* 13.06.1915, Roudnice nad Labem.
† 15.10.1949, Prague.
The Early Years
Eduard Šimon was born on 13 June 1915 in Roudnice nad Labem, a small town 25 miles north of Prague. After eight years of secondary schooling, on 7 June 1934 he matriculated from the Jirásek High School in Prague. He was an accomplished student as, in addition to his native Czech, he was fluent in German, French and English.
Military Service
For his military service, Eduard joined the Military Aviation Academy at Prostějov, where he trained as an Observer. In April 1935, on completion of his training he was posted to the 1st ‘T.G. Masaryk’ Air Regiment who were stationed at Milovice airbase, some 20 miles north east of Prague. In 1936, he completed a night-flying course for observers, followed by a course on multi-engined aircraft at Malacky airbase, Slovakia. Eduard was then posted to the 2nd Dr. Eduard Beneš Air Regiment, who were stationed at Olomouc.
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.
Munich Dictat
Following the Munich Agreement, also known in Czechoslovakia as the ‘Munich Dictat’ or ‘Munich Betrayal’, of 30 September 1938, 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, 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.
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 the most important assets from 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 of getting the air fleet to Romania and Yugoslavia. None of these plans 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.
Upon occupation, the Czechoslovak Air Force and Army was disbanded by the Germans and all personnel 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 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, couriers 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 1938.
To Poland
With the assistance of those two organisations, escapees were instructed to travel to Ostrava and from there arrangements had been made to smuggle them over the border to Český Těšín, a region that had been part of Czechoslovakia but, since the Munich Agreement, had been annexed by Poland.
From there, either with the help of patriotic Czechoslovak railway workers, in small groups, they would be smuggled onto the coal wagons of freight trains taking coal to Poland, or with patriotic local guides, again in small groups, they would go on foot through the forests, being careful to avoid German border patrols, and covertly cross over the border. Once safely in Poland, they were advised to surrender themselves to the Polish authorities as there was a greater chance of a favourable reception there, rather than being picked up as they tried to make their way to Kraków, where they would report for duty at the Czechoslovak Consulate.
Following the occupation, Eduard, at the rank of poručík [F/O] was discharged from the Air Force. Even before his discharge from active military service on 1 February 1939, a month before the signing of the Munich Agreement, Eduard had submitted an application to the Gendarmerie Department Headquarters in Prague for admission to the gendarmerie as an administrative officer. The gendarmerie [Četnictvo] were a militarised rural police force in Czechoslovakia. However, because those country areas were gradually being administered by the German occupiers, he decided instead to take a proactive role to achieve the liberation of his homeland. On 20 June 1939, he covertly crossed the border into neighbouring Poland.
Polish Disappointment
At the Consulate, Eduard was advised that the formation of Czechoslovak military units in Poland was not permitted. The Polish Authorities, who recognised the new puppet State of Slovakia, 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 provoking neighbouring Nazi Germany.
Only after lengthy negotiations between Vladimír Znojemský, the Czechoslovak Consul, in Krákow, his counterparts in France and Great Britain, countries with which Czechoslovakia had an Alliance Treaty, and the French Government, did the French agree to permit 4,000 Czechoslovaks to be admitted into the French Foreign Legion. French law did not allow for foreign military units to be on its territory in peacetime, and the Czechoslovak escapees would be required to join the French Foreign Legion for a five-year period with the agreement that, should war be declared, they would be transferred to French military units. The alternative was to be returned to occupied Czechoslovakia and face German retribution for escaping – usually imprisonment or execution with further retribution to their families.
Eduard, like most of the Czechoslovak escapees, decided that his best choice was to go to France. Initially he was transferred to Bronowice Małe, a derelict former Polish Army barracks from the Austro-Hungarian era, on the outskirts of Krákow which was then being utilised as a temporary transit camp for the escaped Czechoslovak military prior to their transfer to France. He reached there on 28 June 1939, the 574th Czechoslovak escapee to arrive. The barracks, which were in poor condition, were already well inhabited by Czechoslovaks whilst arrangements were made for their transportation, by sea, to France
To France
When those arrangements were completed, Eduard, with other escaped Czechoslovak airmen, travelled by train to Gdynia, Poland, where, on 26 July a total of 188 Czechoslovak airmen and 190 soldiers boarded the Swedish steamship SS ‘Kastelholm’ and sailed to France. Part of the voyage down the Baltic Sea was very rough, even to airmen who were used to flying in turbulent conditions, and so the ‘Kastelholm’ stop at the Danish port of Frederikshaven to re-supply was a welcome relief for the Czechoslovaks onboard. From there, they arrived at Calais, France, on 31 July 1939.
