* 01.11.1913, Nová Paka.
† 15.05.1993, Nová Paka.
Pre WW2
Otakar ‘Ota’ Hrubý was born in Nová Paka on 1 November 1913 to Jan Hrubý, a textile mill foreman, and his wife Anna. Nová Paka was a small rural town some 50 miles north-east of Prague. In his youth, like many young Czechoslovaks, Ota was an active member of Sokol, a national organisation with a patriotic ethos which trained youth in physical fitness, discipline and civic duty. On completion of his schooling, he attended the Škoda industrial automobile school in Mladá Boleslav for two years and then completed a three-year apprenticeship as a car mechanic in Nová Paka.
Like many young Czechoslovak young men, Ota was captivated by flying and it became his aspiration. He applied to join the Military Aviation Academy, at Prostějov, as a cadet and was accepted on 1 October 1932 where he trained as an aircraft mechanic.
Czechoslovak Air Force
On 14 September 1933, he started his military conscription and on 1 October was assigned to the 82nd Bomber squadron of the 5th Aviation Regiment who were deployed at Prague. Whilst there he graduated from his training course with the rank of svobodník (LAC) and in September 1934 he was posted the to Regiment’s 83rd Bomber sqn deployed at Brno airbase.
On 28 October 1934 Ota was promoted to the rank of desátnik (Cpl), and on 1 April 1935 he returned to Prostějov for air-gunnery training from which he passed on 30 September with the rank of četař (Sgt). He was posted to the 74th Light Bomber Squadron, of the 6th Aviation Regiment at Hradec Králove where he finished his training as an air-gunner. Between April 1936 and April 1937 he was posted as an air-gunner instructor to the 5th and 6th Air Regiments at Brno airbase.
In February 1938 he was selected for pilot training at the Military Aviation Academy at Chleb, with further training at Hradec Králove, then on 1 June 1938 he was assigned to the 4th Air Regiment at Prague-Kbely airbase for fighter pilot training. On graduation from that course, Ota was awarded his Czechoslovak pilot’s wings and on 1 December 1938 was posted to 48 Fighter Sqn of the 4th Air Regiment who were deployed at Pardubice airbase and equipped with Avia B-534 biplane fighter aircraft, the most advanced fighter used by the Czechoslovak Air Force. Amongst his peers there were Václav Brejcha, Jaroslav Kučera, Josef Pípa, and Vlastimil Veselý with whom he would later meet up again in the RAF in the Battle of Britain.
Munich Dictat
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, the British Prime Minister, Daladier, the French President, Hitler, the German Chancellor and Mussolini, the Italian Dictator, met in Munich. The outcome of this was the Munich Agreement of 30 September 1938 wherein the Sudeten regions were ceded to Germany. Eduard Beneš, the Czechoslovak President, was not invited to participate in the discussion concerning the future of his country, instead, 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. As a result of that Agreement, in addition to Germany being ceded the Sudeten regions, Poland and Hungary took this opportunity to take some Czechoslovak territory on ethnicity grounds. Thus, 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.
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. The 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 were carried out.
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 Czechoslovakia.
After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, they disbanded the Czechoslovak military, and all personnel were dismissed.
With the Czechoslovak Air Force, Ota had made 671 flights, totalling 263:58 hours as an observer, and 496 flights, totalling 263:38 hours as a pilot.
Resistance
But just four days later internal resistance organisations were being established. 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 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 into Poland. Ota was one of the many Czechoslovak airmen and soldiers who clearly saw it was their duty to go to Poland from where they could participate in efforts to achieve the liberation of their homeland.
To Poland
With additional help from the Sokol organisation, another patriotic organisation, Ota travelled on 4 June, 1939, with fellow airmen Josef Duda, Stanislav Fejfar and Josef Hudec by train to the mining town of Ostrava, on the eastern side of Czechoslovakia, near the Polish border. Then by local train to Frýdek-Místek, south from Ostrava. There a pre-arranged guide led them some 20km through the forests to cross over the border into Poland. They then travelled to Kraków and reported for duty at the Czechoslovak Consulate.
Polish Disappointment
However, there they were informed that the formation of Czechoslovak military units in Poland was just a rumour because the Polish authorities would not allow Czechoslovak military units to be formed on its territory for fear of provoking Nazi Germany.
Instead, they learnt that Vladimír Znojemský, the Czechoslovak Consul, had, via Štefan Osuský, the Czechoslovak Ambassador 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. Ota and his colleagues decided that their best choice was to go to France.
