* 04.05.1898, Karlova Huť.
† 10.08.1981, Florida, USA.
Pre WW2
Alexander ‘Saša‘ Hess was born on 4 May 1898 at Karlova Huť, near Beroun some 20 miles south-west of Prague. At that time, it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the second son of the chief engineer at the Královodvor Ironworks in Karlov Huta. For his schooling, he attended elementary and High School in Prague from where he matriculated in 1916.
Austro-Hungarian Army
WW1 had started on 28 July 1914, and now aged 18, on matriculating from High School, Alexander was drafted, as an Officer-Cadet in the 88th Infantry Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian army, on 11 May 1916.
During his WW1 service against against the Allies, he participated in combat on the Russian front in 1916, where at the rank of Zugsführer [Sgt], he commanded a front-line infantry platoon. He also fought on the Italian front in 1917. There, he was wounded twice in battle: in the hand in August and in the head in November. From 1 February 1918, he was a platoon commander, then Commander of an Anti-Gas Assault Battalion and held the rank of poručík [Lt].
The ceasefire for WW1 was declared on 11 November 1918, and the following month, Alexander was demobilised from the Army. He enrolled at the Technical University in Prague to study engineering, but returned to the new Czechoslovak army on 30 June 1919. On 1 May 1920, he successfully applied for transfer to the newly formed Czechoslovak Air Force.
Czechoslovak Air Force
In May 1921, Alexander graduated from the Military Aviation Academy at Chleb as an aerial observer, and was posted to the 2nd “Dr Edvard Beneš” Air Regiment who were deployed at Olomouc airbase. In June 1924, he underwent pilot training initially on dual-seater biplane aircraft and in July onto a fighter pilot training course. On graduation, in September 1924, he was then posted to the 1st ‘T.G. Masaryk’ Air Regiment which was deployed at Kbely airbase, Prague. and was assigned to its 33rd Fighter Squadron, who were equipped with Avia B-534 biplane fighter aircraft.
In the years preceding WW2 he received further promotions and increasing roles of responsibility with the Air Force.
Czechoslovak Aerobatic Team
Alexander was an accomplished pilot and noted for his flying skills. While representing his homeland he had won numerous awards at international air competitions. In the 1926 Rychlostní letecký závod o cenu prezidenta republiky [Speed Air Race for the President of the Republic], a prestige event to promote Czechoslovak aviation, he had come 4th.
Now at the rank of Major, he also commanded the Czechoslovak aerobatic team in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and the International Air Display in Zurich in 1937.
At the Zurich competition, in the solo aerobatic events, Czechoslovak’s František Novák came second, Petr Široký third and Josef Hubáček fourth. However, the most important discipline, group aerobatics, came at the very end of the competitions, and the Czechoslovak team of František Novák, Petr Široký, and Josef Hubáček 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. Hubáček, Jaroslav Hlaďo, Jaroslav Taudy, František Peřina and Raimund Půda, who were members of that team, would later rejoin Alexander in the RAF in England, with Hubáček and Půda at 310 Sqn with him in the Battle of Britain.
Mobilisation
By the Autumn of 1938, the political situation in central Europe was changing rapidly. Hitler and the Nazis in Germany were making territorial demands on the Czechoslovak Government in respect of the Sudetenland border regions. This resulted in Czechoslovakia calling a general mobilisation and thus all men of military age were drafted into the military to help defend the country in the event of invasion.
During this period, Alexander was responsible for air defence preparations. He was regarded as one of the most experienced and respected Czechoslovak air commanders.
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 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. III Department of the Ministry of National Defence started organising the transfer of the aircraft to several airfields in Moravia with the aim of getting 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 Slovakia.
At the time of the German occupation Alexander was Commander of the Pardubice airbase with the Regiments 46th, 47th and 48th Fighter Squadrons under his command. Before the ignominy of handing the Pardubice airbase to the Luftwaffe, in his final address to his airmen Alexander ended with “……….and I trust, as I know you here in front of me, that we shall all meet again soon to fight our enemy as we have sworn on oath. I believe that we, airmen, have not yet lost our fight’.
