* 17.10.1909, Kdyně.
† 09.04.1988, Kdyně.
The Early Years
Josef Hubáček was born on 17 October 1909 in Kdyně [then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire]. His father Václav was employed at a local spinning mill and his mother Františka worked as an agricultural assistant and brought up their five children. Václav was invalided in WW1, a consequence of which, in compensation for his injuries, he was provided with a small tobacconist shop where he was able to work and support his family.
For his schooling, Josef attended 5 years of general school and 3 years of secondary school at Kdyně. On completion, his father had him apprenticed as a machine fitter in a spinning mill in Kdyně, followed by 1 year at night school. On completing his apprenticeship in 1927, he worked at the mill for another year as a weaver. But he was fascinated with aviation and aspired to become a pilot.
Czechoslovak Air Force
Now aged 18, for his mandatory military service, on 1 October 1928, Josef joined the Military Aviation Academy as a cadet. There, he was selected for pilot training and made his first solo flight in May 1929. On completion of that training, he was then sent to the Military Aviation Academy at Chleb for training as a fighter pilot. Whilst there, as part of the training, in addition to the usual duties, he also practised aerobatics in groups, and František Novák [Head of Pilot Training] and Petr Široký [instructor] noticed his talent. Together, they began practising aerobatics in a group. He graduated from Chleb in September 1930 and on 1 October 1930, at the rank of svobodník [LAC], he was posted to the 32nd Fighter Squadron of the 1st ‘T.G. Masaryk’ Air Regiment, who were deployed at Kbely airbase, Prague. In 1931, he attended the Air Gunnery School at Malacky, Slovakia, where he learned aerial combat and target bombing.
On 1 October 1933, he was appointed as a flying instructor at the 1st ‘T.G. Masaryk’ Air Regiment‘s training squadron at Kbely airbase, where he mainly flew Avia B-21 and B-33 biplane fighter aircraft. Josef was then assigned to the 5th Air Regiment, where he attended and passed courses for instrument and night-flying. On graduating, he returned to the 1st ‘T.G. Masaryk’ Air Regiment at Kbely and was posted to its 43rd Squadron, which was equipped with Avia B-534 biplane fighter aircraft, the most advanced fighter of the Czechoslovak Air Force. The squadron was commanded by the legendary ‘King of the Air’, Lt. František Novák, who was also a noted aerobatic pilot.
In 1934, Josef was assigned to the newly established military school of high aerobatics as an instructor. His companions František Novák [Head of the School) and Petr Široký [Deputy Head] were also there. Between April and September 1935, he was attached to the Vojenský technický letecký ústav [VTLÚ ], the Military Aviation Technical Institute at Letnany airbase, Prague, where he served as a test pilot for ten months.
Czechoslovak Aerobatic Team
Josef’s above-average ability as an aerobatic pilot resulted in him being selected to join the Czechoslovak Air Force team. In 1935, the Prague Aeroclub organised an aviation day and, in addition to his solo aerobatics, Lt František Novák, also prepared a team aerobatics display. He only had three pilots, but five were needed for the team display, so he selected the two best pilots from the fighter squadron – Josef and Ota Hess. The team display was a great success and it was awarded a commendation for its excellent performance.
In addition to other aerobatic competitions in Czechoslovakia, the newly formed team participated in competitions in Romania, 1935, the 1936 Berlin Olympics, aerobatics demonstrations in Russia and at the Zurich International Air Show, 1937. At the Zurich competition, in the solo aerobatic events Novák came second, Široký third and Josef fourth. However, the most important discipline, group aerobatics, came at the very end of the competitions and the Czechoslovak team of Novák, Široký and Josef took first place, with the German favourites in second place!
The victory of the Czechoslovaks caused considerable surprise, and the Czech pilots began to be viewed as dangerous competition. Josef’s final aerobatic competition was in September 1937 at Kbely airbase.
