* 06.03.1914, Zibohlavy.
† 25.03.1995, Prague.
Pre WW2:
Miroslav Jiroudek was born on 6 March 1914 at Zibohlavy, a village about 50km East of Prague. After 5 years at the village school, followed by 4 years of further education, he attended the technical school at Mladá Boleslav for trade training as a car mechanic. On reaching 18, in 1933 he attended the cadet Military Aviation Academy at Prostějov from where he graduated in 1935.
He was selected for pilot training and completed his Instrument Flying course in 1937 and Fighter pilot training course in 1938. On completion of that course, he was posted as an operational pilot to the 32nd Fighter Squadron of the 1st Air Regiment ‘T.G. Masaryk’, of the Czechoslovak Air Force. This was deployed at Hradec Králove and equipped with Avia B-534 biplane fighter aircraft. By March 1939 he had flown 675 hours.
German Occupation:
After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, on 15 March 1939, the Czechoslovak Air Force was disbanded by the Germans and all personnel dismissed.
Germanisation of Bohemia and Moravia began immediately after the occupation, but just four days later, on 19 March 1939, former Senior officers of the now-disbanded Czechoslovak military had started to form an underground army, known as Obrana Národa [Defence of the Nation]. Obrana Národa worked in co-operation with Svaz Letců, the Airman Association of the Czechoslovak Republic. One of their objectives was to assist as many airmen and soldiers as possible to escape to neighbouring Poland where they could be formed into military units to fight for the liberation of their homeland. These two organisations provided money, courier and other assistance to enable airmen to leave,. usually by crossing the border from the Ostrava region into Poland.
Like many of his former Air Force colleagues, Miroslav could not reconcile himself to the Munich surrender and subsequent occupation. Amongst the now demobilised former members of the Czechoslovak military, rumours were being heard that Czechoslovak military units were being formed in Poland for the purpose of fighting for the freedom of their homeland. Miroslav was one of many who responded to this news and investigated further. He was put in contact with Obrana Národa.
Having been denied the chance to resist the occupying Germans, Miroslav was one of the many Czechoslovak airmen and soldiers who saw it was their patriotic duty to voluntarily go to Poland from where they could participate in efforts to achieve the liberation of Czechoslovakia.
To Poland:
With six others, two of whom, Jan Janeba and Vladimír Vašek, had also served with him in the Czechoslovak Air Force, Miroslav escaped to Poland. On 19 June he travelled to Prague, where he met the others in the escape group. There they individually boarded the 11:03 fast train to Ostrava which arrived at 04:36 the following morning. However the guide that was supposed to meet them there was nowhere to be seen, leaving them with little choice but to attempt the border crossing on their own. They decided to cross that evening. Rather than attract attention to themselves during the day, they decided to check into a hotel. They picked the Moravia hotel, only to find out after they had checked in that it was the same hotel where the local Gestapo were accommodated. Perhaps they were lucky by the fact that the Gestapo did not think of checking hotels where they themselves were accommodated!
They still needed help with the border crossing itself, and found some railway station employees who, for a charge, took them into the railway station that night and smuggled them onto aboard a freight train that travelled regularly to Bohumín, about 5 km away and since its annexation by Poland following the Munich Agreement, was now in neighbouring Poland. The train departed at 10 pm and shortly after they successfully managed to cross the border into Poland. At Bohumín, the Polish authorities took them to Fryštat where they were accommodated in a police cell for 14 days. On 5 July they were sent to Kraków, where they reported for duty to the Czechoslovak Consulate.
Disappointment in Poland:
However, at this time, the Polish Authorities, whilst recognising the new puppet State of Slovakia, showed little interest in the Czechoslovak military who were escaping across their border in groups and would not allow independent Czechoslovak units to be established on its territory as they were concerned about antagonising neighbouring Nazi Germany. Only after lengthy negotiations between Czechoslovak Diplomats in France and Great Britain, and the French Government, did the French agree to admit 4,000 Czechoslovaks into the French Foreign Legion – French law did not allow for foreign military units to be on its territory in peacetime, and the Czechoslovak escapers would be required to join the French Foreign Legion for a five-year period with the agreement that, should war be declared, they would be transferred to French military units. The alternative was to be returned to occupied Czechoslovakia and face German retribution for escaping – usually imprisonment or execution with further retribution to their families.
Whilst arrangements were made for their journey to France, they were transferred to Bronowice Małe, a former Polish army barracks on the outskirts of Krakow. With 189 other escapees, Miroslav left there by train for the Polish Baltic port of Gdynia where, on 26 July, they boarded the MS ‘Kastelhome’, a 921 tonne Swedish coastal-cruising ship, and they sailed to France. Part of the voyage down the Baltic Sea was very rough, even to airmen who were used to flying in turbulent conditions, and so the ship’s stop at the Danish port of Frederikshaven to re-supply was a welcome relief for the Czechoslovaks onboard. After a five-day voyage, they arrived in the early hours of 31 July 1939 at Calais, France.
