2RHPZ
06-27-2004, 05:04 PM
Allied Airfield Behind Enemy Lines
The Slovak National Uprising needed air support. It came in the form of Soviet fighters flown by Czech pilots, formerly of the Royal Air Force, operating inside German lines.
By Radko Vasicek
One of the byproducts of the Munich Agreement of 1938 and the subsequent dismemberment of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in 1939 was the establishment of an independent Slovakian state under Jósef Tiso. Not surprisingly, Tiso was a loyal Nazi ally, and after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, he committed the Slovak army's Fast Division, armed with Czechoslovakian equipment, to fight alongside them.
By the summer of 1944, fortunes on the Eastern Front had clearly turned against the Germans and the Soviet army had irreversibly taken the offensive. The Slovak Fast Division had suffered mass desertions to the Soviet army's 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps and Russian partisan bands before being driven back with its German allies.
Forming The SNR
Within Slovakia itself, the situation was also deteriorating. The hills teemed with partisan bands, made up of Slovak army deserters and prison-camp escapees. The latter included Yugoslav, Russian and French soldiers, Bulgarian and Romanian deserters, and downed airmen from Russia, Britain and the United States.
Within the Slovak army, many officers -- some of whom were in contact with the Czechoslovakian government-in-exile in London and its president, Edward Benes -- decided to rise up against Tiso's fascist government before the Germans directly occupied their country. In December 1943, the rebellious Slovaks formed a coordinating group called the Slovenská Národná Rada (Slovak National Council), or SNR, and appointed General Ján Golian to take charge of military operations.
There were also interested parties in Moscow; left-wing Czechs and Slovaks wanted to have the principal say in any Slovak revolt, arguing convincingly that the Soviets would be the most likely source of material aid for an uprising. Such support, these leftists reasoned, would also be in the best interests of the Soviets, since an uprising in Slovakia would tie down German forces and free Soviet forces to concentrate on other objectives on the road to Berlin -- Hungary to the south, Poland to the north.
The Uprising Begins
In the spring of 1944, the 22,000 surviving troops of the 1st and 2nd Slovak Army divisions, which had gone over to the Soviets, were withdrawn from Russia and moved to eastern Slovakia, principally to defend Dukla Pass in the Carpathian Mountains. The remaining 10,000 soldiers of the Slovak Rear Army were held in reserve in western Slovakia.
General Golian planned to launch the Slovak National Uprising when the Russians took the Polish city of Krakow, at which point Dukla Pass would be opened to the Soviets and the Rear Army would commence operations against the Germans. Unfortunately, despite SNR entreaties that they lie low, Slovak partisans sharply increased their activities, which reached a peak around August 2, 1944. Seeing its political control eroding, the Tiso government proclaimed martial law on August 12 and gave the German army its consent to occupy the country on August 29. Wasting no time, the Germans sent four Waffen Sturz Staffel divisions into Slovakia: the 85th SS Division from Poland, the 19th SS Division from the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia," the 20th (Estland) SS Division from Austria and the 104th SS Division from Hungary. Overall command was placed in the hands of SS General Gottlieb Berger.
On that same day, Golian, who had anticipated such an eventuality, mobilized his forces, and the general uprising commenced. Before it could truly spread across the country, however, the Germans, moving with astonishing speed, captured and disarmed most of the soldiers in eastern Slovakia and secured Dukla Pass. Only 2,000 troops of the 1st Army Division escaped to join Golian's insurgents in central Slovakia.
Soviet Support
The Slovak Air Force fared no better. The only airfield at its disposal was Tri Duby (Three Oaks), a training field near the insurgent headquarters at Bánská Bystrica. From there, the insurgent Combined Squadron operated a mixed bag of German and indigenously built aircraft and did a remarkable amount of damage to the enemy. Its seven aerial victories included the last to be scored by biplanes. On September 2, a Hungarian Junkers Ju-52/m3 flying the mail from Budapest to Krakow was intercepted and brought down by Warrant Officer Frantisek Cyprich, flying a single-seat Avia B-534 biplane. On September 16, an even more bizarre aerial duel was fought between two observation planes, an insurgent Letov S-328, also a biplane, and a more modern and heavily armed Focke-Wulf Fw-189. It ended when a lucky hit by the Slovak observer caused one of the German plane's engines to explode, sending it spiraling earthward.
