* 11.12.1914, Stádlec.
† 25.10.1988, Brno.
Pre WW2:
Jan Truhlář was born on 11 December 1914, at Stádlec near Tábor, a town in Czechoslovakia, 80km South of Prague. He was the eldest son of Václav and Klára. In 1917, his brother Václav was born followed by his sister Miloslavá in 1919. Jan attended four years of education at the local school before the family moved to Prague where his father was now employed by a water company. There, Jan went to a municipal school for three years where he studied mechanical engineering. On 1 July 1929 he began an apprenticeship as a locksmith. On completion of his apprenticeship in 1932, he remained with the company for a further year before changing employment, going to work as a mechanic at an aviation factory.
Czechoslovak Air Force:
In 1935, Jan joined the NCO Military Aviation School at Chleb for training to become an aircraft mechanic. The following year he was selected for pilot training and transferred to the Military Aviation Academy at Prostějov in 1936 and was posted to the 34 Fighter Sqn of the 1st Air Regiment ‘T.G. Masaryk’, of the Czechoslovak Air Force at Hradec Králove airbase. They were equipped with Avia B-534 biplane fighters-. Many of his peers stationed there would meet up later in the RAF.
1938 Mobilisation:
The threatening overtures by neighbouring Nazi Germany regarding the Sudeten regions – the German speaking areas – of Czechoslovakia caused the Czechoslovak Government to declare a mobilisation on 23 September 1938. Following this threat, Chamberlain, Daladier (the French prime Minister) Hitler and Mussolini met in Munich. The outcome of this was the Munich Agreement of 30 September 1938 wherein the Sudeten regions were ceded to Germany. Dr Emil Hácha, the Czechoslovak President, was not invited to participate in the discussion concerning the future of his country. He was merely told by Chamberlain and Daladier to either accept the agreement or Czechoslovakia would have to defend itself without any support from Britain and France, despite there being a tri-lateral defence agreement between the three countries.
An unfortunate consequence of the Munich Agreement was that Poland and Hungary took advantage of the situation and also annexed some Czechoslovak territory. About 30% of Czechoslovakian territory was lost and the new revised German border was now only 20 miles from Prague.
German Occupation:
The Germans occupied Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939. Under pressure, Emil Hácha, the Czechoslovak President had acceded to their demands, and in the early hours of that day, he had ordered all Czechoslovak military units to stand down, remain in their barracks and not resist the occupation. Germanisation of Bohemia and Moravia began immediately; they were now the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren), while Slovakia in return for its allegiance to Nazi Germany, had become the ‘puppet’ independent state of Slovakia.
By this time, Jan had achieved 310 flying hours. Upon occupation, the Czechoslovak Air Force was disbanded by the Germans and all personnel dismissed.. 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 [Defense of the Nation]. Obrana Národa also 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 get 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 escape to Poland. Usually, this was by crossing the border from the Ostrava region.
To Poland:
Jan and his brother Václav were amongst the many Czechoslovak airmen and soldiers who regarded the German occupation as unacceptable and who saw it was their patriotic duty to go to Poland from where they could fight to achieve the liberation of Czechoslovakia.
With the help of those two organisations, the two brothers covertly escaped over the border to Poland on 1 May. They then travelled to Kraków and reported for military duty at the Czechoslovak Consulate there. However, here they were informed that the formation of Czechoslovak military units in Poland were just rumours because the Polish authorites would not allow this to happen on its territory for fear of provoking Nazi Germany.
Polish Disappointment:
Instead, they learnt that the Czechoslovak Consul had, via his counterpart in Paris, negotiated with the French Government that the escaped Czechoslovak military would be permitted to travel to France. But there was a condition, as French Law did not permit foreign military personnel on its territory during peacetime The Czechoslovaks would be required to enlist in the French Foreign Legion for a period of five years – but with the assurance that in the event of war being declared, they would be released from the legion and transferred into French military units. The alternative was that they would be sent back to Czechoslovakia, now a German Protectorate, where execution or deportation to a concentration camp would be the most likely outcome.