France:
Initially, Miroslav and his fellow escapees were transferred to Place Balard, the Foreign Legion’s recruitment depot at Paris, to undergo medical checks, whilst the necessary documentation was prepared for their enlistment into the Legion. While there, they attended French classes and any free time was usually spent in Paris exploring the sights and practising their newly-learnt French with the girls they met.
Miroslav was accepted to join the Legion on 25 August the rank of Soldat, but before arrangements were completed to transfer the Czechoslovaks to the Legion’s training base at Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria, war was declared and instead Miroslav and the other Czechoslovak airmen were transferred to the l’Armée de l’Air at their BA117 recruitment centre at Dugny, on the outskitys of Paris.
l’Armée de l’Air:
Miroslav was accepted into l’Armée de l’Air and, on 12 September, was posted to their airbase at Pau for retraining on French equipment. On 1 December, he was promoted to the rank of Caporal Chef, and on 19 January 1940, was posted to Centre d’Instruction de Chasse at Chartres, the l’Armée de l’Air training airbase, about 50 miles South-West of Paris. Here he continued his retraining on French equipment, firstly on the Potez XXV and Morane-Saulnier MS.230 elementary trainers and then the Morane-Saulnier MS-406c fighter aircraft.
The Germans commenced their invasion of Western Europe on 10 May 1940, by invading Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and then moving Westwards into France. By this time Miroslav had completed only limited re-training at Chartres But with the now urgent need for operational fighter pilots to defend France, on 20 May, along with fellow Czechoslovaks Josef Jan Hanuš and Jan Plášil, he was posted to GC III /1 who were by then deployed at Plessis-Belleville airbase some 40km north-east of Paris and were equipped with MS-406c.1 fighter aircraft.
The speed of the German Blitzkreig quickly caused rapid retrenchment of Allied forces forcing them to retreat Westwards. By 19 June GC III/I were deployed at Valence, about 200 km North or Marseilles and the capitulation of France was imminent. The three Czechoslovaks and 12 Polish airmen of GC III/I were released from their l’Armée de l’Air service.
Evacuation to England:
The French put them on a coach which took them to Port Vendres, a French port on the Mediterranean coast near the Spanish border about 400 km away. There, on 24 June, they were evacuated aboard the Général Chanzy which took them to Oran, Algeria. From there with more Czechoslovak airmen, they made a four-day train journey to Casablanca, Morocco, where, after a five-day wait, they boarded the ‘Gib-el-Dersa’ , a collier ship which sailed at 15:12 on 29 June 1940 to Gibraltar, arriving at 11:00 on 30 June. There they transferred to the ’Neutralia’ which sailed, on 2 July, in a convoy of about 30 other ships, for Liverpool, England, arriving on 12 July 1940. Along with most of the Czechoslovaks, Miroslav’s path first led to the Czechoslovak resettlement camp at Cholmondeley Park, near Chester.
RAF:
After security vetting, Miroslav was accepted into the RAF VR, at the rank of AC2, and on 25 July was posted to the Czechoslovak Airman’s Depot at Cosford, near Wolverhampton, for RAF training and English lessons. On 6 August he was promoted to the rank of Sgt and posted to 310 (Czechoslovak) Sqn RAF who were deployed at Duxford and equipped with Hurricane Mk I aircraft. There, F/O Ladislav Češek, a Briton of Czechoslovak origin, was engaged as an interpreter to assist in overcoming the language barrier and Mr Louis de Glehn was brought in to give English lessons, three times a week, to the Czechoslovak pilots. For these pilots it was reminiscent of only a few months earlier when they were in France and had joined l’Armée de l’Air, converted to French aircraft and had learnt French before they could become operational pilots in that Air Force. For Miroslav this was now the 2nd Air Force he had served in since leaving Czechoslovakia just 14 months before!
Battle of Britain:
At Duxford Miroslav was assigned to their reserve pool of pilots for re-training on Hurricanes and made his first operational flight in the Battle of Britain on 28 August in Hurricane P3056.
He achieved combat success on 18 September at 17:15 when he shared in the shooting down of a Ju 88A, from 9 /KG 77, over London, whilst flying Hurricane Mk I V6556 ‘E’. On 5 November whilst flying Hurricane Mk I V7588 ‘B’, he was hit by ‘friendly’ anti-aircraft fire over Faversham, Kent, and he had to bail out. His Hurricane crashed at Graveny, near Sittingbourne.
After the Battle:
Miroslav was promoted to the rank of F/Sgt on 1 March 1941 and remained with 310 Sqn until 23 August 1941 by which time he had become one of their most experienced pilots.