The Slovak land and air forces around Bánská Bystrica fought valiantly in the desperate hope that the Soviet army would break through and link up with them, but just beyond the Slovak border Soviet forces to the north and south stood in place. They may have been taken completely by surprise by the revolt, but their inactivity equally may have been due to an unwillingness to support a resistance movement over which they had no measure of control.
Although they held their soldiers back, the Soviets did begin airlifting supplies to Tri Duby on September 4, and the next day sent a military mission over to coordinate further aerial logistic support. The most remarkable Soviet support, however, came in the form of an air regiment comprised of two squadrons of Soviet fighters, all flown by Czechoslovakian pilots transferred from the British Royal Air Force.
Exiles Gather
In January 1944, the exiled Czechoslovakian forces in Britain, seeing the possibility of an uprising in Slovakia, made a proposal to the Soviets to send air units in support of such a revolt. The idea was approved, and on January 31, 21 Czech pilots were released from Royal Air Force (RAF) service to join the Soviet Voyenno-Vozdushny Sili (V-VS). On February 21, they left England aboard the steamship Reina del Pacifico for the British-held air base at Habbaniya, Iraq. From there, they flew by transport plane to Teheran, Iran. After a final consultation with the Soviet ambassador, they proceeded to the Soviet Union in two groups aboard Litvinov Li-2s (Russian-built versions of the Douglas DC-3). The first group left Teheran at 9 a.m. on April 2 and arrived at Moscow at 7 p.m. It consisted of Flight Lts. Frantisek Fajtl and Stanislav Rejthar; Flying Officers Josef Stehlík and Frantisek Chábera; Pilot Officers Jirí Reznicek, Leopold Srom and Pavel Kocfelda; and Warrant Officers Jan Skopal, Ladislav Valousek and Antonín Vendl.
The second group, which made its flight from Teheran to Moscow on April 8, was composed of Flight Lt. Jan Klán; Pilot Officers Frantisek Kruta and Frantisek Sticka; Warrant Officers Stanislav Hlucka, Tomás Motycka, Bohuslav Mráz and Stanislav Tocauer; and Flight Sgt. Frantisek Loucky. Three other pilots who were too ill to accompany the others, Flight Officers Rudolf Borovec and Jirí Sehnal, and Pilot Officer Jirí Vaculík, finally flew up to join them in Moscow on April 13.
The leader of the group, Frantisek Fajtl, was born in Donín near Louny in western Bohemia on August 20, 1912. After graduating from the Business Academy in Teplice, he went to the Aviation Academy and became a lieutenant in the Czechoslovakian Air Force in 1935. After the German occupation of his country, he went to Poland, then to France and finally to England, where he took part in the Battle of Britain. By 1942, he had served successively as the commander of the RAF stations at Ibseley and Skaebrae, although those responsibilities did not curtail his flying activity. In May 1942, he was shot down over France but managed to escape to Spain, where he was interned; eventually he was repatriated to England. In January 1944, he was flying Supermarine Spitfires with No. 313 (Czech) Squadron when he was asked to command the expedition to Russia.
Behind Enemy Lines
In an interview with the author, Fajtl described the unique experience of being a Czech pilot flying with both the RAF and the V-VS -- and flying missions from behind enemy lines in Slovakia: "On April 14, the 21 Czechs began training at the air base at Ivanovo, 300 kilometers (185 miles) northeast of Moscow. Since Flight Officer Sehnal was the only one of us who spoke Russian, the first order of business was for the rest of us to learn the language.
"Ivanovo airfield was part of the 6th Reserve Brigade, commanded by a Colonel Shumov. I learned that in 1942 this very large air base had hosted the French volunteer aircrews of the Normandie Regiment, who in 1943 had participated in the fighting around Kursk.
"In parallel with learning the Russian language, we went through familiarization training on the [Soviet] Lavochkin La-5FN fighter plane, as did the flight mechanics, fitters, armorers, wireless operators and electrical engineers who would have to support our squadrons in the field. The pilots underwent a lot of mathematics and navigational training. Finally, on April 20, the theoretical training ended and we were told that we would get to sharpen our skills behind the controls of the La-5FN with its 1,540-hp Shvetsov M-82FN engine.