Jan and Václav, like most of the Czechoslovak escapees, decided that their best choice was to go to France. Initially he was transferred to Bronowice Małe, a derelict former Polish Army barracks from the Austro-Hungarian era, on the outskirts of Krákow which was then being utilised as a temporary transit camp for the escaped Czechoslovak military prior to their transfer to France. They arrived there on 5 July 1939, the 786th and 787th Czechoslovak escapee respectively to arrive.. The barracks, which were in poor condition, were already well inhabited by Czechoslovak escapees whilst arrangements were made for their transportation, by sea, to France.
To France:
After a short stay at Bronowice Małe, he was one of the 547 Czechoslovak escapees who went by train to Gdynia where they boarded the MS Chrobry, a Polish trans- Atlantic passenger ship owned by the Gdynia-America Shipping Lines Ltd for their routes between Poland and South America. This was its maiden voyage to South America and it would stop in at Boulogne, France, so that the Czechoslovak escapees could disembark there. The MS Chrobry arrived at Boulogne on the night of 31 July/1 August.
France:
Early the following morning, Jan and his fellow escapees disembarked onto French soil. After some food, they boarded a train for the thirteen-hour journey to Paris. They arrived there at 17:30 and were taken by coach to the Foreign Legion’s recruitment centre at Place Balard to complete enlistment formalities and undertake medical examinations. By 26 August, these were completed and they were awaiting transfer to their training base at Sidi-bel-Abbès, Algeria. This time was to serve as a familiarisation period to learn the ways of the Legion and to study French crash-courses, and they took every opportunity to practise their new language skills with French girls. War broke out before Jan was transferred to Algeria and instead he was released from his Legion service and transferred to the l’Armée de l’Air’s BA 117 recruitment centre at Base Aerienne de Dugny, Paris, with the rank of caporal.
l’Arme d’Air:
On 11 September Jan was transferred to Centre d’Instruction de Chasse for re-training on French equipment at Chartres airbase. He reached the required standard after 15 hours of retraining. On 2 December, at the rank of sergeant, he was posted with Raimund Puda, to GC II/4 ‘Les Petits Poucets’. The unit was deployed at Xaffévillers airbase, near Nancy and was equipped with Curtiss H-75c fighter aircraft. They were joined by fellow Czechoslovak pilot Alois Hlobil on 19 January 1945 and then Karel Pošta on 15 May.
Battle of France:
The Germans invaded France on 10 May 1940. During the ensuing Battle of France, Jan flew 45 operational hours, achieving combat success during the heavy fighting with the Luftwaffe:
| Date | Time | Aircraft | Action |
| 07/06/40 | 06:30 | Curtis H75 | Do 17 shared victory at 06:30 south of Soissons. |
On 15 June he was promoted to the rank of Sergent-Chef. The rapidity of the German Blitzkreig caused GC II/ 4 to frequently redeploy to new airfields as they retreated westward and by 17 June they had reached Perpignan in south-west France, the 8th airfield they had redeployed to in the last month.
Evacuation from France:
It was now clear that the war in France was lost and it was just a matter of days before France would have to capitulate. The French high command ordered what remained of the Armée de l’Air to evacuate their aircraft to the French colonies in North Africa to continue the fight. On 17 June, GC II/4 flew their Curtiss H-75c aircraft to Meknés in Morocco. With the French capitulation imminent, l’Armée de l’Air released its Czechoslovak airmen so that they could continue the fight from England. During the Battle of France, Jan had flown 63.35 operational hours.
France capitulated on 22 June. From Meknés, the Czechoslovaks went by train to Casablanca, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, from where Jan and 183 other Czechoslovak airmen boarded the ‘Gib-el-Dersa’, on 29 June 1940, and sailed to Gibraltar. Here they transferred to the ‘Cidonia’ which took them to Liverpool arriving on 16 July 1940.