France
On arrival in France the Czechoslovak airmen were required join the French Foreign Legion for a five-year period with the agreement that should war be declared they would be transferred to French military units. Early that morning, Eduard and his fellow escapees disembarked onto French soil. There, they were met by 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.
Initially, Eduard and some of his fellow escapees were housed at Base Aérienne 272 de Saint Cyr, at Versailles, about 20km West of Paris, whilst the enlistment formalities of acceptance into the French Foreign Legion and medical examinations were undertaken prior to being sent to the Legion’s training camp at Sidi-bel-Abbès in Algeria. During this period the Czechoslovaks were required to familiarise themselves in the ways of the Legion and to have basic French language tuition. Eduard was accepted into the Legion at the rank of soldat [AC1].
Fall Weiß
Fortunately for Eduard and his colleagues, on 1 September 1939, Fall Weiß – the German invasion of Poland – began. That resulted in England and France declaring war on Germany two days later.
L’Armeé de l’Air
On 30 September 1939, Eduard, along with some of his fellow Czechoslovaks at Saint Cyr, were transferred to the Legion’s recruitment and transit barracks at Place Balard, in the South West of Paris. For the airmen amongst them, this meant being transferred to the l’Armée de l’Air. On 10 October 1939, Eduard was posted to their Base Aérienne 705 at Tours, some 130 miles south west of Paris. This was the l’Armée de l’Air training centre for bomber aircrew personnel. There, he retrained on Potez 63, twin-engine reconnaissance aircraft and the Bloch M.B.210N twin-engine night bomber. On 1 December 1939, he was promoted to rank of adjutant chef [F/Sgt].
Fall Gelb
The relative calm of the Phoney War ended at 05:35 on 10 May 1940 when ‘Fall Gelb’ – the German attack on Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France – took place. 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. By this time, like the vast majority of other Czechoslovak bomber aircrew, Edward’s training as an air gunner was not yet complete and he made no operational flights during the Battle of France.
However, the lightning speed and ferocity of the German Blitzkrieg attack caused the l’Armée de l’Air units to rapidly retreat westwards. The Czechoslovak airmen at Tours were transferred some 270 miles south west to Base Aérienne 101 at Toulouse. In March they we transferred 90 miles west to Base Aérienne 119 at Pau, just 30 miles from the Spanish border by 14 June.
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, Eduard and the other Czechoslovak airmen were released from their l’Armée de l’Air service and instructed to get to the port at Bordeaux, before the Germans reached there, so that they could be evacuated to England from where they could carry on the fight against Nazi Germany. With other Czechoslovak airmen, Eduard managed to reach the Mérignac airbase at Bordeaux. On 17 June 1940 he was one of a group of 38 Czechoslovak airmen, commanded by štábní kapitán Ferdinand Secký. They boarded a BOAC four-engined Armstrong Whitworth Ensign aircraft, G-ADSV, AV1160, to leave the bomb-damaged airbase at 4pm. After a flight lasting 4½ hours, at an altitude of only 150 to 200 mtrs, they landed at 20:30 at RAF Hendon, England.
In the period from June to August 1940, a total of 932 Czechoslovak airmen were evacuated from France and got to England. Operation Aerial was concluded on 25 June.
RAF
After arriving at RAF Hendon, the Czechoslovak airmen were transferred to RAF Innsworth, Gloucestershire for security vetting. Eduard was accepted into the RAF Volunteer Reserve, at the rank of P/O and, on 17 July 1940, transferred to the Czechoslovak airmen’s Depot at Cosford, near Wolverhampton.
To 311 Sqn
Eduard was posted to 311 [Czechoslovak] Sqn, becoming one of its founding members, on 29 July 1940. They were deployed at RAF Honington. The squadron was in No.3 Group of RAF Bomber Command, and equipped with Vickers Wellington twin-engine medium-range bombers. Initially, the squadron was jointly commanded by Wing Commander Karel Mareš [who chose to change his surname to Toman to protect family and relatives who remained in the former Czechoslovakia], together with Wing Commander John Griffiths DFC, a Canadian serving in the RAF. Its role at that time was bombing raids on the Channel ports to thwart the build-up of landing barges that the Germans were assembling there in anticipation of invading England. They also targeted the railway marshalling yards in northern occupied Belgium and France to frustrate the movement of the German Wehrmacht to those Channel ports.