ČSA
After seven years of military service, and having achieved the rank of rotmistr [W/O], Josef left the Czechoslovak Air Force on 28 February 1938, and became a civilian commercial pilot, joining Československé Státní Aerolinie [ČSA], the national airline, where he flew national and international routes.
Mobilisation
It was now a sensitive time in Central Europe, and the build-up of military forces by Nazi Germany along the Czechoslovak borders caused the Czechoslovak government to declare a partial mobilisation on 20 May 1938 to counter that threat.
Later that year, the aggressive overtures by neighbouring Nazi Germany regarding the Sudeten regions – the German speaking areas – of Czechoslovakia caused the Czechoslovak Government to again declare a mobilisation on 23 September 1938. As Josef, now a civilian, but as a former serviceman, was still a Reserve in the Czechoslovak Air Force and so was called up for military duty for the mobilisation.
Munich Betrayal
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 Diktat or 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.
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.
The Germans occupied Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939. Under pressure, Emil Hácha, the Czechoslovak President, had acceded to their demands. 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. By dawn 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. Josef had to fly with eight air attachés to supervise compliance with the redefined Czechoslovak borders in accordance to the terms of the Munich Agreement. He was then demobilised and returned to the service of ČSA.
German Occupation
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 falling into 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.
Upon occupation, the Czechoslovak military and all civilian air-fleets were disbanded by the Germans and all personnel dismissed. By this time Josef had achieved 1600 flying hours.
Resistance
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], which 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, a courier and other assistance to enable airmen to escape to Poland. Usually, this was by crossing the border from the Ostrava region.
Josef was one of 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. Josef was now married and living in Prague and, whilst a difficult decision, his wife supported his patriotic duty.
To Poland
Svaz Letců were particularly keen that members of the victorious 1937 Zurich aerobatic team escaped to Poland as they were recognised role models which would encourage others to escape. Josef’s first escape attempt was at the end of May 1939 along with fellow members of that team, the legendary František Novák and also Petr Široký. Arrangements were made, and Josef was instructed go to Prague’s Wilson railway station, where he would meet the other two and they would travel to Ostrava, a city about 15 miles from the Polish border, from where a courier would meet them and assist them to cross the border. At the railway station Josef met with Novák but there was no sign of Široký. They decided to continue to Ostrava anyway. On the train they met with Brigadier General František Langer who was also escaping.
They arrived at Ostrava, in south-east Czechoslovakia and only some 14 miles from the Polish border. They went to the designated pub where a courier had been arranged to meet them. There they met the courier who took them by car to the countryside outside Ostrava towards the Těšín area, the Czechoslovak border region which had been occupied by the Poles following the 1938 Munich Agreement. From there, the following day, Novák and Langer were taken by a guide over the border into Poland. Josef, however, was instructed to wait at the local railway station where a guide would come to take him over the border.
He waited in the railway café all day, during which time he noticed other young men, similarly dressed like him in hiking clothes, who were also clearly waiting for someone. Eventually, they began talking to each other and realised they were all waiting for the same guide. By nightfall, the guide had still not shown up, and the group decided to return to the pub in Ostrava and re-establish contact with Josef’s original contact there. This they did, only to be informed that the guide who had been due to take them over the border had been arrested by the Germans whilst crossing the border with other escapees. Disappointingly, they were told to return to their homes and wait for contact for when another border crossing could be arranged.
Josef’s second escape attempt was in July. During that interim period, he had met up with Raymund Půda, a fellow pilot from his Air Force days and member of the Czechoslovak aerobatic team in Zurich in 1937, and they agreed to escape together. Raymund had also previously tried to get to Poland, but the escape had been aborted. Finally, in July, they were contacted by Svaz Letců, and they departed from Prague’s Wilson railway station to Ostrava. There they made the pre-arranged contact with a courier and in the evening of 17 July, they were taken to a railway yard from where coal trains departed to Katowice, Poland.