RAF:
On arrival to England, after security vetting and medical checks, like most of the Czechoslovaks, Jan’s path first led to the Czechoslovak resettlement camp at Cholmondeley Park, near Chester. The Battle of Britain was now in progress and there was an urgent need for fighter pilots. As a trained fighter pilot he swore his oath of allegiance to King George VI and was quickly admitted to the voluntary reserves of the RAF, at the rank of AC2 on 25 July and transferred to the Czechoslovak Depot, at RAF Cosford.
To 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron:
On 5 September, at the rank of Sgt, he was posted to the newly formed 312 (Czechoslovak) Sqn which was deployed at RAF Duxford and was equipped with Hawker Hurricane Mk I fighter aircraft, becoming one of its founding members. There, Jan and his fellow Czechoslovak pilots, were immediately re-trained to fly Hurricanes. Jan made his first flight in a Hurricane, L1926, DU-J, the following day. Additionally, they were undertaking basic English lessons, with Mr G H Booty, to enable at least elementary radio communication to the required RAF standard.
Battle of Britain:
On 26 September, 312 Sqn was re-deployed to Speke airfield, now John Lennon airport, at Liverpool. The squadron was declared operational on 2 October and participated in the closing days of the Battle of Britain, where their role was the aerial defence of the vital Liverpool docks and keeping its sea-lanes safe from Luftwaffe attack. Shortly after they arrived at Speke, the squadron began to be re-equipped with new Hurricane Mk I aircraft. Initially, however, poor weather hampered further training of the pilots on their Hurricanes. Jan made his first operational flight on 5 October, flying Hurricane H1926 on a scramble at 14:05, returning at 14:50,m with no Luftwaffe aircraft sighted.
During the Battle of Britain, flying with the squadron’s ‘B’ Flight, Jan made a total of nine operational flights, totalling 6 hrs 30 min.
After the Battle:
After the end of the Battle of Britain, on 31 October 1940, 312 Sqn continued in its role of aerial defence of Liverpool and its docks. On 21/22 December ‘B’ Flight were redeployed to RAF Penrhos, on Holy Island, Anglesey, North Wales. They were there to protect Penrhos and Allied shipping from Luftwaffe attacks in the St George’s Channel – the sea channel between Ireland and Wales connecting the Irish Sea to the Celtic Sea – which was the southern approach to Liverpool and its docks. However, there were few opportunities for combat with Luftwaffe aircraft and their flying was mainly a mix of convoy patrols or training flights.
On 10 April 1941, B Flight Commander F/lt Dawburn and Jan were scrambled to intercept and destroy a Luftwaffe aircraft approaching the Welsh Coast from the Irish Sea. They took off at 13:50 and about 30 miles southwest of Bardsey Island, they made contact with it and attacked. F/Lt Dawbarn engaged first, and over his radio, it was heard that his engine had been hit and was on fire,. Subsequently, no more was heard from him, so he is presumed to have crashed into the Irish Sea. Jan did not receive that message and pressed on with the attack, after which, finding himself alone, he carried out a search in the vicinity and then returned to base, landing at 15:10.
On 3 March 1941, the squadron redeployed to RAF Valley 77on Anglesey, North Wales, and began flying convoy patrols over the Irish Sea. On 20 April, the squadron was redeployed to RAF Jurby on the Isle of Man, where, in May 1941, they were re-equipped with the Hurricane Mk II. From there, they carried out day and night patrols to protect Allied convoys in the Irish Sea.
On 29 May, 312 Sqn was redeployed to RAF Kenley, South of London, where they formed the Kenley Wing with 1 Sqn and 303 Sqn. From here, they began flying offensive patrols and escorting Allied bombers over German-occupied northern France and Belgium.
