Pilotem krále Anglie – Rajlich Jiří (2018)

In the autumn of 1938, a military airport was put into provisional operation in what was then Německý Brod. Following the humiliating Munich dictate, the III/6 Squadron of Air Regiment 6, along with the 85th and 86th Heavy Bomber Squadrons, was eventually stationed here. The pilots and personnel were ceremoniously welcomed by the town at the end of October 1938. There was an urgent need to accelerate the airport's full operational capability. However, preparations proved to be unnecessary. On the morning of March 15, 1939, the German 4th Panzer Division occupied the airport, and by June of the same year, all Czechoslovak units stationed here had left the area. For many aviators, however, the fight did not end. They headed to France, later to Great Britain or the Soviet Union, to stand against the occupiers of their homeland. This was also the journey of five pilots – natives of Německý (now Havlíčkův) Brod, to whom this book by Jiří Rajlich and Karel Černý is dedicated. The fates of bomber and transport pilot F/O Jaroslav Doktor and four fighter pilots W/Cdr Jan Klán, S/Ldr Karel Kuttelwascher, DFC & Bar, F/Lt Jan Laška, and F/Lt Stanislav Zimprich in the First Republic aviation, the British Royal Air Force, and on other battlefields of World War II are complemented by nearly 200 photographs and documents from archival collections and private collections...