Josef Stehlík

Josef Stehlík (26 March 1915 – 30 May 1991) was a Czech fighter ace. In World War II he served in the French Air Force and then the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. In 1944 he transferred to the Eastern Front, where he commanded the 1st Czechoslovak Independent Fighter Air Regiment.

Stehlík was a Czechoslovak Air Force pilot in the 1930s, latterly as a flying instructor. When Germany occupied and partitioned Czechoslovakia in 1939 he escaped via Poland to France. When France capitulated in 1940 Stehlík was evacuated to Britain, where he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.

Stehlík returned to Czechoslovakia in 1945 and resumed his Czechoslovak Air Force career until 1948, when the new Communist government politically purged armed forces personnel who had served in Western armed forces. Stehlík was remanded in prison for a year and demoted, but then released without charge.

Stehlík was restricted to civilian jobs until 1964, when the Communist government politically rehabilitated him and granted him a retired military rank. He died in post-Communist Czechoslovakia in 1991.

Early life Stehlík was born on 26 March 1915 in Pikárec. He went to school at Strážek near Bystřice nad Pernštejnem.

In 1936 Stehlík started pilot training at the Elementary Pilot School in Prague. In 1937 he studied at non-officer school and later at the fighter school at Hradec Králové. Until 1939 he was pilot instructor at the 3rd Air Regiment at Spišská Nová Ves in eastern Slovakia.

On 29 September 1938 France and the United Kingdom signed the Munich Agreement, which forced Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany. On 15 March 1939 Germany occupied Czechoslovakia and imposed the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which the next day dissolved the Czechoslovak armed forces in its territory.

In France On 5 June 1939 Stehlík escaped across the border into Poland and thence travelled to France. On 3 September France and the UK declared war on Germany. On 17 November the French Government and Czechoslovak National Liberation Committee agreed that Czechoslovak airmen could join the French Air Force.

Stehlík was trained at Chartres airbase in central France. On 1 December he was posted to Groupe de Chasse III/3 which was equipped with Morane-Saulnier M.S.406C.1 fighter aircraft and later re-equipped with the more advanced Dewoitine D.520C.1.

By October 1940 the squadron was stationed at RAF Speke outside Liverpool. About 16:00 hrs on 8 October a lone Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 medium bomber of Kampfgeschwader 2/806 was sighted flying up the River Mersey. Yellow Flight was scrambled, with Stehlík flying Hurricane L1807. All three fighters machine-gunned the Ju 88, killing its observer and setting fire to its two engines. At 16:15 the bomber made a forced landing in a field near Bromborough Dock and the surviving crew were captured.

From 15 September 1944 Stehlík was based at Tri Duby airfield in central Slovakia, fighting in the Slovak National Uprising. and shared in shooting down a Junkers Ju 87 ground-attack aircraft on 7 October.

After the war In post-war Czechoslovakia Stehlík resumed his peacetime air force career. After the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état the Communist authorities politically purged him from the air force. He was held in prison for a year and stripped of his rank but acquitted and released for lack of evidence.

By 1950 Stehlík was working at Pozemní stavby in Brno in southern Moravia. In 1963 he became a driver and luggage porter at the Lipová-lázně spa near Hrubý Jeseník in northern Moravia. In 1964 he was rehabilitated, his rank was restored and he returned to the air force. He retired as a colonel.

Stehlík died in Slavičín on 30 May 1991.

Achievements and honours Stehlík shot down 12 aircraft: five by himself and seven in collaboration with other airmen. He damaged one other aircraft and shared in probably shooting down another. He also destroyed two aircraft on the ground.

Awards Stehlík was decorated by Czechoslovakia, France, the UK and the USSR. His decorations include:

60px Československá medaile za zásluhy, 1. stupně ("Medal of Merit, First Class")

Řád Slovenského národního povstání I. třída ("Order of the Slovak National Uprising 1st Class") 60px Pamětní medaile k 20. výročí osvobození Československa ("Commemorative medal of the 20th Anniversary of the 20th Anniversary of the Liberation of Czechoslovakia") 60px Pamětní medaile k 20. výročí Slovenského národního povstání ("Commemorative Medal for the 20th Anniversary of Slovak National Uprising") Pamětní medaile M. R. Štefánika III. stupně ("MR Štefánik Commemorative Medal, 3rd Class")

60px Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"