Dedication

All allied pilots who served worldwide in the Second World

War.
Battle of Britain (the few) pilots.

Raimund Puda

A PILOTS LIFE IN ACTIVE

SERVICE 1930 TO 1954

Copyright Raimund Puda (2015)

The right of Raimund Puda to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to
this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British
Library.

ISBN 9781784555351 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781784555375 (Hardback)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2015)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ

Printed and bound in Great Britain

Foreword

Before I start describing the contents of this book it is my

wish as well as my duty to explain and clarify my family
background where the idea of becoming an air force pilot
came from anyway.
The same will apply to the end of my career as a pilot.
Unfortunately, this time not in my homeland which I still
love, but in the Royal Air Force in England where I still live
today as a widower age 81 years.
Please allow me to introduce to you on paper Dr estmr
Sldek, editor of Letectv a kosmonautika magazine to whom
I wrote several years ago asking him to accept my offer and
who has been helping me a great deal with the style of my
memoirs of a pilot.
A quick description of the general content from start to
end and two school reports from Oleka and Kostelec nad
ernmi Lesy.

15.04.93
Dear friend, Mr Sldek
I am not sure what title to use in a Czech letter, I am not
sure what to call any patriot in the Czech Republic these
days. Madame Your Worship?

Fifty three years in an English environment is too long a

time to be familiar with the most up-to-date rules of the
Czech grammar and style.
So I am going to leave this matter until I can welcome
you here in England in August.
Thank you for your letter dated 24 March which I
received three days ago. I am very pleased that we are going
to continue working together on the content of my life story.
The reason I came up with this title was the following.
As far as I remember, and I have familiarised myself with
many books by my colleagues from England; the majority of
pilots mainly mention air battles to various extents and
dangerous moments, which certainly happened in the air
force service during World War 2.
Fifty three years of isolation from my mother tongue is
too long to be able to keep up with the style and grammar of
the Czech language. Not talking about criticism, my English
spelling which usually shows my knowledge of English
grammar has been deteriorating. My excuse is increasing
old age. My memory is no longer good enough to be able to
trust it in my advanced age. But I am not complaining about
my life today.
I was very pleased to receive a letter from Mr Sldek
saying that he had accepted my offer.
I am also intending to mention the Battle of France and
the Battle of Britain as a fighter pilot in full.
After returning from my visit to Prague that was cut
short I have been thinking lately and made the following
decision:
Letter number 1
Explain and establish a solid background for describing
my life from the beginning until today. Here I will mention
my initial idea of becoming a pilot.

I had all sorts of dreams for the future then. I was also
continuously subject to a strict upbringing by my father. I
was the eldest, having also a brother and a younger sister. It
would often happen that I was blamed, as the eldest son, for
various mischiefs by my siblings.
My father was fair regarding manners both at home and
at work. My fathers character was important for managing
the people he employed in the forest during certain seasons.
Each village in the surrounding area was dependent on
jobs in this industry. People who worked in the forest felling
trees had a certain perk. They received their weekly wages
and every day they were allowed to take home a supply of
wood that had no value for further use.
My father also used to organise regular hunts and I
would often take part. Lichtenstein forests were scattered
around the Czech territory and on a smaller scale also in
Moravia; Kostelec Chateau also belonged to the estate. It
was the centre of forest management in the sense of business
organisation. There were offices there, as well as
accommodation for clerks with their families, widows,
members of staff and people who had retired.
In this short description by an amateur writer I would
like to continue briefly but in an interesting way regarding
my first five years of primary school from 1918 in the small
village of Oleka. After that I was educated at Kostelec
nad ernmi lesy where I stayed with a family (the father
was a retired former employee of the Lichtenstein office) in
Kostelec Chateau. During the last year of my school
education number 4, I stayed with my parents friends in
Prague, where I completed primary education and the door
into the future opened for me. I attended a college near the
National Theatre and after that I worked as an apprentice in
the Letov military aircraft factory in Letany. The manager
there was Mr molik who was an engineer.
This was where I first came into contact with a military
aircraft and my dream of becoming a pilot began.

