* 06.06.1906, Olomouc.
† 15.03.1981, Prague.
Pre WW2
Alois Hlobil was born on 6 June 1906 at Olomouc, a Czechoslovak city some 210 km south-east of Prague. He matriculated from high school and in 1925 joined the Military Academy at Hranice for his mandatory military service. On completion of that service, in 1927, he had achieved the rank of Lieutenant and decided to make his career in the Army. He was then posted to the Military Academy at Milovice from where he graduated in 1928. In 1930 he attended the aerial observer’s school at the Military Aviation Academy at Prostějov. On graduation from there, he was posted to the 9th squadron of the of the 3rd ‘M. R. Štefánik’ Air Regiment who were deployed at Piešťany airbase in Slovakia.
Czechoslovak Air Force
Alois volunteered, and was selected for pilot training at the Aviation Academy at Olomouc, graduating on 1 December 1932. He was then posted, as an operational pilot to the regiment’s 10th squadron who were deployed at Nitra airbase in Slovakia on 15 May 1933. In 1934 he was posted for a training course at KOPL – kulometne obrany proti letadla [Anti-aircraft machine gun defence] who were stationed at Malacky in Slovakia and in 1935 to a further training course at the Military Academy at Olomouc. Alois was next posted, as a fighter pilot, to the 31st squadron of the 4th Air Regiment who were deployed at Hradec Králové airbase, some 100 km East of Prague.
1938 Mobilisation
The political situation in central Europe was now changing rapidly. Hitler and the Nazis in Germany were making territorial demands on the Czechoslovak Government in respect of the Sudetenland border regions. During this period the 31st Fighter Squadron were operational in Moravia and Slovakia to defend the country’s airspace against intruders.
Munich Dictat
Following the Munich Agreement, when the Sudetenland was ceded to Germany, Poland and Hungary also took some Czechoslovak territory. About 30% of Czechoslovakian territory had been lost, which included its border defences, and the new revised German border was now only some 30 km from Prague.
Despite assurances given by Hitler at the Munich Agreement, also known in Czechoslovakia as the ‘Munich Dictat’ or ‘Munich Betrayal’, of 30 September 1938, that he had no further interest in territorial gains for Germany, just a few months later Hitler extended his demands that the remaining regions of Czechoslovakia become part of Germany. By the time of the German Occupation Alois had achieved 770 flying hours and held the rank of Lieutenant.
German Occupation
The Germans occupied Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939. Under pressure, Emil Hácha, the Czechoslovak President, had ceded to their demands. In the early hours of 15 March 1939, he had ordered all Czechoslovak military units to stand down, remain in their barracks and not resist the occupation. By dawn that day, the Germans began their occupation of Czechoslovakia. 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. Within a few days of their occupation, the Germans disbanded the Czechoslovak military and all personnel were dismissed.
Resistance
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 escape. Usually, this was by crossing the border from the Ostrava region into Poland.
Like many of his former Air Force colleagues, Alois 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. Alois was one of many who responded to this news and investigated further. He was put in contact with the Obrana Národa.
Alois 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 the help of these two organisations, Alois travelled to Ostrava and covertly escaped over the border to Český Těšín, which was now part of Poland, on 13 July and travelled to Kraków to report for military duty at the Czechoslovak Consulate there.
Polish Disappointment
However, once there Alois was informed that the formation of Czechoslovak military units in Poland were just rumours because the Polish authorities, whilst recognising the new puppet State of Slovakia, showed little support for the Czechoslovak military who were escaping into their country. They would not allow independent Czechoslovak units to be established on its territory as they were concerned about antagonising neighbouring Nazi Germany. Thus, with this disappointment and uncertainty about their future, the morale amongst the escapees was low.
Instead, they 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 the German Protectorate of Czechoslovakia, where their execution or deportation to a concentration camp would be the most likely outcome. Alois decided that his best choice was to go to France.
In the interim, whilst arrangements were made for their journey to France, Alois and other escapees were transferred to Bronowice Małe, a former Polish army barracks on the outskirts of Kraków. Alois arrived there on 24 July, the 1147th arrival. The barracks, which were in poor condition, were already full of other escapees also waiting for their onward journey to France. In the meantime, there was very little for the escapees to do there apart from being patient, keeping fit, exercising and occasionally playing football against local Polish teams.
After a short stay at Bronowice Małe, Alois 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, Alois 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 Nanterre military barracks, in north-west Paris to complete enlistment formalities and undertake medical examinations.
French Foreign Legion
By 3 September 1939, when war was declared, Alois and his colleagues were still at Nanterre, having passed their medical checks and been accepted into the French Foreign Legion, with Alois having been awarded the rank of Lieutenant. They were now waiting for all the required documentation to be completed prior to their transfer to the Legion’s training base at Sidi-bel-Abbes, in Algeria. During this waiting period, the Czechoslovaks were given basic French lessons and any free time was usually spent in Paris exploring the sights and being eager to practise their newly-learnt French with the girls they met.
However, before that transfer process could be completed, war was declared and Alois and his fellow Czechoslovak airmen instead were released from their French Foreign Legion commitment and transferred to the L’Armée de l’Air at their recruitment centre at Dugny, near Paris.
L’Armée de l’Air
After recruitment formalities had been completed at Dugny, Alois was posted, on 2 October, to Centre d’Instruction de Chasse, at Chartres airbase for re-training on French fighter aircraft.