Under the cover of darkness, they crawled to a hidden spot close to the train that was departing that night for Poland. The train had armed German soldiers walking around it, inspecting it. Whilst Josef and Raymund were waiting in the dark for the train to depart, they were joined by about another ten escapees. As the train slowly started to move, the guards stepped back from the train. Hidden by the darkness and the steam of the train’s engine, Josef and Raymund left their hiding place, ran to the train, jumped onto the steps of one of the carriages, climbed aboard and hid themselves within the carriage. The other escapees had done likewise to board other carriages of that train.
The train successfully crossed the border to Poland and the instructions they had received was that as they approached the railway station in Poland, they were to jump off it before it entered the station; the train would slow down to enable that to happen. This was because at the station were the Polish Customs who would detain the escapes, and carry out lengthy interviews of them and so there was always a risk that they would send an escapee back to Czechoslovakia. In the distance they could see the lights as the train was approaching the station, however the train did not appear to be slowing down so they had no option but to jump off it at speed.
They walked through a forested area and came across a recently harvested field with haystacks. There they slept for the rest of the night. The following morning, they set off to a nearby cement factory, owned by a Czech family, as had been pre-arranged by Obrana Národa. There they cleaned up after their night in the forest, ate, and were taken to the local railway station for their onward journey to Krákow. There they reported for duty at the Czechoslovak Consulate.
Polish Disappointment
However, whilst the Polish Authorities recognised the new puppet State of Slovakia, they 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.
Instead, they learnt that Vladimír Znojemský, the Czechoslovak Consul, had, via Štefan Osuský, the Czechoslovak Ambassador in Paris, negotiated with the French Government that 4,000 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, and with further retribution to their families. Josef 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 18 July, 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. Josef was the 1038th 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
Nearly two weeks later, at 04:00 on 27 July, Josef and 546 other Czechoslovak escapees left Bronowice Małe by train to Gdynia, a port on the Polish Baltic coast. At the railway station, there were Polish Air Force officers wanting to recruit the Czechoslovak pilots to join the Polish Air Force and offering them the equivalent rank as their Czechoslovak Air Force rank. But due to the previous disinterest from the Poles, there was now distrust from the pilots and only a few accepted this offer.
On 29 July, the escapees boarded the MS ‘Chrobry’, a 11,000 tonne Polish transatlantic 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 at Boulogne, France, so that the Czechoslovaks could disembark there. The sea was very calm for the journey, but the air below decks was bad and so many camped on the decks for the voyage. The MS ‘Chrobry’ arrived at Boulogne on the night of 31 July/1 August.
France
Early the following morning, Josef and his fellow escapees disembarked onto French soil. There, they were met by by kapitán Jan Pernikář, the Czechoslovak Defence Attaché from the Czechoslovak Embassy, Paris, who gave each of them a little French money for their immediate needs. 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 21 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.
l’Armée de l’Air
Before Josef was able to be transferred to the Legion’s training centre at Sidi-bel-Abbes, Algeria, Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, and two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany as their ultimatum to Germany to withdraw from Poland had been ignored. Instead, he was released from his Legion service and was transferred to the l’Armée de l’Air’s BA 117 recruitment centre at Base Aérienne de Dugny, Paris, with the rank of sergeant. On 11 September he was assigned to the Centre d’Instruction de Chasse at Chartres, the l’Armée de l’Air training airbase, about 50 miles South-West of Paris, for re-training onto on French Potez XXV and Morane-Saulnier MS.230 elementary trainers and then the Morane-Saulnier MS-406c fighter aircraft.
After some 24.14 hrs of retraining, Josef was awarded his l’Armée de l’Air pilot’s wings. On 2 December 1939, fellow Czechoslovaks Jindřich Beran, Josef Keprt and Josef Stehlík, were posted to 5 sqn of GC III /3, while Josef, Evžen Čížek and Václav Šlouf were posted to it’s 6 sqn. GC III/3 was deployed at Toul-Ochey airbase some 260 km south-west of Paris and equipped with MS-406C fighter aircraft. This was the period of the ‘phoney war’ with very little activity on the western front in France. During this time GC III /3 were mainly flying patrols along their section of the western front but with little sighting of Luftwaffe aircraft.