Initially they were accommodated at the ‘Dom Turystczny’, a cheap tourist hostel near the Czechoslovak Consulate, whilst preparations were made for their onwards journey to France. Then, on 8 June, they relocated to Bronowice Małe, a former Polish Army barracks on the outskirts of Kraków, which was now utilised as a temporary transit camp where the escaped Czechoslovak military were billeted. Ota was the 256th Czechoslovak escapee to arrive there. 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.
To France
After a short stay in Poland, Ota, along with 138 other Czechoslovak military escapees, 42 of whom were airmen, travelled by train to the Polish Baltic port of Gdynia, where on 17 June they boarded the ‘Sobieski’, a Polish passenger ship and sailed, via Dover, England, to Boulogne, France, arriving on 19 June.
France
On arrival, Ota and his fellow escapees were met by the Air Attaché from the Czechoslovak Consulate, Paris. Each escapee was given 20 francs to cover their immediate needs, and after two days there, they travelled by train to the French Foreign Legion’s recruitment barracks at Place Balard, in the south-west of Paris, for medical examination and recruitment documentation to be completed for their acceptance into the Foreign Legion. This time was to serve as a familiarisation period to learn the ways of the Legion and to study French on crash courses, and they took every opportunity to practise their new language skills with French girls.
Ota was accepted into the 1st Regiment of the French Foreign Legion, at the rank of soldat, and on 28 June was transferred to the Legion’s base at Fort Saint Jean, at Marseille. On 3 July, the escapees boarded the ‘General Tirman’ a transport ship which sailed to Oran, on the Mediterranean coast of Algeria. From there they travelled on to the Legion’s training base at Sidi bel Abbès, some 35 miles south of Oran.
L’Armée de l’Air
With the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, the British and French declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. Ota was released from his Foreign Legion service and transferred to l’Armée de l’Air where he was posted to Escardrille Régionalle de Chasse 572 [ERC 572] of their Colonial Air Force deployed at Oran La Sénia airbase, Algeria. On 11 September he was transferred to their Centre d’Instruction at Blida airbase for re-training on French fighter aircraft.
The Phoney War came to an end on 10 May 1940 when the Germans invaded Holland, Belgium and France. The rapid success of their advance caused Italy to declare war on France and Britain on 10 June.
On 16 May 1940, having completed his training and now at the rank of sergent, Ota, Bohumil Votruba and Jan Štefan were posted to GC I/10 who were equipped with Morane-Saulnier MS-406 fighter aircraft and deployed at Oran La Senia airbase. Despite the rapid advance of the Germans during the Battle of France, as Italy had now also joined in the war, GC/10 remained in Algeria. They redeployed on 11 June to Djedeida airbase, on the Mediterranean coast of Tunisia to counter the perceived threat of attacks from neighbouring Libya by the Italian Regia Aeronautica on Algeria and Tunisia.
Evacuation to England
When France capitulated on 22 June the Czechoslovak airmen were released from l’Armée de l’Air service. They learned 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. With other Czechoslovak airmen Ota travelled to Casablanca, Morocco, where, on 28 June, under the command of Alois Hlobil, they boarded the ‘Gib-el-Dersa’ and sailed to Gibraltar. There they transferred to the ‘Cidonia’ which sailed for England on 7 July, arriving in Liverpool on 16 July 1940.
RAF
On arrival at Liverpool, Ota’s first path, as for most of the Czechoslovaks, led to the Czechoslovak resettlement camp at Cholmondeley Park, near Chester. First the Czechoslovaks boarded a train to Nantwich, Cheshire, some 30 miles away, and from there marched to Cholmondeley Castle, 8 miles away. Here they were billeted in a tented camp in the grounds where they were security vetted. The Battle of Britain was now in progress and the RAF urgently needed trained pilots, and the Czechoslovaks – many of whom had already seen combat in France – were particularly valued. As a trained fighter pilot, Ota was quickly transferred to the Czechoslovak RAF Depot, Cosford, where, on 30 July, he was admitted to the Volunteer Reserve of the RAF, with the rank of AC2 and swore his oath of allegiance to King George VI. There, as when joining l’Armée 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.
On 18 September, Ota was promoted to the rank of Sgt and three days later, having reached the standard required by the RAF, along with 19 other Czechoslovak pilots, he was posted from RAF Cosford to 6 OTU at Sutton Bridge for conversion to Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft. Firstly, on the slow and forgiving Tiger Moth, a dual-seater biplane, then graduating to the dual-seater Miles Magister monoplane, and then the more powerful dual-seater Harvard monoplane. When, in his instructor’s opinion, the required standard had been achieved, Ota progressed to flying solo on Hurricanes and was awarded his RAF pilot’s wings.
Battle of Britain
Ota completed this re-training on 9 October 1940 and with fellow Czechoslovak Sgt Oldřich Kestler was posted to 111 Sqn who were deployed at RAF Drem, some 15 miles east of Edinburgh, Scotland. They were equipped with Hurricanes, and he participated in the final phase of the Battle of Britain.