Shot Down:
On 9 July 1941, 12 Hurricanes from 312 Sqn took-off at 13:05 from RAF Kenley to provide fighter cover for Circus 41; the escort of Stirling bombers on a raid to Lens. Jan was flying Hurricane Mk IIb Z3023. At 13:30 the formation was attacked, over Béthune, France, by Me 109s. In combat with a Me 109, near Rouvroy in northern France, Jan was shot down at 13:20, by Lt. Erich Rudorffer from Stab II./ JG 2 Richthofen. Slightly wounded, Jan parachuted from the burning plane, landed safely but was captured by German soldiers. He became the first member of 312 Squadron to be captured.
PoW:
The position of captured Czechoslovak Prisoners of War was somewhat different from that of the other nationalities. For these, the Geneva Convention of 27 July 1929 applied, on the treatment of POWs and their rights. Captured Czechoslovaks were not granted the status of Prisoners of War, as the German authorities regarded the Czechoslovaks as Reich nationals, as since their occupation of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939, they had declared the country to be a Reich protectorate and its citizens thus were part of Germany and subject to German law. Thus any captured Czechoslovaks fighting for the Allies were not covered by the Geneva Convention and were classed as Reich nationals who had fought against the Reich. Such action was classed as high reason, (pertaining to paragraph 91 of the Reich Criminal Code), which according to that law, the death penalty by hanging could be applied along with severe repercussions for their families in their homeland.
Initially Jan was taken to the Luftwaffe airbase at St Omer – the home airbase of JG /26 – and later taken to Dulag Luft at Oberursel, near Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, for Luftwaffe interrogation. He was there for right days, and found that fellow Czechoslovak airmen Jaroslav Nyč, Karel Šťastný and František Knap were also detained there. On 19 July 1941 they were transported to Stalag IXc at Bad Sulza, near Leipzig, Germany. Shortly afterwards Jan and Šťastný escaped from there but were recaptured after two days on the run and were returned to Stalag IXc.
The two made another escape by changing places with two Russian civilian inmates at the camp who would be used outside the camp for agriculture work in the fields. Once out of the camp, the two escapees headed for Yugoslavia where they hoped to join the partisans. On foot, they travelled by night South through Czechoslovakia, whose border was only 120 km away. They managed to evade capture for 17 days. Surviving on a diet of raw vegetables; potatoes or turnips mostly, they reached Kozlovice, some 500 km South East of Bad Sulza and only 25km South of Ostrava, in the Moravia region of Czechoslovakia. They were now only a day’s walk from the Slovak border.
Unfortunately, there their luck ran out: whilst making their way through a forest, they encountered a gamekeeper who spoke some Czech. The forester became suspicious of the two escapees (the forester was a Sudeten German they subsequently found out) and handed them over to the German police, who in turn handed them over to the German soldiers who took them to Doupov. Jan was suffering from exposure and so after their PoW identities were established, he was taken to Stalag XIIIB, an orthopedic Hospital for PoWs at Obermassfeld, Germany. After a short stay there for medical treatment, he was transferred back to Stalag IXc where he was sentenced to solitary confinement for 28 days. On 26 April 1942, Jan was transferred to Stalag Luft III, at Sagan, Poland, some 160km South-East of Berlin. The camp was newly opened that March and the location had been selected because its sandy soil made it difficult for PoWs to escape by tunnelling. The camp would later become notorious for the Great Escape, when 76 Allied Officers escaped on the night of 24/25 March 1944, and on recapture, 50 were murdered by the Gestapo. Jan’s next camp was Stalag Luft I at Barth, on the German Baltic coast on 16 October 1942. On 1 May 1943 he was promoted to the rank of W/O.
Gestapo:
The Gestapo – Geheime Staatspolizei the secret police of Nazi Germany – classed all Czechoslovak PoWs as being guilty of high treason against Germany as since March 1939 Czechoslovakia had been a Reich protectorate. In the summer of 1944, 24 Czechoslovak PoWs were taken from various PoW camps to Pankrác prison in Prague for Gestapo interrogation at their HQ at the notorious Petschek Palace. Jan was one of these 24 and taken there on 13 July. There, for their treason, they were sentenced to death.