"When we at last got our chance to take it up on April 24, we found the "Lavochka" to be very fast, very sensitive at the controls. It had a very high landing speed, but with a maximum speed of close to 647 kilometers per hour [404 mph] at 5,000 meters altitude, that was no wonder. We began flying on May 3, and we were then designated the 128th Czechoslovakian Independent Fighter Squadron.
One Plane Per Pilot
"On May 17, the 6th Reserve Brigade was transferred to Kubinka, southwest of Moscow. There, we flew cross-country orientation flights, held mock dogfights and practiced formation flying. Each pilot was assigned his own plane and flew that one only. That was the way things were done there. On May 30, training ended and the next contingent of 20 pilots of Czech nationality was assigned to Kubinka, having arrived from the fighter school in Vjazniky. Before we left, a concluding 'show' was staged before visiting Soviet generals and other personnel from the Czechoslovakian Air Force Mission."
On June 3, the Czech unit was officially renamed the 1st Czechoslovakian Independent Fighter Aviation Regiment, composed of the 1st and 2nd Czechoslovakian Squadrons. On June 19, the Czechs took off for Bryansk, led by a Petlyakov Pe-2 that carried their Soviet commander and that served as a guide for navigation and landing. The next day, they flew on to Priluky in the Ukraine and, from there, to Proskurov, near Lvov, on June 21. "With that," remarked Fajtl, "we were at the front -- but nobody knew of our arrival. We had to wait there until July 31."
The Czechs were now part of the 8th Air Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front, but there was no fuel for their airplanes. At the end of August, the Slovakian National Uprising broke out and many Slovakian pilots flew their planes into the Russian lines. During that time, too, the 1st Czechoslovakian Regiment was reassigned to the 2nd Air Army, under Col. Gen. S.A. Krasovsky.
Black Sunday
On September 9, the Soviets finally made a serious effort to help the Slovakian partisans when the Russian Thirty-Eighth Army and the Czechoslovkian Army Corps advanced through Dukla Pass in the Carpathian Mountains. By then, however, the Germans were ready for them and blocked the assault at a cost of 6,000 Allied lives. The Soviet forces were not able to cross the Slovakian border until October 6.
Meanwhile, the Slovak Combined Squadron suffered a terrible blow on what its pilots would call "Black Sunday." At 3:30 p.m. on September 10, 30 German bombers took off from Malacky field and the first wave of six Junkers Ju-87 Stukas attacked the anti-aircraft positions at Tri Duby. A second wave of six Ju-88s and 12 Heinkel He-111s bombed the airfield, followed by six more Stukas, then six Messerschmitt Bf-109s, which strafed the Slovaks with cannons and machine guns. The only Slovak airplane to take off, a Bf-109G-6 flown by Warrant Officer Rudolf Bozík, had no ammunition, but Bozík did his best to break up the German formations before being driven off by the six German Bf-109s. When the Germans departed, the insurgents were left with only four operational aircraft -- one Bf-109G-6, a B-534 and two S-328s -- but they repaired the bomb-damaged runway and fought on with what they had.
On the Russian side of the lines, on September 14, 1944, General Krasovsky finally called Fajtl and his officers to a short conference. "Tomorrow," he told Fajtl, "you will fly to Tri Duby airfield. You must find out what the situation is and immediately come back."
Friends From Peacetime
The next day, at 3:30 p.m. Moscow time, Fajtl took off for Tri Duby, accompanied by Flight Officer Chábera, Flight Lt. Rejthar and Flight Officer Stehlík. Radio silence would be maintained. "The war was only two kilometers from us," Fajtl recalled. "We readied our cannons and lit up our sights, but it was calm all around us. In 20 minutes we were over Bánská Bystrica -- we were home! The rebel flak would protect us as we landed at Tri Duby. Enthusiastic people came from all directions as we got out of our cockpits and introduced ourselves -- everywhere we found friends from peacetime.
"Tri Duby airfield was not good," he continued, "that was clear to us. We were afraid of coming under German attack, for surely they knew about us. Tri Duby's defenses were very weak. We needed another airfield, where the planes could be better concealed."