The squadron had previously been stationed at RAF Croydon and had suffered heavy losses during the Battle of Britain and had now been rotated north to RAF Drem in September for a well-deserved rest and to recuperate their losses. Whilst at RAF Drem, the squadron’s role was to protect the Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow against German naval or air attacks.
The following day he made his first flight with the squadron, flying Hurricane V6562, with Sgt Kestler for a 55-minute formation flight. Seven further training flights, including manoeuvres for combat, weaving, and sector reconnaissance, were undertaken during the next twelve days. His first operational flight in the Battle of Britain came on 23 October when he was scrambled at 17:15, a flight that lasted 45 minutes but during which no enemy aircraft were sighted.
After the Battle
In July 1941, the squadron redeployed south to RAF North Weald, Essex, and participated in offensive fighter sweeps over Northern France. It was re-equipped with Supermarine Spitfires Vb’s. While with 111 Sqn Ota achieved combat:
| Date | Aircraft | Action |
21.02.41 | Hurricane Mk I V7462 | a Me110c victory at 16:45 near Isle of Wight. |
04.09.41 | Spitfire Vb W3310 | a Me 109f shot-down at 16:45 near Mazingarbe, France. |
20.09.42 | Spitfire Vb W3310 | Me 109f damaged at 15:15 near Hazebrouck, France. |
12.02.43 | Spitfire Vb W3310 | a Me 109 damaged at 14:50, near Manston,. |
On 3 February 1942, Ota was commissioned at the rank of P/O and on 20 May 1942, he was posted to 313 (Czechoslovak) Sqn who were deployed at RAF Fairlop, London. There he completed his first operational tour and for his rest period with non-operational flying was posted on 13 June to 57 OTU at RAF Hawarden, near Chester, as a flying instructor. Having completed his rest period, on 15 December 1942, Ota was then posted to 310 (Czechoslovak) Sqn who were deployed at RAF Exeter.
At RAF Exeter, 310 Sqn was mainly flying convoy patrols and providing fighter cover for Allied bombers on raids over northern occupied France. These raids, known as ‘Ramrods’ were primarily intended to destroy ground targets and also inflict losses by the escorts on German fighters trying to intervene. They also undertook ‘Rodeos’ – offensive fighter sweeps over Northern France – to tempt Luftwaffe fighters to engage with them so that they could be destroyed in aerial combat.
Ota was promoted to the rank of F/Lt on 3 February 1944. He completed his 2nd operational tour in July 1944 and was transferred back to the Czechoslovak Depot at RAF Cosford pending his next posting. On 27 September 1944 he was posted to No 17 SFTS [Service Flying Training School] at RAF Cranwell for a conversion course to fly twin-engined Bristol Beaufighter and de Havilland Mosquito fighter aircraft. On 20 November 1944 Ota was posted to No 12 (P) AFU [Advanced Flying Unit], at RAF Grantham in Lincolnshire, for advanced pilot training. The following day, as part of that training, he was sent to the 1531 Beam Approach Training [BAT] Flight at RAF Cranage, about 30 miles east of Liverpool, the specialist RAF training unit to train pilots to land their aircraft in poor visibility with the aid of radio signals. One of the teaching aids used there was a Links Trainer, the forerunner of the flight simulator, but in WW2 was an rudimentary blacked-out cockpit to teach a pilot to fly just using instruments. Ota, always looking to improve his piloting skills, was impressed with this device. That course finished on 5 March 1944 and his next posting was to 51 OTU at RAF Cranfield for night-fighter training.
The Accident
However, an accident prevented that posting. Ota wanted to know more about the flying characteristic of the Mosquito in the hands of an experienced Mosquito pilot and so contacted his friend Acting S/Ldr Miroslav Mansfeld now with 68 Sqn and deployed at RAF Coltishall, near Norwich. Between them they arranged that Ota would go over to RAF Coltishall and Miroslav would take him for an unofficial flight in a Mosquito NF Mk. XII. In mid-March the flight took place, Miroslav flying with Ota in the radar-operator’s seat. All went well during the flight with Miroslav impressing Ota with the flying capabilities of the Mosquito.
However, on landing, as soon as the wheels had touched down, Ota released himself from his seat harness as Miroslav was taxiing back from the runway along the perimeter track to the dispersal area. Unfortunately, the right-hand undercarriage wheel went into a badly filled in crater, and the impact threw Ota forward into the radar screen facing him, catching his right cheek. The Mosquito was undamaged, but Ota’s right cheek had begun to swell up, requiring a hospital visit. The nearest one was at Halton, and there, on examination by the Doctor a broken cheek bone was diagnosed. After surgery, he returned to Czechoslovak Depot at RAF Cosford to convalescence. With the war in Europe finishing on 8 May 1945, this accident meant that he was unable to return to flying for the remainder of the war.