Information about these sentences had reached the British Government via the Red Cross, the Protection Power for Allied PoWs. The response from the British Foreign Office was that “the Czechoslovak RAF prisoners-of-war, having sworn allegiance to H.M. King George VI, and having served in the British Forces in British uniform, should be treated under the terms of the Geneva Convention in exactly the same way as British prisoners-of-war”. They instructed the British Ambassador, in Berne, “to make immediate communication to the German Authorities via the Red Cross, regarding this and to add that the British Government would regard any prosecution for treason as illegal and that the persons responsible would have to answer for their activity after the war. There would also be repercussions to German PoWs held by the British in the event of any prosecution or executions of the Czechoslovak PoWs. This resulted in the Reich Military Attorney terminating the criminal proceedings but with the proviso that “the hearing should only take place after the war”.
Colditz:
Jan and the others were then transported from Prague to PoW camps of either Stalag Luft I (Barth) or the infamous Oflag IVc (Colditz) By the time Colditz was liberated, there were 20 Czechoslovak RAF airmen incarcerated there.
Liberated:
Colditz was liberated by the American Army on 16 April 1945, and the Czechoslovak PoWs were repatriated to England. There, after medical checks and debrief by the British Authorities about their experience and treatment by the Germans whilst PoWs, Jan was transfererd to the Czechoslovak Airmen’s Depot at RAF Cosford. From there, on 29 June 1945, he was posted to 313 (Czechoslovak) Sqn who were now deployed at RAF Manston, Kent, awaiting their return to Czechoslovakia. There he took a Flying Refresher Course on Spitfires in preparation for that return.
Return to Czechoslovakia:
Jan returned to Czechoslovakia on 24 August 1945 and remained in the Czechoslovak Air Force. He was posted to Brno airbase to the 7th Fighter Regiment, who were equipped with Spitfires. Between 1947 and 1948 he completed a course for Squadron Commanders.
Under Communism:
Following the Communist take-over in February 1948, those Czechoslovaks who fought for the Allies in WW2 were regarded as being tainted by capitalism and thus ‘undesirable’ in the new Czechoslovak regime. Many were dismissed from the military, demoted, stripped of their Czechoslovak medals, arrested, imprisoned and subjected to other persecution and degradation. Some, however, managed to escape back to the West. In Jan’s case, on 2 February 1949 he was placed on ‘waiting leave’ and aware of the most likely outcome of that action – arrest by the StB – Státní bezpečnost, the state secret police – and imprisonment, he requested to leave the Czechoslovak Air Force. This was granted and he left on 1 May 1950. Subsequently, as a ‘Westerner’ he was only able to find employment as a manual labourer at a Brno construction company working in the sand quarries at Juliánov, at Brno and later at Černovice, some 120 km West of Brno.
Jan Truhlář died, aged 58, on 25 October 1973 in Brno, Czechoslovakia.
Medals Awarded:
1939 – 45 Star with Battle of Britain clasp
Air Crew Europe Star with Atlantic clasp
Defence Medal
War Medal
Válečný kříž 1939 and 2 bars
Za chrabrost před nepřítelem and bar
Za zásluhy I.stupně
Pamětní medaile se štítky F–VB
Croix de Guerre avec 2 palme en bronze
Remembered:
Great Britain:
Capel-le-Ferne:
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:
Jan 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:
Czech Republic:
Prague 1 – Klárov :
In November 2017, his name, along with the names of 2507 other Czechoslovak men and women who had served in the RAF during WW2, was unveiled at the Winged Lion Monument at Klárov, Prague.
Stádlec :
In June 2025, a memorial plaque was unveilded at his birthtown of Stádlec for Jan and his brother Václav, who had served in the RAF in 313 Sqn also as a pilot.
Article last updated: 31.10.2025.
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