Stíhací pilot první linie – plukovník letectva in memoriam Stanislav Fejfar a jeho odysea (
First line fighter pilot air force colonel in memoriam Stanislav Fejfar and his odyssey

Summary/Abstract: Hundreds of pilots and air staff from Czechoslovakia fought in the ranks of the RAF, the British Royal Air Force, in the course of World War II. Ladislav Kudrna’s article is dedicated to the fate of one of them, Stanislav Fejfar, but it is also designed to pay tribute to all the others, and to recall events preceding and following the Munich Agreement on the occasion of this year’s 70th anniversary of its signing. After Czechoslovakia‘s occupation by German forces in 1939, the then career soldier and professional pilot Stanislav Fejfar did not hesitate a moment and left the newly emerged Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Via Poland he got to France where he was forced to join the Foreign Legion together with hundreds of his compatriots, and he waited impatiently whether a war against Germany would break out. When this fi nally happened, he could only witness the moral and actual fall of the French Army, yet he kept fighting throughout all of the French campaign. After the collapse of France he moved to Great Britain, whose ability to mobilize war eff ort was incomparable with France’s resignation. Stanislav Fejfar became a fighter pilot of the 310th Czechoslovak Wing of the RAF and soon one of its commanding offi cers. He took part in the Battle of Britain, and continued to fulfil his tasks regardless of growing fatigue and nervous strain. This effort may have become fateful to him – he was shot down and died on May 17, 1942 in fighting against German fighters. He was then one of the commanders of the 313th Czechoslovak Wing of the RAF. Fejfar’s story is only one of many, with more than 500 Czechoslovak pilots perishing in World War II. The present study is aimed at paying tribute to all those courageous men who fought for their ideals.

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