The insurgent commander recommended that the Czechs drive to Zolná, three kilometers from the town of Zvolen. There, they found what amounted to little more than a meadow, but nevertheless it was a newer airfield with adequate length and harder ground than Tri Duby.
Return To Tri Duby
Fajtl returned to Bánská Bystrica to coordinate with General Golian and the insurgent staff and found everyone in a pessimistic mood. "Their staff offered us coordination on their communication network and said that they had 200,000 liters of low-octane fuel. We declined the offer, unless we should absolutely need that fuel for our planes," Fajtl recalled.
The next day, Fajtl led his La-5FNs back to Krosno, but only three made it. Stehlík was wounded in the leg and had to return to Tri Duby. From Krosno, Fajtl flew to the Soviet headquarters in a Polikarpov Po-2 courier plane and furnished a report on the Slovak situation. He also brought a sample of the Slovak fuel and asked for it to be analyzed to see if it could be used in his regiment's La-5FNs. General Krasovsky then made his decision: "Tomorrow, all units must fly to Tri Duby airfield."
On September 17, Fajtl flew back to Krosno, where preparations were made for both Czech squadrons to fly to Tri Duby. Pilots and the personal numbers of the aircraft assigned them were as follows: 1st Squadron: Flight Officers Josef Stehlík, 88, and Leopold Srom, 17; Flight Lt. Jan Klán, 39; Pilot Officers Antonín Vendl, 23, Stanislav Hlucka, 24, Jan Skopal, 37, Pavel Kocfelda, 13, Stanislav Tocauer, 19, Frantisek Sticka, 12; and Warrant Officers Ludovít Dobrovodsky, unknown; 2nd Squadron: Flight Officer Frantisek Chábera, 02; Pilot Officers Rudolf Borovec, 95, Jiri Vaculík, 74, Tomás Motycka, 20, Frantisek Loucky, 65, Bohuslav Mráz, 23, Ladislav Valousek, 69, Jirí Reznicek, 99, and Frantisek Kruta, 71; Flight Lt. Stanislav Rejthar, 151; and Warrant Officer Anton Matusek, 62.
Fajtl was to be in charge of both squadrons and would not participate in any further action. His intelligence officer and adjutant was Flight Officer Jirí Sehnal.
At 2:10 p.m., the two squadrons of La-5FNs took off from Stubno airfield, accompanied by two Slovakian Bf-109Gs whose pilots had flown into Soviet lines. One was assigned to 1st Squadron and the other to 2nd Squadron. From Stubno, they flew to Krosno, then started out for Zolná. As Fajtl took off on that leg of the flight, he noticed that the oil pressure in his plane was dropping. Cursing, he went back and had a damaged oil pipe repaired before taking off again and flying to Zolná alone. Everyone else had already arrived without incident.
"Czechs...Flying Russian Planes?"
Fajtl soon discovered that his men were not the only Allied airmen to land in Slovakia that day. He remembered: "After a great welcome, we drove to Bánská Bystrica. There, in the dining room, I met an American pilot. There were some 30 American airmen there. They knew about our arrival, but the pilot I met asked, 'Who are you? You speak English very well...but you are Czechs? Flying Russian planes?'
"That pilot had been shot down while flying a bombing mission over Slovakia in a B-17. The Slovaks had hidden him [and kept him] from imprisonment. That pilot and the others were waiting to be flown off to Italy."
On the same day the 1st Czech Regiment arrived, two Boeing B-17Gs of the Fifteenth Air Force, escorted by North American P-51B Mustangs, landed at Tri Duby with an American military mission, headed by a naval officer, Lieutenant James Holt Green. The bombers unloaded bazookas, ammunition and medicine for the insurgents, then left for Italy with 15 of the downed Allied airmen aboard.
On the night of September 18, British aircraft brought in radio transmitters, 20,000 bandages and 5,000 units of anti-tetanus serum. On that same night, 40 Soviet Lisunov Li-2s arrived with fuel and ammunition, as well as mechanics, wireless operators, and three straggling pilots, Flight Officer Sehnal and Pilot Officers Borovec and Sergej Trifonovic Vinogradov.
http://www.military.com/pics/ww0596REVOLTf1.jpg
Light Lieutenant Frantisek Fajtl, who went from flying Supermarine Spitfires to leading the La-5FNs of the 1st Czechoslovakian Fighter Aviation Regiment.