Ota was nominated for the Distinguished Flying Cross, which was approved on 8 January 1945. The citation reads:
“As a fighter pilot and section leader Flight Lieutenant Hrubý has completed 218 sorties during which he has set the highest example of skill, courage, and devotion to duty. Flight Lieutenant Hrubý has destroyed one enemy aircraft and damaged 3 others.”
During his RAF service, Ota had flown 218 combat missions totalling 444 operational hours.
Post WW2
After his convalescence, Ota was able to returned to Czechoslovakia on 26 September 1945. He continued to serve in the Czechoslovak Air Force, but now at the lower rank of nadporučík (P/O). On 28 October 1946 he was promoted to the rank of štábní kapitán [Staff Captain] and posted, as Commanding Officer to the 12th Squadron of the 1st ‘Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk’ Air Regiment, deployed at Prague-Kbely airbase and equipped with Spitfire LF Mk.IXE’s. On 31 October 1947 he was posted to the Vojenský technický a letecký ústav [VTLÚ], the Aeronautical Research Centre for the Czechoslovak Air Force, at Letňany airbase, Prague, with the role of overseeing the delivery of new and repaired aircraft for the Czechoslovak Air Force as he was regarded as a gifted test pilot.
During 1947, Ota and fellow former RAF airman Adolf Vrána, now Commanding Officer at Prague-Kbely airbase, and also from Nová Paka, were the instigators in forming an aero-club at Nová Paka. Land was obtained and an airstrip and facilities constructed there, thus enabling new young Czechoslovaks from that region to learn to fly sports aircraft.
Communist putsch
Since the Red Army had ‘liberated’ Czechoslovakia on 9 May 1945, the Soviets were intent on taking control of the country and placing pro-Soviet supporters in key roles. The Soviet influence built up and on 25 February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia [KSČ], with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia through a putsch.
Following that Communist take-over, 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. In 1949, Ota was demoted from his rank of štábní kapitán [Staff Officer] in the Czechoslovak Air Force to the lowest rank of vojín [AC2] and dismissed. In 1950, now working in a woodworking factory, the StB – Státní bezpečnost, the state secret service in Nová Paka, came to the factory and arrested him. He was detained, as a political prisoner, for two years in Mirov high security prison, about 100 miles south-east of Prague, without any charges brought against him. Despite no charges having been made, on release from Mirov, on 11 June 1951, his release papers were marked that he was only permitted to do manual work. Ota never forgave the authorities for the injustices he had endured during that detention. At first, as a former car mechanic, he was only able to obtain employment as a delivery driver at a Nová Paka brewery, but still was under observation by the StB. In 1963 when there was a large-scale amnesty towards former political prisoners and those who had a negative attitude to the Communist regime, Ota was able to obtain less physically demanding work in the office there until 1969 when he retired aged 73.
That amnesty had permitted Ota, and other Czechoslovak Battle of Britain veterans to be allowed to go to England in 1965 to attend the 25th anniversary reunion of that Battle. A further visit to England was made in 1990,.Ota was one of a group of Czechoslovak RAF veterans who visited the UK that July and attended a reception at former WW2 RAF Duxford airfield. That September, he returned to the UK with other Czechoslovak Battle of Britain pilots for a reception to commemorate the 50th anniversary of that Battle. At that reception he was presented to the Queen Mother.
Whilst that was a high point of 1990 for Ota, that year also had a low point as Ota was having recurring throat pain which was diagnosed as throat cancer that required Laryngectomy surgery in Prague that year. With the assistance of Reg Wyness, a British friend and benefactor, who contacted the RAF Benevolent Fund, an elctrolarynx – a voice prosthesis device – was funded and obtained for Ota, enabling him to converse with his family and all others again.
Ota Hruby died on 15 May 1993 at Nová Paka, Jičín, Czechoslovakia, aged 79.
Medals awarded
Distinguished Flying Cross
1939 – 45 Star with Battle of Britain clasp
Air Crew Europe Star
Atlantic Star
Defence Medal
1939-1945 War Medal
Válečný kříž 1939 and 3 bars
Za chrabrost and 2 bars
Za zásluhy I.stupně
Pamětní medaile se štítky F–VB
Croix de Guerre avec palmes
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:
Otakar 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:
Nová Paka:
In September 2020, a memorial plaque for Ota and fellow RAF Czechoslovaks Stanislav Fejfar and Adolf Vrána from Nová Paka at Jirový park.
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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