In WW2, the standard operational tour for a RAF Bomber Command crew was usually 30 completed operational sorties or 200 hours. But by 1941, the odds of surviving a full tour were slim, and statistically only 1 in 6 were expected to complete their first tour without either being shot down and killed or captured.
The squadron’s first operational missions were carried out on the night of the 10th of September, when three crews took off from RAF Honington to attack the railway marshalling yards near Brussels. The three aircraft were captained by Sqn/Ldr Josef Schejbal in Wellington L7778 KX-U, Sgt Václav Korda in Wellington P9235 KX-C and Sgt František Taiber in Wellington L7785 KX-R. Two of the aircraft [L7788 and P9235] both bombed the marshalling yards at Brussels, observing hits in the target area. The third aircraft L7785, KX-R, was unable to attack the primary target because of cloud and bombed a canal to the north of Brussels instead. Eduard was front-gunner in Wellington L7778, take-off was at 20:05 from RAF Honington and they returned safely at 23:20. This was his 1st operational flight with the squadron.
The squadron redeployed to nearby RAF East Wretham on 16 September 1940. On 2 August 1941, Eduard was promoted to the rank of F/O. By the beginning of November 1941, he had made a total of 26 operational flights while 311 Sqn was in RAF Bomber Command, totalling 158 hours and 27 min. Targets had included the French harbours of Boulogne, Brest, Calais and Le Havre and also Berlin, Bremen, Cologne, Emden, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Keil and Wilmshaven in Germany, Turin and Genoa in Italy, and Stettin [now Szczecin] on the Baltic coast of Poland. In all of these he operated as the Wellington’s front gunner.
Gunnery Leaders Course
On 10 October 1941, Eduard was posted from 311 Sqn for a Gunnery Leaders Course at the Central Gunnery School at RAF Castle Kennedy at Castle Kennedy, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The course was completed on 19 November 1941 and he continued there as an instructor until posted to the Czechoslovak Depot now at RAF Wilmslow, Cheshire, on 29 December. On 15 May 1942, Eduard was assigned, at the Depot, for Flying Training duties. His final RAF promotion, to F/Lt, was on 2 September 1942.
Return to 311 Sqn
Next posting was on 8 December 1942, back to 311 Sqn for operational duties as an air-gunner. The squadron was now deployed at RAF Talbenny, Pembrokeshire and still equipped with Wellington twin-engined bombers, but they had been modified for the squadron’s new role in RAF Coastal Command.
311 Squadron had been transferred from RAF Bomber Command to RAF Coastal Command in April 1942, because the loss rate of more than 40% of its aircrew and with a very limited source of replacement aircrew, meant it was unsustainable for the squadron to maintain bombing operations.
A new danger was now facing Britain, whose lifeline to its wartime survival was the convoys from North America bringing food and war materials to sustain its ability to fight the war. The German High Command identified this weak link for Britain and, as in WW1, sought to sink those supply ships by using submarines. To enable quick and easy access to the Atlantic, the Germans built submarine bases – heavily fortified concrete U-boat pens – in the Bay of Biscay on the Atlantic coast of France, the main ones being at Lorient, Saint-Nazaire, La Rochelle and Brest, from where they operated in pursuit of Allied convoys.
Whilst the Allies were able to protect these convoys with aircraft patrolling the Atlantic either from North America or Britain, the vast width of the Atlantic meant that the limited range of the aircraft resulted in there always being a central area of the Atlantic that could not be patrolled. This was the main area where the U-boats were able to intercept the convoys, with little fear of being attacked by Allied aircraft.
Thus, the Bay of Biscay became a primary area for RAF Coastal Command patrols where they flew around-the-clock patrols in anti-submarine sweeps in the search and engagement of U-boats returning from Atlantic patrols or those outbound for a new patrol. This was Operation Percussion, the Allied air and naval operation in the Bay of Biscay, off the south-west coast of France and comparatively close to the north coast of neutral Spain. They attacked U-boats attempting to leave or reach French ports by means of a surfaced transit of the Bay of Biscay.
