trial after the Communists came to power in 1948, and was only fully rehabilitated after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. He wrote many autobiographical books about his wartime experiences, and was an inspiration for the 2001 film Tmavomodrý svět (Dark Blue World).
Early life
František Fajtl was born in Donín in northern Bohemia, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until after World War I, when it became Czechoslovakia in 1918, and now is a part of the Czech Republic. In 1933, he attended, and in 1935 graduated from, the Military Academy in Hranice as a Pilot Officer. He became Lieutenant Pilot in the Czechoslovak Air Force in 1935, flying observation biplanes, mostly Aero A.100 and Aero A.101 with No. 63 Squadron in the 2nd Air Regiment "Edvard Beneš", based at Olomouc and Přerov in Moravia.
World War II
Escape to Poland and France (1939–1940)
After the Occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, in common with many Czech and Slovak soldiers, he fled through Poland to France. Fajtl joined the Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) ranked Sergent à titre étranger (Foreign Sergeant) and fought in two Groupes de chasse (fighter wings) near Lyon and Paris, flying Bloch MB-152 and Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 aircraft. After the Fall of France he escaped to North Africa through Port-Vendres, and travelled to Great Britain via Gibraltar, where he joined the Royal Air Force.
“František Fajtl” enters the record as czechoslovak general and pilot (1912-2006). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what František, Fajtl and Czechoslovak can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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