Battle of France
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 lightning speed and ferocity of their Blitzkrieg attack caused the l’Armée de l’Air units to rapidly retreat Westwards.
By 17 May, GC III /3’s 5 squadron were now deployed at Maubeuge airbase at Elesmes in north-west France, near the Belgium border and had been re-equipped with the superior Dw-520 fighter aircraft. The Czechoslovaks were joined by six more of their countrymen: František Běhal, Jan Čermák, Bedřich Krátkoruký, Tomáš Kruml, Karel Kuttelwascher and Josef Novák who had completed their re-training at Chartres.
During the Battle of France Josef achieved combat success:
On 11 May 1940, at 18:30 he shared the shooting down of a Me 109e near Maastricht. But later the same day his aircraft was shot down, and he was wounded in the arm in the attack and had to bail out. On landing he was taken to hospital at Dinard, Brittany.
Operation Aerial
Since 15 June, Operation Aerial, the evacuation of Allied military forces and civilians from ports in Western France had been in operation. With the French capitulation imminent, the Czechoslovak military in France were in danger of being interned by the Vichy regime or captured by the Germans. Winston Churchill, the newly appointed British Prime Minister (since May 1940), recognised the importance of experienced Czechoslovak airmen for the upcoming defence of Britain. He appealed to all the evacuated Czechoslovak airmen to come to Britain and continue the fight from there. The l’Armée de l’Air released the Czechoslovak airmen from their service so that they could make their journey to Britain via one of the evacuation ports, on mainland France or North Africa. For those in western France, they were instructed to get to the port at Bordeaux, on the Atlantic coast, before the Germans reached there, so that they could be evacuated to England from where they could carry on the fight against Nazi Germany.
Escape
With the risk of capture by the rapidly advancing Germans if he remained in hospital, Josef discharged himself and travelled on one of the last trains to Bordeaux. But he arrived too late, there were no Czechoslovaks there and all the evacuation ships had now departed. Instead, Josef now made his way south to Bayonne, a French port on the Atlantic coast, again too late as all evacuation ships had already departed.
From there, he travelled to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a small fishing village, on the French Atlantic coast, about 9 miles from the Spanish border where, on 24 June 1940, Josef, with some Polish soldiers and refugees, boarded the ‘Arandora Star, a 2,847 tonne British medium-sized ocean liner, and sailed for Liverpool, England, arriving on 27 June 1940.
RAF
On arrival at Liverpool, Josef’s first path, as for most of the Czechoslovaks, led to the Czechoslovak resettlement camp at Cholmondeley Park, near Chester. At Liverpool, they boarded a train to Nantwich, Cheshire, some 30 miles away, and from there marched 8 miles to Cholmondeley Castle. Here they were housed in the grounds in a tented camp 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, Josef was quickly transferred to the Czechoslovak RAF Depot, Cosford, where, on 12 July, he was admitted to the Volunteer Reserve of the RAF, with the rank of Sgt and swore his oath of allegiance to King George VI. That same day, Josef and 23 other Czechoslovak pilots were posted to the newly formed 310 Sqn (Czechoslovak) at RAF Duxford, near Cambridge, which was in 12 Group of RAF Fighter Command. Thus, Josef became one of the squadron’s founding members. The following day, nine more pilots arrived, and on 17 August, a further 20 pilots arrived.
With British flying instructors, they were re-trained on Hawker Hurricane Mk I fighter aircraft and also given rudimentary English lessons. 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. Josef made his first training flight on 21 July in a dual seater Avro Tutor with F/O John Boulton as his instructor. Five days later he made his first solo flight in a Hurricane.
Battle of Britain
On 6 August, the squadron paraded for inspection and were addressed by Edvard Beneš, the Czechoslovak President in Exile, who visited RAF Duxford, and during the afternoon, three Hurricanes led by F/Lt Jefferies and included Sgt Rudolf Zima and Josef gave him and his entourage a display of formation flying.
