Na poslední chvíli – Kratochvíl Miloslav Bitton (2021)

The book At the Last Minute is the first memoir of a participant in the second Czechoslovak military resistance in the Memoirs Edition of the Czechoslovak Legionary Community. The narrative begins with childhood in the Soviet Union and moving to Slovakia, where the author trained as a shopkeeper. After the establishment of the Slovak State, he helped refugees cross into Hungary. His activities did not go unnoticed, and in February 1940, he too had to go into exile. He made his way through Yugoslavia to the Middle East, where he became a member of the Czechoslovak army. He participated in the occupation of Syria and the battles at Tobruk. Later, he voluntarily enlisted in the Czechoslovak Air Force and underwent flight training in Canada. From January 1945, he served in the 310th Czechoslovak Fighter Squadron RAF, but at the very end of the war, he was seriously injured in an air crash, ended up in the hospital, and returned home only in September 1945. He continued to serve in the Air Force, brought an English wife to Prague, but the communist takeover in 1948 significantly impacted their lives. Miloslav Kratochvíl decided on a second departure abroad, which he successfully accomplished under dramatic circumstances.