Josef František

Josef František was portrayed by Kryštof Hádek in the 2018 film Hurricane: 303 Squadron. He was also referenced by Polish rock band Elektryczne Gitary in the song "Pilot Josef František", as a part of their 2016 album "Czasowniki".

Posthumously the president of Czech Republic, Miloš Zeman awarded him the Order of the White Lion 1st Class Military Division on 28 Oct. 2015. In 2017, the Czech Mint issued silver and gold commemorative coins (under the authority of Niue) paying tribute to Josef František.

František was a brilliant pilot and combatant but frequently breached air force discipline first in Czechoslovakia, in France and Britain. The RAF found it best to let him patrol alone, a role in which he was highly successful. He was killed in a crash in October 1940 in the final week of the Battle of Britain.

After France surrendered, František fled to Britain and after training on 2 August was assigned to Polish No. 303 Squadron based at RAF Northolt, flying Hawker Hurricane fighters. František was used to obsolescent aircraft with fixed landing gear, and on 8 August at the end of a training flight, he forgot to lower his Hurricane's retractable undercarriage and accidentally made a belly landing. He was unhurt, and the aircraft was repairable. The squadron entered action in the last phase of the Battle of Britain. František's first confirmed victory was shooting down a Messerschmitt Bf 109E fighter on 2 September 1940. His fifth victory nearly cost him his life. On 6 September he shot down a Bf 109E of III/JG 52 near Sevenoaks in Kent, but František's Hurricane was damaged so badly that he had to make a forced landing near Falmer.

Between 2 and 30 September he shot down 17 German aircraft and 1 probable, including nine Bf 109 fighters, six Heinkel He 111 bombers and one Junkers Ju 88 bomber. This made him one of the top scoring Allied fighter pilots of the Battle of Britain and on 20 September, King George VI decorated him with the Distinguished Flying Medal. A bar was later added to his DFM. His final confirmed victory was a Bf 109 near Brooklands in Surrey on 30 September 1940.

On 8 October 1940, František's Hurricane crashed in Ewell, Surrey, on return from a patrol. The cause is not known. It has been suggested that he may have been making aerobatic figures to impress his girlfriend, who lived nearby, or it might have been a result of battle fatigue and physical exhaustion. František is buried in the military section of Northwood cemetery in Middlesex, with a Polish headstone and alongside Polish and British RAF colleagues.

František was the first non-British pilot to have a bar added to his Distinguished Flying Medal when he posthumously received one on 28 October 1940. In 1942 Air Vice-Marshal Karel Janoušek called František an "almost legendary figure". Janoušek also quoted the anonymous author of the 1941 book Together we Fly, A Salute to Airmen, who called František "the greatest of all Czechoslovak pilots, perhaps one of the greatest fighters of all time". In Otaslavice there is a museum in František's memory, a monument outside the František family home, and a plaque outside the local primary school. A street in the Černý Most suburb of Prague is named "Františkova" after him. The centenary of his birth was commemorated in Otaslavice on 4 October 2014. On 6 October 2015 the Polish Institute in Prague commemorated the 75th anniversary of František's death. Wreaths and floral tributes continue to be laid on his birthday each year at the monument outside the family home in Otaslavice.

In July 1939 a party of Czechoslovak airmen including František and another future RAF ace, Karel Kuttelwascher, went to the Port of Gdynia to sail to France. On 29 July they were about to embark on a Swedish cargo steamship, the Kastelholm, when a group of Polish officials tried to persuade them to stay. Many Czechoslovaks, including Kuttelwascher, rejected the Polish offer. But František was in a group of friends that tossed a coin to decide. It landed "tails", so they stayed and joined the Polish Air Force.

On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and on the morning of 2 September a Luftwaffe air raid destroyed Dęblin airbase. František's unit evacuated its surviving aircraft to Góra Puławska, further to the southeast. On one patrol from Góra Puławska a fellow Czechoslovak pilot, Zdeněk Škavarda, was flying a Breguet 19 when he ran out of fuel, made a forced landing near German lines and was at risk of capture. František landed nearby and rescued him.

In Beirut, staff of the Czechoslovak Embassy came to meet them and explained their only options were to either join the French Foreign Legion or be deported to the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The four airmen joined the legion at the local barracks. A week later the four embarked on a Messageries Maritimes cargo ship, the Theophile Gautier, which landed them at Marseille on 20 October 1939. They continued training at the Foreign Legion base in Marseille. A Polish sergeant recognised their Polish war decorations and helped to get them released to join the new Free Polish Air Force at le Bourget.

Once in France, escaped Czechoslovak airmen were being retrained to fly l'Armée d'Air equipment. Košař was a naturalised Polish citizen but with Balejka, František and Pavlovič went to see the Czechoslovak Air Attaché to ask to be transferred to join fellow Czechoslovaks in l'Armée d'Air. The attaché accused them of deserting the Foreign Legion, so František accused the Czechoslovak Air Force of failing to evacuate its aircraft to Poland when Germany invaded in March 1939, whereupon the attaché called the French police. The police found the trio's Polish military identity documents to be in order and refused to arrest them. Balejka, František and Pavlovič remained with their Free Polish units.

František got into trouble for fighting, returning late to his unit, and other breaches of discipline. He could have been dishonourably discharged, but he showed exceptional promise as a pilot, so he was sent to the 4th Air Regiment to train as a fighter pilot. In June 1938 he became a fighter pilot with the 40th Fighter Flight at Prague-Kbely flying Avia B-534 and Bk-534 biplane fighters. Here he developed his flying and combat skills.

On 30 September 1938 France and the United Kingdom allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland, and on 15 March 1939 Germany occupied the remainder of Bohemia and Moravia. It imposed a Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia with a puppet government that it ordered to dissolve its armed forces.

Josef František, DFM & Bar (7 October 1914 – 8 October 1940) was a Czechoslovak fighter pilot and Second World War fighter ace who flew for the air forces of Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, and the United Kingdom. He was the highest-scoring non-British Allied ace in the Battle of Britain, with 17 confirmed victories and one probable, all gained in a period of four weeks in September 1940.

Josef František was born in 1914 in Otaslavice in Moravia, the son of a carpenter. After leaving school he was apprenticed to a locksmith, but in 1934 he joined the Czechoslovak Air Force. He was trained at the Air Training School at Prostějov. In 1935 he was a corporal in 1st Air Regiment. In 1936 he completed training and was posted to the 2nd Air Regiment at Olomouc in Moravia, where he flew Aero A.11 and Letov Š-328 reconnaissance biplanes. By 1937 he was a sergeant.