At RAF Duxford, 310 Sqn’s primary role was flying standing patrols and sector defensive sorties from RAF Duxford, to protect the Midlands and to reinforce the 11 Group airfields in south-east England when called. In September, along with RAF Duxford-based 242 Sqn, and 19 Sqn from nearby RAF Fowlmere, 310 (Czechoslovak) Sqn formed part of the Duxford Wing, No. 12 Group’s ‘Big Wing’ formation, which was commanded by 242 Sqn’s Douglas Bader. The Big Wing first flew operationally on 7 September 1940, and two days later, 302 (Polish) Sqn and 611 Sqn were added to it.
During the Battle of Britain, Josef achieved combat success:
The squadron was declared operational on 17 August 1940 and made its first operational patrol in the Battle of Britain later that afternoon. Josef had completed his Hurricane conversion to the required RAF standard and was awarded his RAF pilot’s wings, was passed for duties as an operational pilot and then assigned to the squadron’s ‘A’ Flight, Green section. That afternoon he undertook his first patrol, Hurricane Mk I, H4087. It was an uneventful patrol, taking off at 14:10 and returning at 14:55, thus qualifying him for the coveted Battle of Britain clasp and becoming one of the 88 Czechoslovak pilots who flew in the Battle.
| Date | Time | Action |
03.09.40 | a Do 17, probable. |
|
09.09.40 | 17:40 | a Me 110c destroyed. |
15.09.40 | 12:05 | a shared destroyed Do 17z – FI + FH 1/LG 76 |
On 15 September, whilst flying Hurricane Mk I R4087 NN-X, at 20,000 feet, a formation of between 15 and 20 Luftwaffe aircraft were sighted above London and attacked at 12:05. In the resulting combat, Josef shared in the shooting-down of a Do 17 which crashed by the entrance of Victoria railway station.
Josef’s combat report for that action reads:
“After sighting an enemy bomber formation we approached it from a westerly direction. I delivered attack on one Do 215, which had broken from the formation. First attack I delivered from the port and rear, during which the e/a’s gunner fired at me. The E/A began to glide sharply. I immediately delivered another attack, and after me, another Hurricane also attacked, but the gunner had already ceased fire. E/A continued in sharp gliding and I delivered further attacks jointly with several Hurricanes and Spitfires. At 8,000 ft, parts of the rudder broke off and 2 airmen bailed out. The E/A crashed south of London.”
But later the same day, Josef was shot down. Fighter Command scrambled 28 squadrons of Hurricanes and Spitfires including 12 Hurricanes of 310 Sqn, led by F/Lt Jefferies. They took off from RAF Duxford at 14:15, forming a Wing with 611, 19, 242 and 302 Sqns to intercept a Luftwaffe raid on London. Several formations of 20 to 30 Luftwaffe aircraft were sighted consisting of Do 215 and He 111’s escorted by Me 109’s and 110’s flying above the bombers. 310 Sqn, with other Hurricane squadrons had been detailed to attack the bombers, but were attacked by a formation of Me 109’s which had been sighted above and overhead and which broke up the wing. F/Lt Jefferies ordered the squadron to climb to 24,000 feet into the sun when another large formation of enemy aircraft was sighted approaching from the south. 310 Sqn delayed the attack until they turned, and they faced west. They were now above Chatham, Kent, and a head-on attack was launched with the sun behind them. The fighters engaged, but the subsequent dogfight of some 10 minutes yielded no results. During that engagement, Josef was leading Green section when at about 14:30, his Hurricane was hit by a cannon shell from a Me 109 from JG 26. In the attack, Josef was wounded with shrapnel to his chest and left leg. He bailed out and was taken to the Royal Navy Hospital at Chatham, for his wounds to be attended to. His Hurricane crashed at Walnut Tree Farm, Stoke, on the Isle of Grain, Kent.