68 Sqn:
Miroslav was posted to 54 OTU, at Church Fenton where for re-training on twin-engined night fighters. He completed the training on 21 February 1942 and was posted to the Czechoslovak Flight at 68 Sqn at Coltishall where he remained until 8 February 1943 when he had completed his operational tour.
RAF Transport Command:
On 8 February 1942 he transferred to RAF Transport Command and was posted to 24 Sqn. who were deployed at Hendon. They were equipped with 4-engined Avro York aircraft, which was based upon the Avro Lancaster, and their role was to transport VIP personnel to and from Allied bases in North Africa, the Middle East and India. Miroslav remained with the squadron until 27 October 1944. Whilst there, he received his commission at the rank of P/O with promotion to F/O on 13 October that year. His final RAF promotion, to F/Lt, was on 13 April 1944.
On 27 October he was posted to 167 Sqn which was deployed at Holmsley South where and equipped with twin-engined Vickers Warwick transport aircraft, which was based on their Wellington bomber. Their role was flying VIP personnel to Allied bases in Southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and India. Miroslav’s flights were mainly to Toulouse in South-West France and Pomigliano near Naples, Italy.
An unfortunate incident happened on 6 March 1945, whilst Miroslav was Captain of Warwick HG278, with F/Lt Jaromír Foretník, navigator, and F/Sgt Stanislav Duba, radio operator, as crew. En-route from Lyneham to Toulouse, he had to make an emergency landing at Toulouse airfield due to a port engine failure. Miroslav managed to safely land the aircraft with nobody onboard being injured in the incident. They continued their journey without further incident in Warwick HG282, whilst HG278 was left at Toulouse for an engine replacement. He remained with 167 sqn until 18 April 1945.
His final RAF posting was to 147 Sqn for flying duties. The squadron had been reformed on 21 October 1944 and were now deployed at Croydon and equipped with twin-engined DC3 transport aircraft. The squadron’s role was to ferry personnel and supplies to and from Allied airfields in newly liberated Europe. Miroslav’s regular flights were usually to Paris, Evere, Le Bourget and Brussels. He remained with the squadron until his return to Czechoslovakia on 18 July 1945.
Return to Czechoslovakia:
On his return, he remained in the Czechoslovak Air Force serving at the Czechoslovak Ministry of National defence, at the rank of nadporučík [F/O] until his demobilisation on 16 January 1946.
He then joined České Aerolinie [ČSA] the National airline as a pilot flying DC3 and Ju52 passenger aircraft on the company’s national and international routes.
Following the Communist take-over in February 1948, the Czechoslovaks who fought for the Allies in WW2 were regarded as being tainted by Capitalism and many were arrested, imprisoned and subjected to other persecution. Because of Miroslav’s RAF service, he was the victim of the latest purge by the Communist authorities in October 1950 and was dismissed from ČSA.
He was partially rehabilitated in 1965, and awarded the rank of Major in the Czechoslovak Air Force, but due to health reasons he was unable to return to flying. Following the Velvet Revolution in November 1989, he was fully rehabilitated and promoted to the rank of Colonel, in the Czechoslovak Air Force, in 1991. That year he was also awarded the Order of Milan Rastislau Stefanik, Class 3, medal.
Miroslav Jiroudek died on March 25, 1995 in Prague, aged 81.
Medals Awarded:
Distinguished Flying Cross
1939 – 45 Star with Battle of Britain clasp
Air Crew Europe Star
Defence Medal
War Medal
Válečný kříž 1939 and 2 bars
Za chrabrost x 2
Za zásluhy I.stupně
Pamětní medaile se štítky F–VB
Order of Milan Rastislau Stefanik 3. třída, 1991Croix de Guerre avec palme
Remembered:
Czech Republic:
Prague 1 – Klárov:
In November 2017, his name, along with the names of 2533 other Czechoslovak men and women who had served in the RAF during WW2, was unveiled at the Winged Lion Monument at Klárov, Prague 1.
Prague 6 –
On 11 November 2025, a Memorial plaque commemorating him was unveiled at his former home at Mydlářka 11-1, 160 00 Praha 6.
Great Britain:
Capel-le_Ferne, Kent:
He is commemorated, along with the other 2940 Battle of Britain aircrew, on the Christopher Foxley-Norris Memorial Wall at the National Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel-le-Ferne, Kent:
Hawkinge:
Miroslav is remembered on the Czechoslovak Battle of Britain pilots memorial at the Kent Battle of Britain Museum at Hawkinge, Kent. It was unveiled on 28 October 2025, to commemorate the 88 Czechoslovaks who flew in that battle.
London – Battle of Britain Memorial:
He is also commemorated on the London Battle of Britain Memorial:
Article last updated 11.11.25.
Thank you! Milda was my grandfather’s brother, I remember him when I was a little girl, about 5 years old.
And brother of my great-grandfather 🙂 .
Very nice article about Miroslav. His nickname was “dýlka”. Thank you