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 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 because of the close proximity of the ‘new’ Polish border since Poland had occupied the Český Těšín region of Czechoslovakia on 10 October 1939.
The Balkan Route
However, Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, resulting in Britain and France declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939. Thus, escape to Poland was then no longer possible. Czechoslovaks wanting to escape to France to join military units had to use alternative routes, the most common of which was ‘the Balkan route’: through the now German puppet-state of Slovakia, and then usually to Romania, then on to Yugoslavia to ports on the Adriatic. Here, they would be assembled into groups and transported by ship to Greece or Turkey.
To France
Despite being now aged 40, married and having a 10-year-old son, Alexander, as a Czech patriot, was completely uncompromising in his attitude towards the occupation in 1939. He was one of the many Czechoslovak airmen and soldiers who regarded the German occupation as unacceptable and who saw it as their patriotic duty to escape so that they could fight to achieve the liberation of their homeland. His own escape was on 31 January 1940. With a forged passport, he escaped through Slovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia. Next, he boarded a ship to Greece and from there boarded another ship which sailed around the southern Mediterranean Sea to avoid air attacks from the Regia Aeronautica (the Italian Air Force). They went via Alexandria and Egypt to Marseille, France, on 21 February 1940.
France
There, due to his high rank and command experience, he was assigned to Československa vojenská správa – ČSVS – [Czechoslovak Military Administration] in Paris, where he worked in the III Air Department. Their role was the handling of all Czechoslovak airmen who escaped to France in 1939-1940, by organising the transfer of the airmen to l’Armée de l’Air training schools and units, and directing mechanics and ground staff into appropriate roles. This was the period of the ‘phoney war’ with very little activity on the western front in France.
l’Armée d’Air
On 15 April 1940, at the rank of Commandant [S/Ldr], with fellow senior Czechoslovak officers Ján Ambruš and Jaroslav Malý, Alexander was assigned to Centre d’Instruction de Chasse at Chartres airbase, about 75 km west of Paris, for conversion onto French aircraft.
The relative calm of the Phoney War ended at 05:35 on 10 May 1940 when Germany attacked the Netherlands, 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. The lightning speed and ferocity of the German Blitzkrieg soon overwhelmed the fighter protection by the l’Armée de l’Air and RAF aircraft of their now rapidly withdrawing front line.
This alarmed the French as they realised that they had no aerial protection for strategic French cities and factories and so quickly formed Patrouille Défense Aérienne du Territoire (DAT) – Air Defence Patrols – to protect them against Luftwaffe attack, and which were equipped with MS-406c fighter aircraft. Pilots from various training units were used to equip these DAT units, one of whom was Alexander, whose re-training was hastily completed by 16 May 1940. Alexander, along with fellow Czechoslovaks Ján Ambruš, Václav Bergman, František Březovský, Jaroslav Malý, Josef Pardus, Rudolf Ptáček, Jaroslav Štěrbáček and Antonín Zavoral, was transferred to the Patrouille Défense Aérienne du Territoire (DAT) at Chartres airbase which was equipped with MS-406 c-1 and MB-151 c-1 fighters. There they joined fellow Czechoslovak Stanislav Zimprich who had been posted there on 11 May. On 18 May they were re-enforced by František Fajtl and Jaroslav Šodek and on 20 May by Bohuslav Kimlička, František Mlejnecký, Miroslav Štandera and Vladimír Zaoral. Britain and France soon realised that the war on mainland France was lost, and the priority now was evacuation. Between 28 May and 4 June, some 338,000 personnel from the British Expeditionary Force, as well as French and Belgian military personnel, were evacuated from Dunkirk – Operation Dynamo.