Josef’s recollection of that encounter was:
“On my way back from the fight over London, I was heading back to base, and I joined a group of Polish fighters who were also returning. While I was flying so carefree, my plane was suddenly hit in the rudder. The impact was so strong that the joystick was knocked out of my hand. Subsequently, my plane rolled over onto its back and went nose-first into a corkscrew towards the ground. Fortunately, I had considerable altitude. I tried to level the plane, but everything was in vain. When I still couldn’t do it despite all my efforts and the ground was inexorably approaching, I decided to bail out. I slid back the cockpit canopy, released myself from the seat belt and tried to climb out, but the centrifugal force was pushing me back into the seat and I couldn’t overcome it. I pushed open the emergency door on the side of the plane and pushed the upper half of my body out. Fortunately, the strong air current flowing around the surface of the aeroplane completed the job and eventually pulled me out of the seat on its own. However, as it pulled me out, it bent me over and as I passed the rear tail surfaces, I hit my head on what looked like a rudder. I don’t know exactly, but I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was hanging on a parachute low above the ground. It was quiet. Only the wind whistled softly around. I could see the trees below me as if in a fog and before I could prepare for the landing, I hit the ground. Before I could release myself from the parachute, it dragged me back and forth on the ground for a while. I had tried again to free myself for only a moment, but before I succeeded, I lost consciousness again. When I regained consciousness, I was lying on a sofa in some small house and a doctor was sitting next to me. I still remember how my plane crashed nearby and burned. I was taken to the hospital, where the doctors treated my leg. They pulled out many fragments from it. What was worse was that when I hit the ground, I hit the joints in my legs, which then swelled. But in the end, everything healed and I was back at the squadron in a few days.”
His adversary in that Me 109 was the famous Gruppenkommandeur [Group Commander] of JG 26, Hauptmann [Captain] Adolf Galland, whose recollection of this combat is:
“After an unsuccessful ten-minute dogfight with eight Hurricanes, during which we lost a lot of altitude, I attacked two Hurricanes flying 800 metres below with my Stabschwarm. We completely surprised them, I approached the wingman and opened fire from 120 metres just as he was turning sharply to the left. The enemy aircraft shook after the hits to the engine and pieces flew off the left wing and fuselage. The left side of the fuselage started to burn.”
Josef was his 33rd victory of the 57 he achieved during the Battle of Britain, making Adolf Galland one of the highest-scoring Luftwaffe pilots at that stage.
Josef returned to the squadron from Chatham Hospital on 30 September, but made no further operational flights in the Battle. During the Battle of Britain, he had made 24 operational flights, totalling 25 hrs 35 min. He was assessed by his superior officer as being ‘Calm, prudent nature. Modest, reserved, quite self-confident. Of high moral qualities’.
After the Battle
With the Battle of Britain having finished, 310 Sqn’s main role now was convoy protection of Allied shipping along the East Anglia coast and the approaches to the Thames Estuary.
Josef was sent on attachment to 24 Sqn on 5 November where he was a flying instructor for inexperienced pilots until 18 November when he returned back to 310 Sqn. On 8 February 1941 he was commissioned at the rank of P/O and he remained with 310 Sqn until 14 March 1941, when he had completed his operational tour.
For his mandatory rest period from operational flying, he was posted on 14 March to the Czechoslovak Depot at RAF Cosford, where he taught combat tactics to trainee pilots. His next posting was on 24 April 1941 to the pilot training section at HQ SFS Ferry [Service Ferry Squadron] at RAF Kemble, some 80 miles west of London. The squadron was in RAF Ferry Command and its role was ferrying new aircraft from the factory to operational squadrons in the UK. He attended a conversion course for twin-engined aircraft and was next posted on 28 May 1941 to 10 Maintenance Unit (MU) at RAF Hullavington, where he was a test pilot. On 14 August 1941, he was attached to 15 MU at RAF Wroughton also as a test pilot, returning to 10 MU on 21 October 1941 and remaining until 12 November that year.
