Pre-WW2:
Karel Šeda was born on 4 November 1908 at Újezd u Chocně, a village near Vysoké Mýto, approximately 75 miles east of Prague. With his father working as a farm laborer, he had a humble start in life. After completing eight years of schooling, Karel found employment at Josef Jehnička’s textile factory in Choceň, where he trained as an electrical mechanic.
Like many other young men, he was enchanted by aviation and aspired to join that elite group of men. When he reached 18, for his mandatory military service, he volunteered to join the cadet school at the Military Academy at Prostějov. Initially, he trained as an aerial observer in two-seater biplanes. Karel was selected for pilot training and graduated from the course in 1929. He was then posted, as an operational pilot to the 13th Squadron (Observation) of the 3rd Aviation Regiment ‘General-Flight Pilot M. R. Štefánik’ in Košice, in Slovakia. Karel was selected for fighter pilot training in 1932 and posted to the Military Aviation Academy at Chleb. On graduating, he was posted to the 28 Fighter Squadron of the Regiment, who were deployed at Vajnory, Slovakia, and equipped with Avia B-21 and B-33 biplane fighter aircraft.
By December 1933, Karel had attained the rank of četař [Sergeant] and was rated as an excellent pilot. He was selected for the Military Technical Aviation Institute (VTLÚ) the Aeronautical Research Centre of the Czechoslovak Air Force, deployed at Letňany airbase, Prague, where he was a test pilot.
Československé Státní Aerolinie:
On 1 March 1935 Karel left the Air Force and joined Československé Státní Aerolinie (ČSA), the Czechoslovak national airline, as a commercial pilot. Initially he flew domestic routes and then international routes to Vienna, Bucharest and Paris until the German occupation on 15 March 1939.
German Occupation:
Despite assurances given by Hitler at the Munich Agreement, that he had no further interest in territorial gains for Germany, just a few months later he extended his demands that the remaining regions of Czechoslovakia become part of Germany.
On the evening before the invasion, on March 14, 1939, Czechoslovak intelligence officers called a meeting where they announced that the threat of invasion was imminent and recommended measures which would prevent most important assets fall in German hands. However, no orders were handed down until too late. The Chief of the Czechoslovak Air Force General Fajfr and his deputy General Vicherek ordered that no aircraft were allowed to take-off. III Department of the Ministry of National Defence started organising the transfer of the aircraft to several airfields in Moravia with the intention to get the airfleet to Romania and Yugoslavia. None of these planned intentions came to be instigated.
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, Karel was an experienced pilot having achieved 3029 flying hours. Upon occupation, the Czechoslovak Air Force and civilian airline were disbanded by the Germans and all personnel dismissed. But just four days later, on 19 March 1939, former Senior officers of the former Czechoslovak military had started to form an underground army, known as Obrana Národa [Defence 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:
Like many other of his former Air Force colleagues, Karel could not accept the Nazi occupation of his homeland and the idea that Czechoslovakia couldn’t defend itself against Hitler’s Germany. With the assistance of the two underground organisations, Karel planned his escape to Poland. He recalls the journey that he made with his former Czechoslovak Air Force colleagues Emanual Novotný, Miroslav Rajtr and František Glauder:
“After the Nazi take-over, the Czech people began to leave the country. The ways were various, individual or in groups. I was in a group of seven people. Our escape was organised by Svaz Letců, the Association of Czechoslovak pilots. We (mostly the staff of ČSA, České Aerolinie the Czechoslovak National Airlines) were members.
I took from home – East Bohemia – some clothing and personal things, bade a farewell and returned to Prague. There I sold my car – a brand new Tatra 57 – for next to nothing. We were instructed also to dress like tourists and assemble on a certain day at the office. There we were very consciously inconspicuous tourists, all wearing the same plus-fours, jackets, rucksacks etc, bought at the well-known shop ‘Nahera’, only an idiot would believe we were genuine tourists. Also, we were instructed not to take any money as everything was prepared for us. We obeyed and lived to regret it; the lack of money in the following months was pinching.