Operation Aerial
On 13 June 1940, with the French capitulation imminent, Alexander and his fellow Czechoslovak airmen were released from l’Armée de l’Air service. Since 15 June, ports in Western France had been in operating an evacuation. To take part the Czechoslovaks had to make their way to Bordeaux before the Germans reached there. With other Czechoslovak airmen, Alexander reached Bordeaux from where 300 Polish airmen and 89 Czechoslovak airmen were evacuated aboard the ‘Ary Schaeffer’. This small Dutch cargo ship provided cramped conditions for all onboard, and sailed at 13:30 on 19 June to Falmouth, England. After a prolonged voyage far out into the Atlantic, to avoid U-Boats and Luftwaffe attacks, before changing course East to Falmouth, they arrived four days later at Falmouth, which was good timing as France capitulated on 22 June 1940.
RAF
After their arrival, the Czechoslovak airmen were transferred to RAF Innsworth, Gloucestershire, for security vetting. The Battle of Britain was now in progress, and there was an urgent need for fighter pilots. Despite being 42 years old, Alexander was able to convince the RAF that, as a trained pilot, he was still capable of being an operational fighter pilot. He was accepted into the RAF Volunteer Reserve at the rank of P/O and was transferred to the Czechoslovak airmen’s depot at Cosford, near Wolverhampton, for basic training and English lessons. August, 16 of the pilots had completed their re-training, enabling ‘A’ and ‘B’ Flights to be assembled and the squadron was declared operational.
On 12 July, now at the rank of Acting S/Ldr, with other Czechoslovak pilots, he was posted to the newly formed 310 (Czechoslovak) squadron at RAF Duxford. Here, Alexander, along with his British counterpart S/Ldr George Blackwood, was appointed joint Commanding Officer of the squadron.
There, the Czechoslovaks were re-trained to fly Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft by British flying instructors and were also taught rudimentary English, being tutored by Louis de Glehn for three lessons per week. By 17Battle of Britain
Alexander made his first operational flight of the Battle of Britain in Hurricane Mk I P3887 on 26 August. It was a scramble, taking off at 14:25, with S/Ldr Blackwood and Sgt Prchal to intercept Luftwaffe aircraft over RAF North Weald at 15,000 ft. They encountered 15 to 18 Luftwaffe Do215s with escorts of Me 110s and Me109s, and in the ensuing combat S/Ldr Blackwood and Sgt Prchal each shot down a Do 215. All three Hurricanes returning to RAF Duxford at 14:50, thus qualifying Alexander for the coveted Battle of Britain clasp and also one of the oldest pilots to fly in the Battle.
During the Battle, Alexander made a total of 10 operational flights, totalling 8 hours. Four of those flights, totalling 225 minutes, were on 31 August, with takeoffs at 08:30, 10:10, 13:00 and 18:45 with Luftwaffe was encountered.
During the battle Alexander was to achieve combat success:
| Date | Time | Action |
31.08.40 | 13:25 | a Me 109e shot down near Hornchurch, Essex. |
31.08.40 | 13:35 | a Do 17z shot down near Burnham on Crouch, Essex. |
15.08.40 | 14:40 | a Me 109e damaged over London.. |
On 31 August, 310 Sqn were ordered to patrol the North Weald area at 10,000 feet; it was the squadron’s 3rd operational patrol that day. At 13:00, the squadron’s twelve Hurricanes took off, led by F/Lt Jefferies. Once airborne, they were redirected to patrol Hornchurch at the same height. On reaching Hornchurch at 13:15, an enemy formation of 12/15 Do 215’s was sighted flying on a Northerly course at 220 mph. The Luftwaffe aircraft were flying in a very tight formation, and turned East on sighting the Hurricanes. 310 Sqn climbed to 12,000 feet and attacked using pre-arranged tactics, A Flight taking the port beam. The Do 215’s were protected by 10/20 Me 109’s above and below. The squadron’s initial attack succeeded in breaking the close formation, and after repeating these tactics on the broken formation at least 2 Do 215’s and 2 Me 109’s were shot down. Alexander achieved combat success that day. His combat report reads:
Do’s sighted 13:25 flying in section @ 220 mph southwards. Camouflage dark green with cross outline white. On being seen E/A turned West and encountered heavy AA fire. Stayed in formation, supported from above by Me’s. I attacked from left and rear. After the attack on Do’s, Me’s attacked us. I saw E/A fire & turned sharply right & climbed. Me overshot me & I took him from below left, 4 second burst, white smoke poured out & E/A dived head first & out of control towards the ground. Was attacked by 2 Me’s & could not follow my victims down. Enemy fire from above had no effect on me.