The Slovak National Uprising needed air support. It came in the form of Soviet fighters flown by Czech pilots, formerly of the Royal Air Force, operating inside German lines.
By Radko Vasicek
One of the byproducts of the Munich Agreement of 1938 and the subsequent dismemberment of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in 1939 was the establishment of an independent Slovakian state under Jósef Tiso. Not surprisingly, Tiso was a loyal Nazi ally, and after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, he committed the Slovak army's Fast Division, armed with Czechoslovakian equipment, to fight alongside them.
By the summer of 1944, fortunes on the Eastern Front had clearly turned against the Germans and the Soviet army had irreversibly taken the offensive. The Slovak Fast Division had suffered mass desertions to the Soviet army's 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps and Russian partisan bands before being driven back with its German allies.
Forming The SNR
Within Slovakia itself, the situation was also deteriorating. The hills teemed with partisan bands, made up of Slovak army deserters and prison-camp escapees. The latter included Yugoslav, Russian and French soldiers, Bulgarian and Romanian deserters, and downed airmen from Russia, Britain and the United States.
Within the Slovak army, many officers -- some of whom were in contact with the Czechoslovakian government-in-exile in London and its president, Edward Benes -- decided to rise up against Tiso's fascist government before the Germans directly occupied their country. In December 1943, the rebellious Slovaks formed a coordinating group called the Slovenská Národná Rada (Slovak National Council), or SNR, and appointed General Ján Golian to take charge of military operations.
There were also interested parties in Moscow; left-wing Czechs and Slovaks wanted to have the principal say in any Slovak revolt, arguing convincingly that the Soviets would be the most likely source of material aid for an uprising. Such support, these leftists reasoned, would also be in the best interests of the Soviets, since an uprising in Slovakia would tie down German forces and free Soviet forces to concentrate on other objectives on the road to Berlin -- Hungary to the south, Poland to the north.
The Uprising Begins
In the spring of 1944, the 22,000 surviving troops of the 1st and 2nd Slovak Army divisions, which had gone over to the Soviets, were withdrawn from Russia and moved to eastern Slovakia, principally to defend Dukla Pass in the Carpathian Mountains. The remaining 10,000 soldiers of the Slovak Rear Army were held in reserve in western Slovakia.
General Golian planned to launch the Slovak National Uprising when the Russians took the Polish city of Krakow, at which point Dukla Pass would be opened to the Soviets and the Rear Army would commence operations against the Germans. Unfortunately, despite SNR entreaties that they lie low, Slovak partisans sharply increased their activities, which reached a peak around August 2, 1944. Seeing its political control eroding, the Tiso government proclaimed martial law on August 12 and gave the German army its consent to occupy the country on August 29. Wasting no time, the Germans sent four Waffen Sturz Staffel divisions into Slovakia: the 85th SS Division from Poland, the 19th SS Division from the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia," the 20th (Estland) SS Division from Austria and the 104th SS Division from Hungary. Overall command was placed in the hands of SS General Gottlieb Berger.
On that same day, Golian, who had anticipated such an eventuality, mobilized his forces, and the general uprising commenced. Before it could truly spread across the country, however, the Germans, moving with astonishing speed, captured and disarmed most of the soldiers in eastern Slovakia and secured Dukla Pass. Only 2,000 troops of the 1st Army Division escaped to join Golian's insurgents in central Slovakia.
Soviet Support
The Slovak Air Force fared no better. The only airfield at its disposal was Tri Duby (Three Oaks), a training field near the insurgent headquarters at Bánská Bystrica. From there, the insurgent Combined Squadron operated a mixed bag of German and indigenously built aircraft and did a remarkable amount of damage to the enemy. Its seven aerial victories included the last to be scored by biplanes. On September 2, a Hungarian Junkers Ju-52/m3 flying the mail from Budapest to Krakow was intercepted and brought down by Warrant Officer Frantisek Cyprich, flying a single-seat Avia B-534 biplane. On September 16, an even more bizarre aerial duel was fought between two observation planes, an insurgent Letov S-328, also a biplane, and a more modern and heavily armed Focke-Wulf Fw-189. It ended when a lucky hit by the Slovak observer caused one of the German plane's engines to explode, sending it spiraling earthward.