Roman Novotný was appointed as the leader of our group. He received a page from a book which was to be an identification document for our contact – a waiter in the railway station restaurant at Frýdek-Místek – a town about 17km south of Ostrava and in the Český Těšín region near the border with Poland, our destination. We said farewell to friends at the train – all in one compartment – against the advice of the organisers – and set off to the great unknown. At Frýdek-Místek railway station restaurant we ordered a beer and made contact with the waiter. He checked the page from the book but told us he could not do anything as the Gestapo was already after him. He suggested that we return to the town of Palkovice, also a border town and march from thereto an inn on Lysá Hora mountain. That meant negotiating a steep slope ascending about 1000 metres. None of us knew the way, nevertheless, we set off. The night was dark and the path almost non-existent. We were stumbling over the roots and boulders. At about 3 am we arrived at the inn. We found the waiter who should have helped us to cross the border. He could not do it and sent us to yet another waiter in a mountain hotel at Bílý kříž, about 22km from Palkovice. We refreshed ourselves with a few cups of tea and then continued on our journey. It began to be dawn when we arrived at that hotel. On our way, we encountered four German Border Guards. Why they didn’t arrest us nobody knows even today. We met the waiter and succeeded this time. During the day we rested in a room. The waiter came by that evening, gave us a password (for the country) and instructions to leave one by one and assemble near a dead tree used in the mountain for drying hay. The operation did not go at all that smoothly – someone forgot the password, the Guardsmen again, etc, but eventually we were there. The only one who was absent was our guide. He came after a while and we set off through a thick forest. The way for him was a piece of cake, less so for us. Soon it started to rain and very heavily for luck. Drenched to the skin we came to a halt on a small glade. There we were to wait till dawn and then we’d cross the border through a gorge of a dry brook. We had to be very quiet as the Slovak Border Guards were nearby.
Then the guide fell asleep. We tried to wake him up at a certain hour but almost to no avail. He was like dead. Eventually, we brought him back to life, he was shaking like a leaf and speechless. Fortunately, someone had a bottle of brandy and that put him on his feet again. We walked for a few minutes then he told us we were in Poland. He collected his fee from us, indicated the direction and left. A thick fog descended and we lost our direction. Luckily, we met a girl and she showed us the way.
We arrived at the previously Czech now Polish village of Dolní Lomná, about 13 km from Bílý Kříž and reported to the Polish Guard. They wrote a protocol, loaded us on a cart and sent us to the town of Jablunkov, about 5km away. There we stayed for about a week then someone had a good idea to phone the Czech Consul at Krakow (The Consulate has not surrendered to the Nazi after the takeover of Czechoslovakia). They told us to come immediately.”
Polish Disappointment:
However, there Karel was informed that the formation of Czechoslovak military units in Poland were just rumours because the Polish authorities would not allow Czechoslovak military units to be formed on its territory for fear of provoking Nazi Germany.
Instead, he learnt that Vladimír Znojemský, 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, the Czechoslovaks 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. Karel decided that his best choice was to go to France.
Initially, Karel and his fellow escapees were accommodated at the ‘Dom Turystczny’, a cheap tourist hostel near the Czechoslovak Consulate while preparations were made for their onward journey to France. The hostel was now overfull with Czechoslovaks, so they were then transferred to Bronowice Małe, a derelict former Polish Army barracks from the Austro- Hungarian era, on the outskirts of Krakow. This was then being utilised as a temporary transit camp for the escaped Czechoslovak military prior to their transfer to France. Karel arrived there on 13 August 1939, the 1615th Czechoslovak escapee to arrive. The barracks, which were in poor condition, were already well inhabited by Czechoslovak escapees who stayed while arrangements were made for their transportation, by sea, to France. In the meantime, there was very little for the escapees to do there apart from being patient and keeping fit and exercising.
On 17 August, a total of 88 Czechoslovak airmen and 189 Czechoslovak soldiers, including Karel, went by train to Gdynia where they boarded the Swedish steamship SS ‘Kastelholm’ and sailed to Calais, France. It was to be the last departure of Czechoslovak escapees from Poland to France as the German invasion of Poland would soon commence.
France:
They arrived at Calais four days later. Karel and his fellow escapees were met by the Czechoslovak Defence Attaché from the Paris Embassy, who gave them each a little French money for their immediate needs, and after some food, they boarded a train for the 13-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. Whilst the necessary documentation was prepared for their enlistment into the Legion, they spent their time as a familiarisation period learning the ways of the Legion and having a crash-course in French. Any free time was usually spent in Paris exploring the sights and practising their newly-learnt French with the girls they met.
On 27 August, Karel was accepted into the Legion, at the rank of soldat, but before arrangements were completed to transfer the Czechoslovaks to the Legion’s training base at Sidi bel Abbès, Algeria, Germany invaded Poland on 1 September. Two days later after Germany ignored their ultimatum, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany. With war now having been declared, Karel and the other Czechoslovak airmen were released from, their Legion service contract and transferred to the l’Armée de l’Air at their BA117 recruitment centre at Dugny, near Paris.
L’Armée de l’Air:
On 6 October, at the rank of Caporal-chef, Karel was posted to their training airbase at Centre d’Instruction de Chasse at Chartres for re-training on French equipment.
He completed his re-training and, on 13 May 1940, was assigned, at the rank of Caporal-chef (Sgt) to GC II /2 who were based at Chissey and equipped with MS-406c fighter aircraft.