Eduard’s first operational patrol was on 13 December 1942, an anti-submarine sweep of 9hrs 17min, in the Bay of Biscay covering some 1000 nautical miles but with nothing sighted. By 28 July 1943, he had made 25, mainly daytime, patrols totalling 207 hrs 27 min, each usually of around 9 hrs duration, in Wellingtons captained mainly by F/Sgt Jan Irving or F/Lt Bohumil Liška as well as several others. With the exception of patrols on 26 January 1943, captained by F/O Václav Korda, and on 18 March and 10 April, captained by Bohumil Liška, when enemy shipping was attacked, all the other patrols were uneventful with only the occasional Spanish fishing boats being sighted. However, the harsh, unforgiving, winter conditions of the Atlantic and the constant risk of attack by long-range Luftwaffe fighters was always there!
Wireless Operator Training
On 28 July 1943, having completed his operational tour, Eduard was posted to the Czechoslovak Depot at St. Athan, Glamorganshire, in South Wales. On 1 December 1943 he was sent to No 1 Radio School, at RAF Cranwell, in Lincolnshire, one of the RAF’s main signals and wireless training schools during WW2. There he was trained in wireless telegraphy [Morse code at 25 words per minute], signals discipline and encryption basics and operation of airborne radio equipment to the required RAF standard. He completed this training on 5 April 1944. From there, on 19 April 1944, he was sent to No 11 Radio School at RAF Hooton Park, near Liverpool, a specialist signals and radar training unit, for ASV [Air-to-Surface Vessel] radar training. The use of that equipment was essential for Coastal Command aircrew to detect surfaced German U-boats and enemy shipping.
On 6 June 1944, he was posted to No 5 PDC [Personnel Despatch Centre] at RAF Padgate, at Warrington, Lancashire, and then on 9 June 1944 to 111 OTU [Operational Training Unit] in the Bahamas.
With other Czechoslovak airmen, on 9 June 1944, Eduard boarded a ship at the Clyde, Scotland, and sailed to New York. There, they boarded a train for the two-day journey to Miami, Florida. Then aboard a small steamer which took them to Nassau, in the Bahamas, from there to Oak Field airfield, where they were accommodated in huts for their training on Course 32. Eduard joined crew 25, as a wireless operator/air gunner, which was captained by F/Lt Oldřich Hořejší, and they flew day and night circuits, navigational and radio exercises, low-level bombing etc, in twin-engined Mitchell B25 and four-engined Liberator aircraft.. Their training on Course 32 was completed at the end of October 1944, and the Czechoslovaks returned to New York by train, then went by ship back to the UK, and from there to No 7 Personnel Reception Centre, at Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
Tain
On 8 December 1944, Eduard was posted back to 311 Sqn, which, since August 1944, was now re-deployed at RAF Tain in north-east Scotland. Since the Allied invasion of France on D-Day – 6 June 1944 – their rapid advance eastward had meant that the Kriegsmarine bases on the French Atlantic coast were no longer available to the Germans, resulting in the bases in the Baltic Sea being used instead.
This resulted in 311 Sqn, being redeployed to RAF Tain, where they were now under the command of 18 Group RAF Coastal Command and their new operational area was between Iceland, Norway and the North Sea down to the approaches to the Baltic Sea. They flew in the pursuit of Kriegsmarine U-boats and surface ships going to, or departing from, ports in the Baltic Sea.
Eduard made his first operational patrol from RAF Tain on 27 March 1945, as wireless operator/air-gunner in Liberator EW295, captained by F/Lt Oldřich Hořejší. Take-off was at 11:24 for an anti-submarine sweep and they landed back at 22:44, after an uneventful flight covering 1500 nautical miles that had lasted 11 hours 20 minutes. His final operational flight, his 7th from Tain, was on 1 May 1945. The war in Europe ended 7 days later. These 7 flights had totalled 77 hrs 31min, and had covered 10,500 nautical miles, the longest flight being 12 hrs 26 min and the shortest 9 hours 57 min.
Return to Czechoslovakia
Eduard resigned his RAF commission, and returned to Czechoslovakia on 2 September 1945, at the rank of štábní kapitán [S/Ldr] in the Czechoslovak Air Force. He remained in the Czechoslovak Air Force and in January 1946 was posted, as a radio operator, to the 1st Squadron of the Air Transport Group which was deployed at Kbely airbase at Prague. In January 1947 he was posted, as a Staff Officer, and then promoted to the rank of major, to the study group of the 3rd Department of the Ministry of National Defence, at Prague. During this period, he had met and married Emilie, and shortly after they had a son. In November 1948 he was posted to Plzeň airbase, some 50 miles south-west of Prague.