The Slovak land and air forces around Bánská Bystrica fought valiantly in the desperate hope that the Soviet army would break through and link up with them, but just beyond the Slovak border Soviet forces to the north and south stood in place. They may have been taken completely by surprise by the revolt, but their inactivity equally may have been due to an unwillingness to support a resistance movement over which they had no measure of control.
Although they held their soldiers back, the Soviets did begin airlifting supplies to Tri Duby on September 4, and the next day sent a military mission over to coordinate further aerial logistic support. The most remarkable Soviet support, however, came in the form of an air regiment comprised of two squadrons of Soviet fighters, all flown by Czechoslovakian pilots transferred from the British Royal Air Force.
Exiles Gather
In January 1944, the exiled Czechoslovakian forces in Britain, seeing the possibility of an uprising in Slovakia, made a proposal to the Soviets to send air units in support of such a revolt. The idea was approved, and on January 31, 21 Czech pilots were released from Royal Air Force (RAF) service to join the Soviet Voyenno-Vozdushny Sili (V-VS). On February 21, they left England aboard the steamship Reina del Pacifico for the British-held air base at Habbaniya, Iraq. From there, they flew by transport plane to Teheran, Iran. After a final consultation with the Soviet ambassador, they proceeded to the Soviet Union in two groups aboard Litvinov Li-2s (Russian-built versions of the Douglas DC-3). The first group left Teheran at 9 a.m. on April 2 and arrived at Moscow at 7 p.m. It consisted of Flight Lts. Frantisek Fajtl and Stanislav Rejthar; Flying Officers Josef Stehlík and Frantisek Chábera; Pilot Officers Jirí Reznicek, Leopold Srom and Pavel Kocfelda; and Warrant Officers Jan Skopal, Ladislav Valousek and Antonín Vendl.
The second group, which made its flight from Teheran to Moscow on April 8, was composed of Flight Lt. Jan Klán; Pilot Officers Frantisek Kruta and Frantisek Sticka; Warrant Officers Stanislav Hlucka, Tomás Motycka, Bohuslav Mráz and Stanislav Tocauer; and Flight Sgt. Frantisek Loucky. Three other pilots who were too ill to accompany the others, Flight Officers Rudolf Borovec and Jirí Sehnal, and Pilot Officer Jirí Vaculík, finally flew up to join them in Moscow on April 13.
The leader of the group, Frantisek Fajtl, was born in Donín near Louny in western Bohemia on August 20, 1912. After graduating from the Business Academy in Teplice, he went to the Aviation Academy and became a lieutenant in the Czechoslovakian Air Force in 1935. After the German occupation of his country, he went to Poland, then to France and finally to England, where he took part in the Battle of Britain. By 1942, he had served successively as the commander of the RAF stations at Ibseley and Skaebrae, although those responsibilities did not curtail his flying activity. In May 1942, he was shot down over France but managed to escape to Spain, where he was interned; eventually he was repatriated to England. In January 1944, he was flying Supermarine Spitfires with No. 313 (Czech) Squadron when he was asked to command the expedition to Russia.
Behind Enemy Lines
In an interview with the author, Fajtl described the unique experience of being a Czech pilot flying with both the RAF and the V-VS -- and flying missions from behind enemy lines in Slovakia: "On April 14, the 21 Czechs began training at the air base at Ivanovo, 300 kilometers (185 miles) northeast of Moscow. Since Flight Officer Sehnal was the only one of us who spoke Russian, the first order of business was for the rest of us to learn the language.
"Ivanovo airfield was part of the 6th Reserve Brigade, commanded by a Colonel Shumov. I learned that in 1942 this very large air base had hosted the French volunteer aircrews of the Normandie Regiment, who in 1943 had participated in the fighting around Kursk.
"In parallel with learning the Russian language, we went through familiarization training on the [Soviet] Lavochkin La-5FN fighter plane, as did the flight mechanics, fitters, armorers, wireless operators and electrical engineers who would have to support our squadrons in the field. The pilots underwent a lot of mathematics and navigational training. Finally, on April 20, the theoretical training ended and we were told that we would get to sharpen our skills behind the controls of the La-5FN with its 1,540-hp Shvetsov M-82FN engine.