I then attacked my attackers, together with other Hurricanes. I broke off & attacked a Do 215 on L. outskirts of the formation which was already separating, & gave 1 burst 4-5 seconds from rear & he dived sharply with me in pursuit. At 1000 ft, he levelled out & I gave him the balance of my ammunition, rear & side, he fell to ground near Canewdon on River Roach. 3 jumped out & put hands up; a second Hurricane [UFB] came up & circled. I landed at Honington with him & then returned. Pilot of UFB confirmed to me that he saw my Do 215 fall.
Sadly, Jaroslav Sterbacek was killed in that combat; his Hurricane aircraft was seen going into the River Thames. He thus has the distinction of being the first Czechoslovak airman to be killed in RAF service during WW2.
All three of Alexander’s successes were whilst flying Hurricane Mk I R4085 ‘A’, which was shot down during his combat with an Me 109e on 15 September. Despite his aircraft having been hit by a canon shell and catching fire, he remained in the aircraft until it was clear of the residential area and at an altitude of just 400 feet, bailed out of the aircraft. He landed successfully in a field near Billericay, Essex, with only a few bruises incurred.
On 27 October 1940, Alexander along with Emil Fechtner, were the first two Czechoslovak airmen to be awarded the DFC.
The citation for his award was as follows:
‘Acting Squadron Leader Hess displayed outstanding keenness and courage and has set a fine example to his squadron. Since the squadron became operational, he has destroyed two enemy aircraft and severely damaged a third. In one engagement, his aircraft was set on fire, but, in order to clear a populated area, he did not abandon it until he had descended to an altitude of 400 feet, although this barely allowed his parachute time to open.’
During the Battle of Britain, Alexander had made 10 operational flights, totalling 8 hours.
After the Battle
After the Battle of Britain ended on 31 October 1940, the Luftwaffe shifted its focus from daytime aerial battles to night bombing raids, to avoid RAF fighters, on strategic industrial locations and ports. This initiated a prolonged strategic bombing campaign against the UK known as ‘The Blitz’, with London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Coventry, Glasgow, Belfast, Plymouth and others being the main targets. During this period, 310 Sqn’s role was now daylight convoy patrols escorting Allied shipping on the East Anglia coast and the approaches to the Thames Estuary, but with little engagement with the Luftwaffe.
Czechoslovak Inspectorate General
On 28 February 1941, Alexander was posted to the Czechoslovak Inspectorate General in London. His operational flying days were over and he was the oldest Czechoslovak to fly operationally in the RAF during the war. The following day, he was promoted to the rank of W/Cmdr and became Czechoslovak Liaison Officer between CIG and ADGB-HQFC (Air Defence of Great Britain-Headquarters Fighter Command) at Bentley Priory at Stanmore, north-west London. He held this post until 31 December 1941.
To Canada
He was then assigned to the Czechoslovak Diplomatic Service and was posted to Ottawa as Czechoslovak Air Attaché, a position he held until the end of the war. On 7 March 1945 he was promoted to the rank of G/Cpt. Alexander remained at this Ottawa post until 21 September 1945 and then was transferred to Washington, USA where he had the same role until 15 February 1946.