When the Germans invaded France, the rapidity of their Blitzkrieg caused GC II/ 2 to frequently evacuate their airfields as they retreated westward. Laon-Chambry was evacuated on 16 May and GC II/2 went to Plessis-Belleville. On 21 May they moved to Chissey, on 15 June to Feurs, the next day to St Symphorien d’Ozions, and finally on 17 June to Montpellier airbase in south-west France.
With the imminent capitulation of France, the Czechoslovak airmen were released from l’Armée de l’Air service and those in GC II/ 2 travelled by coach to Port Vendres about 190 km away near the Spanish border, for evacuation. With other Czechoslovak airmen, Karel sailed on 24 June 1940 aboard the ‘Général Chanzy’ to Oran, Algeria. They then went by train to Casablanca, Morocco and after a five-day wait they were able to board the ship ‘Gib-el-Dersa’ which sailed, at 15:12 on 29 June 1940, to Gibraltar, arriving at 11:00 on 30 June. Here they changed ships to the ’Neuralia’ and sailed on 2 July, in a convoy of about another 30 ships, for Liverpool, arriving on 12 July 1940.
During the Battle of France Karel had flown 21 operational hours.
RAF:
On arrival in England the Czechoslovak airmen were initially based at the Czechoslovak transit camp at Cholmondeley. The Battle of Britain was now in progress and there was an urgent need for fighter pilots. As a trained pilot Karel was quickly admitted to the voluntary reserves of the RAF, with the rank of AC2, on 26 July 1940 and transferred to the Czechoslovak RAF Depot at RAF Cosford. On 6 August 1940, ten Czechoslovak officers and 14 Sergeants including Karel, at the rank of Sgt, were posted to the newly formed 310 (Czechoslovak) Sqn based at RAF Duxford and equipped with Hawker Hurricane Mk I fighter aircraft.
At Duxford, they were re-trained by British officers who were the flying instructors. F/O Ladislav Češek, a Briton of Czech 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.
By 17 August, 16 pilots had been retrained to the required standard, enabling two operational Flights to be formed and the squadron was declared operational on 17 August.
Battle of Britain:
Karel made his first operational flight of the Battle of Britain in Hurricane Mk I V6621 on 30 August. Take-off was at 10:50 returning to Duxford at 12:40. A long patrol of 110 min with no Luftwaffe encountered.
During the Battle of Britain he achieved combat success with a Me 110 damaged, east of London, on 7 September at 17:15 whilst flying Hurricane Mk I V6642.
During the Battle, Karel made a total of 32 operational flights, totalling 35 hours and 15 min, thus making him an eligible recipient for the coveted Battle of Britain clasp.
After the Battle:
Karel remained with 310 Sqn until 26 April 1941 when he was posted to 48 Maintenance Unit (MU) at Hawarden as a test pilot on single and multi-engined aircraft. He was to remain in this role for the next two years being assigned to various MUs around the country; 8 MU at Little Rissington on 21 October 1941, 9 MU at Cosford on 1 January 1942, London Aircraft Productions on 27 March, 12 MU at Kirkbride on 3 June, 45 MU at Kinloss on 20 June, and lastly 20 MU at Aston Down on 3 March 1943.
To 68 Sqn:
Karel was selected for night-fighter training and on 18 May 1943 he was posted to 24 OTU [Operational Training Unit] at RAF Charterhall, some 60km south-east of Edinburgh, for re-training on Beaufighters and night-flying. There, he crewed-up with radar-operator P/O Drahomír Hradský also a Czechoslovak. On completion of their training they were posted to 68 Sqn, a night-fighter squadron based at RAF Coltishall in Norfolk, and equipped with Beaufighters Mk VIF. Later the squadron was re-equipped with Mosquito NF Mk XVII night-fighters. The squadron’s role was the night defence of the industrial Midlands and southern approaches to Liverpool from Luftwaffe bombers.
On the night of 4/5 February 1944 he achieved combat success with a twin-engined Ju 188 being shot down over the North Sea. This was the first, and only time a Ju188 had been shot down by a Czechoslovak crew. Karel recalls the combat:
“It happened on a clear starry night on 4 February 1944, the kind of night we, the fighters of the 68 Sqn from RAF Coltishall, liked the most. The pilots and radar operators of A-Squadron were at the wooden Dispersal Hut on the airfield, and four pilots and their radar operators were on immediate readiness alert. I was there with P/O Drahomír Hradský. We were wearing dark glasses over our eyes, which made it easier to adjust our vision when leaving the lighted room and entering the dark night. The blackout was absolutely perfect. It was already after midnight when the telephone announced a Luftwaffe raid on targets in East Anglia. The crews immediately ran to their Beaufighters Mk. VIF, which the mechanics were starting the engines in readiness. Ours had the serial code of KV965 and index code letters WM-M. I took off at 04:00. Meanwhile, Drahomir was fully occupied with his radar screen. After reaching the designated altitude of 15,000 feet he reported to me that he had a contact at a distance of about 6 miles. He also reported this to the GCI ground control station, which confirmed to him that there was a bogey (RAF terminology for an aircraft of unknown origin)”.