"When we at last got our chance to take it up on April 24, we found the "Lavochka" to be very fast, very sensitive at the controls. It had a very high landing speed, but with a maximum speed of close to 647 kilometers per hour [404 mph] at 5,000 meters altitude, that was no wonder. We began flying on May 3, and we were then designated the 128th Czechoslovakian Independent Fighter Squadron.
One Plane Per Pilot
"On May 17, the 6th Reserve Brigade was transferred to Kubinka, southwest of Moscow. There, we flew cross-country orientation flights, held mock dogfights and practiced formation flying. Each pilot was assigned his own plane and flew that one only. That was the way things were done there. On May 30, training ended and the next contingent of 20 pilots of Czech nationality was assigned to Kubinka, having arrived from the fighter school in Vjazniky. Before we left, a concluding 'show' was staged before visiting Soviet generals and other personnel from the Czechoslovakian Air Force Mission."
On June 3, the Czech unit was officially renamed the 1st Czechoslovakian Independent Fighter Aviation Regiment, composed of the 1st and 2nd Czechoslovakian Squadrons. On June 19, the Czechs took off for Bryansk, led by a Petlyakov Pe-2 that carried their Soviet commander and that served as a guide for navigation and landing. The next day, they flew on to Priluky in the Ukraine and, from there, to Proskurov, near Lvov, on June 21. "With that," remarked Fajtl, "we were at the front -- but nobody knew of our arrival. We had to wait there until July 31."
The Czechs were now part of the 8th Air Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front, but there was no fuel for their airplanes. At the end of August, the Slovakian National Uprising broke out and many Slovakian pilots flew their planes into the Russian lines. During that time, too, the 1st Czechoslovakian Regiment was reassigned to the 2nd Air Army, under Col. Gen. S.A. Krasovsky.
Black Sunday
On September 9, the Soviets finally made a serious effort to help the Slovakian partisans when the Russian Thirty-Eighth Army and the Czechoslovkian Army Corps advanced through Dukla Pass in the Carpathian Mountains. By then, however, the Germans were ready for them and blocked the assault at a cost of 6,000 Allied lives. The Soviet forces were not able to cross the Slovakian border until October 6.
Meanwhile, the Slovak Combined Squadron suffered a terrible blow on what its pilots would call "Black Sunday." At 3:30 p.m. on September 10, 30 German bombers took off from Malacky field and the first wave of six Junkers Ju-87 Stukas attacked the anti-aircraft positions at Tri Duby. A second wave of six Ju-88s and 12 Heinkel He-111s bombed the airfield, followed by six more Stukas, then six Messerschmitt Bf-109s, which strafed the Slovaks with cannons and machine guns. The only Slovak airplane to take off, a Bf-109G-6 flown by Warrant Officer Rudolf Bozík, had no ammunition, but Bozík did his best to break up the German formations before being driven off by the six German Bf-109s. When the Germans departed, the insurgents were left with only four operational aircraft -- one Bf-109G-6, a B-534 and two S-328s -- but they repaired the bomb-damaged runway and fought on with what they had.
On the Russian side of the lines, on September 14, 1944, General Krasovsky finally called Fajtl and his officers to a short conference. "Tomorrow," he told Fajtl, "you will fly to Tri Duby airfield. You must find out what the situation is and immediately come back."
Friends From Peacetime
The next day, at 3:30 p.m. Moscow time, Fajtl took off for Tri Duby, accompanied by Flight Officer Chábera, Flight Lt. Rejthar and Flight Officer Stehlík. Radio silence would be maintained. "The war was only two kilometers from us," Fajtl recalled. "We readied our cannons and lit up our sights, but it was calm all around us. In 20 minutes we were over Bánská Bystrica -- we were home! The rebel flak would protect us as we landed at Tri Duby. Enthusiastic people came from all directions as we got out of our cockpits and introduced ourselves -- everywhere we found friends from peacetime.
"Tri Duby airfield was not good," he continued, "that was clear to us. We were afraid of coming under German attack, for surely they knew about us. Tri Duby's defenses were very weak. We needed another airfield, where the planes could be better concealed."
The insurgent commander recommended that the Czechs drive to Zolná, three kilometers from the town of Zvolen. There, they found what amounted to little more than a meadow, but nevertheless it was a newer airfield with adequate length and harder ground than Tri Duby.