By 2 December he had completed the required re-training and was due to be posted, at the rank of Lieutenant, to GC II/4 ‘Les Petits Poucets’ with Jan Truhář. The unit were deployed at Xaffévillers airbase, near Nancy and were equipped with the American built Curtiss H-75c fighter aircraft. However, this posting had to be delayed as he had to go into hospital for an operation to remove his appendix. The operation was successful and after a short convalescence in hospital he continued onto GC II/4, joining Jan and also Raimund Půda, both fellow Czechoslovaks. This was the period of the ‘phoney war’ with very little activity on the western front in France. During this time GC II /4 were mainly flying patrols along their section of the western front but with little sighting of Luftwaffe aircraft.
The relative calm of the Phoney War ended at 05:35 on 10 May 1940 when Germany attacked Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. In France they came through the dense Ardennes Forest to skirt around the main defence of the Maginot line and swept Northwards towards the English Channel. The Battle of France had begun. On 15 May, along with fellow Czechoslovak Karel Pošta, Alois was posted to GC II/4. During this battle, Alois achieved combat success with a shared destruction of a Hs 126 at 09:30 on 5 June 1940 near Chemin des Dames whilst flying a Curtis H-75c no. 153.
However, the lightning speed and ferocity of the German Blitzkrieg attack caused the l’Armée de l’Air units to rapidly retreat westwards. By 17 June, GC II/4 had been forced to redeploy eight times and were now at Labanere airbase near Perpignan in south-west France.
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 and personnel 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.
It was there that they learned that France had capitulated and that Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, was appealing to all the evacuated Czechoslovak airmen to come to Britain and continue the fight from there. L’Armée de l’Air released the Czechoslovak airmen from their service so that they could make their journey to Britain.
The Czechoslovaks then travelled for four days by train to Casablanca from where Alois 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 in England, after security vetting and medical checks, like most of the Czechoslovaks, Alois’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 and on 21 July, despite his age of 33, Alois was transferred to the Czechoslovak Depot, at RAF Cosford.
On 2 August, as a trained fighter pilot he was quickly admitted to the voluntary reserves of the RAF, at the rank of P/O and swore his oath of allegiance to King George VI. As when joining l’Armee de L’air the previous year in France, the Czechoslovak airmen were given theoretical aviation training and language lessons, this time for British aircraft and the language was English.
Battle of Britain
On 5 September, after some basic English lessons, Alois was posted with fellow P/Os Josef Duda, Alois Vašátko, Josef Jaške, Jindřich Bartoš, Vlastimil Veselý, Adolf Vrána, Tomáš Výbíral and Sgts František Chabera, Josef Keprt, Josef Stehlík, Václav Šlouf, and Jan Truhlář. Along with these and 78 other ranks he 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, Alois and his fellow Czechoslovak pilots were immediately re-trained to fly Hurricanes by British RAF 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 English lessons with Mr G H Booty, to enable at least elementary radio communication to the required RAF standard.
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. The squadron was declared operational on 2 October and Alois was appointed Flight Commander of ‘B’ Flight.
Alois made his first operational flight on 8 October, flying Hurricane H1740 on a scramble at 13:50, returning at 15:10, with no Luftwaffe aircraft sighted. His second, and last operational flight in the Battle of Britain was on 13 October, flying Hurricane V6811 for a scramble, taking-off at 13:50 and landing at 14:30, again with no Luftwaffe aircraft sighted.
During the Battle of Britain, flying with the squadron’s ‘B’ Flight, Alois made a total of two operational flights, totalling 2 hrs.
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. Alois was posted to No 4 Ferry Pilot Pool at Kemble on 15 November 1940.
On 1 March 1941 he was promoted to the rank of F/O and on 16 March 1941, he was posted to No 8 Maintenance Unit at Little Rissington and promoted to the rank of F/Lt. There he served as a test pilot, flying new and repaired aircraft, until 21 May. Alois was then posted back to 312 Sqn, now deployed at RAF Jurby on the Isle of Man until 8 August 1941.
Czechoslovak Inspectorate General
From 312 Sqn, Alois was then posted to the Czechoslovak Inspectorate General [CIG] in London. It was his last RAF posting and also a desk-bound role. He remained there until the end of the war as the Czechoslovak Liaison Officer at the RAF Training Commands. This role involved overseeing Czechoslovak personnel not only at RAF training centres in the UK but also in Canada as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
The role also included representing the CIG at official events and at funerals. During this posting, he received further promotions: on 22 June 1942 to the rank of S/Ldr and then the following June to the rank of Acting Wing Commander.
Return to Czechoslovakia
In May 1945, he arrived with the first group of senior officers of the Czechoslovak Air Force back in Czechoslovakia. There he discovered that, as a reprisal for him escaping in 1939, the Germans had interned his relatives in Svatobořice internment camp, some 220 km south-east of Prague, during the war. Alois remained in the Czechoslovak Air Force at the rank of plukovník [G/Capt]; initially he served on the Air Force Main Staff and from September 1946 he was the head of the 1st Department of the Air Force Command.
Communist putsch
Following the Communist putsch 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. A few days after the putsch, Alois was dismissed from the Czechoslovak Air Force and was subjected to further persecution from the Communist authorities.
He died in Prague on 15 March 1981, aged 74.
Medals Awarded for WW2 Service
1939 – 45 Star with Battle of Britain clasp
Válečný kříž 1939
Pamětní medaile se štítky F–VB
Croix de Guerre avec Palme.
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:
Alois 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 2524 other Czechoslovak men and women who had served in the RAF during WW2, was unveiled at the Winged Lion Monument at Klárov, Prague 1.
Article last updated: 31.10.2025.
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