Originally Posted by
Hydro Junkie
And once again, I can turn this over to someone else
SimonCraig, you're up
During the Battle of Britain,
foreign pilots volunteered to fight with the Royal Air Force. Czech Sergeant Josef Frantisek was one of these pilots, having reached Britain after escaping internment in Romania. After flying with the French, Frantisek signed up with the RAF, but was
so independent in searching for the enemy that he was loaned an aircraft for his one man war. Flying his Hawker Hurricane, Frantisek went on to become the top scoring Allied Ace in the Battle of Britain, with 17 kills. He often targeted returning German fighters, knocking them out of the sky before they could cross the English channel. He claimed a total of 17 fighters, flying only one year in combat. He was not shot down, but crashed his Hurricane in 1940 while performing aerobatics, possibly to impress his girlfriend, possibly from sheer exhaustion.
Just happened to have some additional info on Frantisek lying around. Thanks; Ernie P.
Josef František
DFM &
Bar (7 October 1914 – 8 October 1940) was a
Czech fighter pilot and World War II
flying ace who flew for the air forces of Czechoslovakia,
Poland and the
United Kingdom. He is famous as being one of the
highest scoring Allied aces in the Battle of Britain.
Born in
Otaslavice in 1913, Josef František joined the
Czechoslovak Air Force in 1934. After basic training he joined the Czechoslovak Air Force Air Regiment 2. In 1935 he was a corporal in Air Regiment 1 and returned to Air Regiment 2 as a sergeant in 1937. In June 1938 he became a fighter pilot serving in the 40th squadron in
Prague flying the
Avia B-534 and Bk-534 fighter. After Czechoslovakia fell under German occupation (15 March 1939), like many other Czechoslovak airmen, he escaped to
Poland. Most Czechoslovak airmen then left Poland for France before the start of the
Second World War, though František decided to stay and serve with the Polish Air Force.
During the
German invasion of Poland in September 1939, František initially evacuated training aircraft from the air base at
Dęblin. From 7 September he flew
reconnaissance missions in an unarmed training plane, a
RWD-8. On 19–20 September he attacked enemy columns near
Kamionka Strumiłowa, throwing
hand grenades on the troops below. On 20 September he was shot down near Złoczów, but was saved by a Polish crew that landed nearby. On 22 September František's unit was ordered to withdraw with their remaining aircraft to Romania. František managed to abscond from an internment camp in Romania and reached France via North Africa in October 1939.
In France František elected to remain with the Poles instead of joining the exiled Czechoslovak air force (a probable reason for this decision was a conflict with a Czech officer, who tried to arrest him for insubordination.)
He was flying only old fashioned planes with fixed undercarriage and there are no official French records to confirm he flew combat missions during the
Battle of France. After the fall of France František fled to Britain and after training on 2 August was assigned to No.
303 Polish Squadron based at
RAF Northolt, flying
Hawker Hurricane fighters. The squadron entered action in the last phase of the
Battle of Britain. The first confirmed victory of Sgt. František was a German
Bf 109E fighter on 2 September 1940.
A very ill-disciplined pilot, he was seen by his commanding officers as a danger to his colleagues when flying in formation. His British CO Squadron Leader
Ronald Gustave Kellett, offered to arrange for František's transfer to a Czech squadron, but František preferred to stay and fight alongside his Polish colleagues. As all pilots were valuable, a compromise was created whereby František was allotted a "spare" aircraft so he could fly as a "guest" of the Squadron as and when he wanted to. Thus, František fought his own private war – accompanying the squadron into the air, but peeling off to fly a lone patrol over
Kent, patrolling in the area through which he knew the German aircraft being intercepted would fly on their way back to base, possibly damaged and low on fuel and ammo. During the following month he shot down 17 German aircraft and 1 probable, of which 9 were
Bf 109s, becoming one of the top scoring Allied fighter pilots of the Battle of Britain. His last victory was on 30 September 1940 and he was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Medal.
On 8 October 1940, František's Hurricane crashed in
Ewell, Surrey during a landing approach after a patrol. Reasons for the crash are not known, but according to some theories, he may have been making
aerobatic figures to impress his girlfriend, or it might have been a result of battle fatigue and physical exhaustion.
He was buried in a Polish military cemetery. He was awarded several decorations, among them the
Virtuti Militari 5th class and he was the first foreigner awarded the
Distinguished Flying Medal with
Bar.