Return To Tri Duby
Fajtl returned to Bánská Bystrica to coordinate with General Golian and the insurgent staff and found everyone in a pessimistic mood. "Their staff offered us coordination on their communication network and said that they had 200,000 liters of low-octane fuel. We declined the offer, unless we should absolutely need that fuel for our planes," Fajtl recalled.
The next day, Fajtl led his La-5FNs back to Krosno, but only three made it. Stehlík was wounded in the leg and had to return to Tri Duby. From Krosno, Fajtl flew to the Soviet headquarters in a Polikarpov Po-2 courier plane and furnished a report on the Slovak situation. He also brought a sample of the Slovak fuel and asked for it to be analyzed to see if it could be used in his regiment's La-5FNs. General Krasovsky then made his decision: "Tomorrow, all units must fly to Tri Duby airfield."
On September 17, Fajtl flew back to Krosno, where preparations were made for both Czech squadrons to fly to Tri Duby. Pilots and the personal numbers of the aircraft assigned them were as follows: 1st Squadron: Flight Officers Josef Stehlík, 88, and Leopold Srom, 17; Flight Lt. Jan Klán, 39; Pilot Officers Antonín Vendl, 23, Stanislav Hlucka, 24, Jan Skopal, 37, Pavel Kocfelda, 13, Stanislav Tocauer, 19, Frantisek Sticka, 12; and Warrant Officers Ludovít Dobrovodsky, unknown; 2nd Squadron: Flight Officer Frantisek Chábera, 02; Pilot Officers Rudolf Borovec, 95, Jiri Vaculík, 74, Tomás Motycka, 20, Frantisek Loucky, 65, Bohuslav Mráz, 23, Ladislav Valousek, 69, Jirí Reznicek, 99, and Frantisek Kruta, 71; Flight Lt. Stanislav Rejthar, 151; and Warrant Officer Anton Matusek, 62.
Fajtl was to be in charge of both squadrons and would not participate in any further action. His intelligence officer and adjutant was Flight Officer Jirí Sehnal.
At 2:10 p.m., the two squadrons of La-5FNs took off from Stubno airfield, accompanied by two Slovakian Bf-109Gs whose pilots had flown into Soviet lines. One was assigned to 1st Squadron and the other to 2nd Squadron. From Stubno, they flew to Krosno, then started out for Zolná. As Fajtl took off on that leg of the flight, he noticed that the oil pressure in his plane was dropping. Cursing, he went back and had a damaged oil pipe repaired before taking off again and flying to Zolná alone. Everyone else had already arrived without incident.
"Czechs...Flying Russian Planes?"
Fajtl soon discovered that his men were not the only Allied airmen to land in Slovakia that day. He remembered: "After a great welcome, we drove to Bánská Bystrica. There, in the dining room, I met an American pilot. There were some 30 American airmen there. They knew about our arrival, but the pilot I met asked, 'Who are you? You speak English very well...but you are Czechs? Flying Russian planes?'
"That pilot had been shot down while flying a bombing mission over Slovakia in a B-17. The Slovaks had hidden him [and kept him] from imprisonment. That pilot and the others were waiting to be flown off to Italy."
On the same day the 1st Czech Regiment arrived, two Boeing B-17Gs of the Fifteenth Air Force, escorted by North American P-51B Mustangs, landed at Tri Duby with an American military mission, headed by a naval officer, Lieutenant James Holt Green. The bombers unloaded bazookas, ammunition and medicine for the insurgents, then left for Italy with 15 of the downed Allied airmen aboard.
On the night of September 18, British aircraft brought in radio transmitters, 20,000 bandages and 5,000 units of anti-tetanus serum. On that same night, 40 Soviet Lisunov Li-2s arrived with fuel and ammunition, as well as mechanics, wireless operators, and three straggling pilots, Flight Officer Sehnal and Pilot Officers Borovec and Sergej Trifonovic Vinogradov.
http://www.military.com/pics/ww0596REVOLTf1.jpg
Light Lieutenant Frantisek Fajtl, who went from flying Supermarine Spitfires to leading the La-5FNs of the 1st Czechoslovakian Fighter Aviation Regiment.