Josef was then posted to 45 AFG [Air Ferry Group] at RAF Prestwick for Transatlantic Ferry Duties, where he was ferrying aircraft between Canada and England. There, Josef, together with Sgt. Karel Balík, became the first two Czechoslovak pilots to fly across the Atlantic. In total, he made six of these demanding transatlantic flights, totalling 146 flying hours, transporting Catlina, Liberator, Hudson and Boston aircraft. The route took them from Dorval, near Montreal, Canada to Goose Bay, Labrador, to Bluie West Eight – now Somdrestrom – Greenland, to Reykjavík, Iceland, and finishing at Prestwick, Scotland. On 8 February 1942 he was promoted to the rank of F/O and he remained with 45 AFG until 8 December 1942.
Josef then briefly returned to the Czechoslovak Depot between 8 the 18 December 1942 and was then posted to 24 Sqn of RAF Transport Command based at RAF Hendon. There he flew mainly Dakotas [he flew a total of 892 hours] and Hudsons (303 hours]. During this period, he was flying long-haul flights to the Middle and Far East and later on short-haul flights to liberated Europe, transporting military material, weapons, soldiers, the wounded, but also flying personnel and VIPs, including Winston Churchill to the Yalta conference, and Air Marshal Janoušek. He was promoted to the rank of F/Lt on 8 February 1943 and remained with 24 Sqn until 2 October 1944 when he was posted to the Czechoslovak Air Force Transport Pool. On 11 February 1945 he attended Course 4 at the School of Air Transport at RAF Watchfield, some 65 miles north-west of London.
With the war now finished. he resigned his RAF commission and returned to Czechoslovakia on 18 August 1945 with the rank of kapitán in the Czechoslovak Air Force.
Post WW2
Initially, Josef remained in the Czechoslovak Air Force, assigned to the Transport squadron at Prague-Ruznyě airbase. ČSA , his pre-war employer was rebuilding itself after WW2 and they asked Josef to leave the Air Force and join them as Head of Flying Personnel.
Communist putsch
After February 1948, he was appointed Head of the Operations Department until March 4, 1950. However, since the Communist takeover in February 1948, the Czechoslovaks who had fought for the Allies in WW2 were regarded as being tainted by Capitalism and systematically many were arrested, imprisoned and subjected to other persecution.
As Josef was now deemed to be a politically unreliable person, he was dismissed from ČSA in 1950, interrogated and threatened with imprisonment by the StB – Státní bezpečnost – the Czechoslovak Security Police. He and his wife and son were then forced to vacate their service flat, leave Prague and go back to his parents flat at his native Kdyně. There he worked initially as a driver for the forestry service until an injury prevented him from continuing with that employment. Josef then worked, until his retirement, in administration, at the MNV – Místní národní výbor – for Kdyně, the Local National Committee of Kdyně, the municipal authority created after the Communist putsch, which took over local governance from pre-war municipal councils, handling administration, rationing, reconstruction and party policy.
Later in life, he helped reestablish the Pošumavský aeroklub at Klatovy, serving as its chairman until his death.
F/Lt Josef Hubáček, after long-standing heart problems, died in Kdyně on 9 April 1988, aged 79.
Medals Awarded
Air Force Cross
1939 – 45 Star with Battle of Britain clasp
Air Crew Europe Star
Atlantic Star
Africa Star
Defence Medal
1939-1945 War Medal
Válečný kříž 1939 and bar
Za chrabrost
Za zásluhy I.stupně
Pamětní medaile se štítky F–VB
Croix de Guerre avec palme
Haakona VI
Orden zasluge za narod II
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:
Josef 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:
Kdyně
At his former hometown of Kdyně, he is commemorated on a memorial plaque.
Klatovy – Letiště Josefa Hubáčka Klatovy:
Since June 2022, Klatovy airport has been known as Letiště Josefa Hubáčka Klatovy -Josef Hubáček Airport Klatovy – in honour of his extraordinary legacy as a pre-war acrobatic pilot, RAF Battle of Britain pilot, civil transport pilot for ČSA, and long-time president of the Pošumavský Aeroklub Klatovy.
Prague 1 – Klárov:
In November 2017, his name, along with the names of 2534 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: 30.10.2025.
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