Return to Czechoslovakia
He then returned to Czechoslovakia and, with the rank of plukovník (G/Cpt), initially held an administrative post with the Czechoslovak Ministry of Defence. Alexander was then assigned as acting Commander of the 2nd Air Region based at Český Budějovice. In this high position, he was responsible for air formations and units deployed in the south-western and south-eastern areas of the Bohemia region of Czechoslovakia.
Communist putsch
Following the Communist takeover on 15 February 1948, Alexander was one of the first 27 generals and 813 officers who were removed from the Czechoslovak military command. On 27th of that month, he was placed on dovolenou s čekaným – ‘waiting leave’- which was usually followed by arrest, interrogation, and detention by the Státní bezpečnost [StB], the Czechoslovak Secret Police. This invariably led to a ‘trial’ – a formality as the outcome had already been decided – and imprisonment for several years at a hard labour camp with further persecution of their families. Thus, many former RAF airmen made the choice of escaping again to the West rather than be persecuted by their Communist countrymen.
Escape to the West
Even before the communist coup, Alexander had sent his pregnant American wife to the USA. On 1 June he was dismissed from the Czechoslovak Air Force and aware that under those circumstances, the usual next step would be his arrest he made preparations for his escape to the American Zone in Germany. To disguise his preparations for going abroad, he sent a series of letters to various state institutions and high-ranking individuals in early June 1948, in which he very earnestly asked for leniency and permission to travel to the USA by official means to visit his pregnant wife.
Later that month, with assistance of the ‘Cyril’ escape organisation, Alexander successfully escaped over the border before the Communist authorities were able to arrest him. That organisation was run by Josef Hýbler, a former F/Lt in 310 Sqn in the RAF during WW2, in conjunction with Ota Tulačka, another patriotic Czechoslovak, who smuggled prominent people across the border at Všeruby, a small village near the town of Kdyně, about 1 km from the border to the American Zone of Germany. Hýbler was based in Prague while Tulačka, also Prague-based, managed the Všeruby end of the escape line. Hýbler organised escapees in Prague and passed them down the escape organisation. For security reasons, only Tulačka knew those at the Všeruby end of the escape organisation. The organisation was very successful; between March 1948 and April 1949 about 113 Czechoslovaks were assisted in their escape to the west. In addition to Alexander these included former RAF colleagues S/Ldr Emil Foit, F/Lt Jaromír Střihavka and W/O Oldřích Sichrovský. US Intelligence Agencies also used the ‘Cyril’ organisation to take selected Czechoslovaks to the American Zone.
2nd Exile
In 1949 he became a member of 5 Rada svobodného Československa [RSČ] – The Council of Free Czechoslovakia – which was the main political organisation of Czechoslovak exiles in the west after the Communist coup of February 1948. There he was a senior figure, assisting fellow ex–airmen and refugees to rebuild their lives in the west. Alexander remained active in the exile Czechoslovak movement and maintained contact with his war comrades until his death.
G/Cpt Alexander Hess died, aged 83, on 10 August 1981, at his home at Brooksville, Florida, USA. His remains were brought to Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey, England and interred in the Czechoslovak ex-Servicemen’s section there.
Medals Awarded
Distinguished Flying Cross
1939 – 45 Star with Battle of Britain clasp
Air Crew Europe Star
Defence Medal
War Medal
řádem M. R. Štefánika III. tř.
řád Slovenského národního povstání I. tř.
Válečný kříž 1939
Za chrabrost and 2 bars
Za zásluhy I.stupně
Pamětní medaile se štítky F–VB
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:
Alexander 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 2533 other Czechoslovak men and women who had served in the RAF during WW2, was unveiled at the Winged Lion Monument at Klárov, Prague.
Article last updated: 30.10.2025.
1 thought on “Alexander Hess – One of the Few”
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I will stop by his grave next time I’m at Brookwood.