Communist putsch
Sadly, the post WW2 future of a free and liberated homeland was not going to happen. The Russian ‘liberators’ of Czechoslovakia were ensuring that their Communist ideology was there to stay. This led to the ‘putsch’ on 15 February 1948 where by devious means the Communist Party took control of Czechoslovakia. In the aftermath of the Communist putsch, the Czechoslovak airmen and soldiers who had fought in the West in WW2 were now regarded by the Communist authorities as being politically unreliable and undesirable citizens. Many were arrested, imprisoned and subjected to other persecution.
The Communists commenced purging them from the military services and also Czechoslovak Airlines [ČSA]. Usually, this would entail being placed on ‘waiting leave’ 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 to their families. Thus, many former RAF airmen made the choice of escaping again to the West rather than be persecuted by their Communist countrymen.
In Eduard’s case this began in May 1949 when he was placed on dovolenou s čekaným – ‘waiting leave’ – from the Air Force but with the former airmen receiving only a small fraction of their pay. This move was designed to prevent the airman from having contact with his workplace colleagues and gave the Air Force time to decide or be ‘instructed’ on how to deal with this undesirable airman who was not compatible with Communist ideology. With a reduced income, and a family to support, Eduard’ tried to find employment, but had great difficulty. Only in that September, because of his language skills, did he finally find a job at the Divadelní nakladatelství [Theatre Publishing House] in Celetná Street in the Old Town district of Prague 1. There, play scripts, including non-Czechoslovak plays, were subjected to ideological supervision and censorship to ensure that they followed strict Communist ideology guidelines to ensure that they aligned with the working-class ethos, the anti-bourgeois struggle and Soviet friendship. However, for his known pro-western political views, he was under STB surveillance even in his civilian job!
Murdered
In Prague he was allegedly identified in the street by a security officer of the Ústřední výbor Komunistcké strany Československa [ÚV KSČ] – Central Committee the Czechoslovak Communist Party. On 15 October 1949, at around 09:00, the Státní bezpečnost [StB], the Czechoslovak State Secret Police, came to arrest him. Eduard was in Celetná street, near his place of work. The StB stopped him and asked him to show his identity documents, Eduard allegedly attempted to escape by running down the Luna Passageway which linked Celetná and Štupartská streets. He was chased by StB agents Josef Krejčí and Josef Pecník, which ended in a shootout, and Eduard was seriously wounded in the head. He was taken the General University Hospital in Prague 2, where he died at midday from his injuries.
According to the official post-mortem and police records from the time, it was concluded that Eduard had committed suicide by shooting himself in his right temple to avoid arrest. This account was upheld during a 1967 review of the case.
However, the belief held by his family and former RAF colleagues of this incident was that Eduard, a many-time decorated wartime airman, was shot during the chase by the pursuing StB agents while he was attempting to escape.
Eduard’s wife Emilie and his father had been permitted to visit the Hospital the next day to see his body. When Emilie stroked Eduard’s head and face, she discovered a large, treated and stitched wound on the left side of his head and not on the right. In addition, she saw traces of injury on his legs and hands that had been treated. Eduard was right-handed, and thus would have held the gun to shoot himself in his right hand, not left hand, if the alleged suicide claim had any validity.
Eduard Šimon was 34 years old, when he was killed, but the Communist persecution did not stop with his death. The StB then ransacked his apartment and his wife Emilie and one year old son were evicted.
At the RAF Rehabilitation Ceremony held on 13 September 1991, Eduard was promoted, in memoriam, to the rank of Colonel in the Czechoslovak Air Force.
Medals Awarded
3 x Válečný kříž 1939
2 x Za chrabrost před nepřítelem
Za zásluhy I.stupně
Pamětní medaile se štítky F–VB
1939 – 45 Star
Air Crew Europe
Defence Medal 1939 to 1945
Remembered
Czech Republic:
Prague 1 – Klárov:
In November 2017, his name, along with the names of 2533 other Czechoslovak men and women who had served in the RAF during WW2, was unveiled at the Winged Lion Monument at Klárov, Prague.
Roudnice nad Labem:
A memorial plaque commemorating him has been on Eduard Šimon’s birthplace in Roudnice nad Labem since 2003.
Trebenice:
In September 2025, a memorial plaque was unveiled at Trebenice for the Czechoslovak RAF airmen from that district. The memorial included an individual stone, with a name plaque for each airman, including Eduard Šimon.
Discover more from Free Czechoslovak Air Force Associates ltd
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