Karel approached the unknown plane with his Beaufighter at a distance of about 500 metres and clearly identified it as a Junkers Ju 188. He then flew even closer, up to about 140 metres, and aimed at the intruder, who was unaware of the approaching Beaufighter. “I fired a short burst of about a second,” recalled Karel, “I clearly saw the sparks that were formed by the reflection of our bullets hitting the wing at a low angle. I immediately fired a second time. The fuel tank located in the wing exploded. The light of the explosion clearly illuminated the left side of the plane, which was losing pieces of the structure in the explosion. I turned to the right and watched the fatally stricken Junkers swing to the right, trailing flames behind him. For a moment, the flaming machine flashed through the clouds as it struck sea level south of Dunwich, Suffolk. The land radar station that had been observing the action, saw it disappear from their radar screen and congratulated us on our success. It was all over. We landed back at Coltishall at 06:25”.
To Transport Command:
With the Allies advancing through Europe, following D-Day, the night war over Britain was quickly coming to an end.
On 21 January 1945, Karel transferred to RAF Transport Command and posted to 105 (Transport) OTU at Bramcote for re-training on multi-engined aircraft. On completion of his training, he was posted to Metropolitan Communication Squadron also at Hendon. There he would ferry VIPs to destinations in liberated Europe. He remained there until he returned to Czechoslovakia on 17 August 1945.
Post WW2:
On his return to his homeland, he was to learn that the Germans had interned his relatives at the Svatobořice internement camp, near Kyjov in Moravia, as a reprisal for Karel joining the Allies.
He remained in the Czechoslovak Air Force until his demobilisation in 1946, he then returned to ČSA as a pilot.
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.
As a consequence of three ČSA DC3s being hijacked by their crews of former Czechoslovak RAF airmen to Erding, Germany, in March 1950, all other ex-RAF airmen employed by ČSA were immediately dismissed. In anticipation of further persecution from the communist authorities, Karel decided to escape to the west. With fellow former RAF colleagues Gejza Holoda, Vladimir Nedelka, Karel Schor, Jaroslav Sispera and their families, Karel planned to across the border, near Břeclav,, a town near the Austrian border, into Austria in mid-December 1950. However, unknown to them, Karel Ulehla, the guide recommended to them, was a Communist informer who revealed the escape plan to the StB – Státní bezpečnost – the state secret service. This resulted in the arrest of all the intended escapees. On 23 December, Karel was arrested at his flat in Prague before he was able to travel to Břeclav.
On 24 February 1951, the five airmen were charged with high treason and espionage, with three wives facing charges of high treason and another wife for failure to report criminal activity. They were tried at the State Court in Prague on 4 April 1951, and Karel was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment – the longest of the entire group – on many fabricated charges. “This is how the world retaliates”, he later reflected. The first four months of imprisonment were served at Bory hard-labour prison, at Plzeň, 90km south-west of Prague. The remaining period of his sentence was served at the remedial labour camps of Horní Slavkov, some 115 km west of Prague, and the notorious uranium mines in Jáchymov, some 110 km north-west of Prague.
Karel was released from there on 14 May 14 1958, after seven and a half years imprisonment. Eight years later, the released airmen requested a review of the trial. It was proven that the entire evidence for their trial had been fabricated by StB employees. This resulted with those airmen being fully rehabilitated on 4 November 1966. Karel’s view was that “Time has erased bitterness, but it can never be forgotten.”
After his release, Karel, with his underappreciated pilot experience, worked as an electrician at Tesla Karlín, a factory in Prague. However, his love of flying did not leave him. He renewed his pilot’s license at the Benešov Aeroclub, where he flew recreationally until he was almost 70 years old.
Karel Šeda died, aged 83 on 15 June 1992, in Prague.
Medals Awarded:
1939 – 45 Star with Battle of Britain clasp
Air Crew Europe Star
Defence Medal
War Medal
Válečný kříž 1939 and 2 bars
Za chrabrost
Za zásluhy I.stupně
Pamětní medaile se štítky F–VB
Croix 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 9 – Černý Most:
A street named after him in the Černý Most District of Prague 9.
Choceň:
He is commemorated, along with six other Czechoslovak RAF airmen, on a Memorial Plaque at the Municipal Office at Choceň.
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:
Karel 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: 31.10.2025.