Letter number 2
1) Will describe how I was accepted into the Flying
Academy in Prostejov;
2) My time at pilot school and other interesting and
sometimes unpleasant events in my training as a
pilot;
3) After successfully completing training I applied to
become a pilot and was sent to the 1st Regiment of
TG Masaryk in Kbely as per my request. Here the
aim of my career to become a military pilot and
receive an aviator badge started.

I was successful in live shooting at ground targets in a

.328 two-seater aircraft in Milovice and completed a
competition at Malacky airfield. In this service as a pilot I
achieved two consecutive first places in live shooting. After
that I applied to return to the flying Academy in Prostejov
where I met my fellow pilots and we started to familiarise
ourselves with fighter aircraft of various types and makes.
Avia Aero French fighter Dewoitine.
After leaving the Flying Academy I was posted to a
fighter squadron, again in Kbely with the 1st Regiment of TG
Masaryk. Avia 33 Aircraft.
I forgot to mention the results of the fighter training.
After training was completed the Academy Commander,
F/Lt Lika organised a compulsory competition in aerobatic
skills for all of those who had successfully completed the
course. I came first, in the judgement of three experienced
fighter pilots so with this Academy Certificate I continued
with further success in my skills as a pilot.
Shortly after my return from the Prostejov Academy to
the 1st Regiment of TG |Masaryk, I was sent to the special
squadron of Pilot Officer Novk with the task of preparing

for the flying competition in Zurich. There I became friends

with my fellow pilot Josef Hubek, with whom I enjoyed a
close friendship from 1935 until the end of the war.
After successfully completing the competition with
various changes of formation over the airfield with Novks
group of seven pilots, we were awarded the first prize.
I will mention many more interesting events in my book
A Pilots Life which you will, with your goodwill, improve
in style.
Then, one month after celebrating, there was a fair for
various products in Stromokva [translators comment: area
of Prague with a park and exhibition grounds/buildings], I
was delegated by P/O Novk to showcase my aerobatics
skills every Sunday morning and afternoon for visitors to the
fair.
The same year in the autumn, after returning from our
successful performance in Zurich, there was an Air Show in
Kbely. The afternoon program included an aerobatic
competition in the same Avia 122 aircraft.
I finished second in the competition. The first place went
to Sergeant Hubek.
After dealing with formalities in England I was posted to
the first operational fight squadron in Duxford.
A week later I started my operational service with the
squadron preventing raids by German bombers, sometimes
up to 43 planes.
There were days when I was extremely tired. But in the
end we won the Battle of Britain with our Czech
contribution.
During this battle I was with 310 and 605 squadrons
from the beginning to the end.
Losses of jets and bombers were significant for each
operational squadron.
After finishing my operational service I was selected as
the oldest and most experienced pilot and took a post as an

instructor of Czech pilots and also young Czech pilots who

had not managed to complete their pilot training before the
German occupation.
Later on, 80% of pilot training was moved to Canada. In
England, each pupil who wanted to become a pilot and
successfully completed theoretical ground training started
pilot training at a school airfield, where they trained in basic
Tiger Moth aircraft.
They were supposed to prove the following skills: the
pupil, taught by the instructor had to fly and control the
aircraft within the prescribed 7 hours of training and not a
single minute more.
During these 7 hours of instructor input the pupil had to
perform one solo circle with take-off and landing.
Shortly after that I was posted to the Aerospace Military
Research Institute in Letnany as a research pilot. In 1939 I
finished military service.
At that time I applied to join the Czechoslovak Airlines
as a commercial pilot, where I was accepted and remained
there until the German occupation.
That day was the saddest day in my life as the dream of
my life was shattered. Leaving for Poland, from Poland to
France.
A long time full of uncertainty was spent in Paris where
I was staying. The beginning of the war, retraining at an
airfield on French aircraft.
I started operational service on 1 December 1939 with
French escadrille 2/IV at Rambeville airfield about 100km
from Strasbourg.
My experience from these operations is one of the
saddest I have ever been through.
It is my duty to describe the beginning of our retreat
south towards Perpignan airfield. After refuelling we flew
over the Mediterranean Sea to land in Algiers, North Africa,
where apparently the war was supposed to continue for
France.

But 14 days later we received orders from the French

Government that France had capitulated and that was the end
of the war for me.
At that time I was in the Arabian town of Meknes 500km
in the middle of the African desert. Where will by future
path lead?
A journey by a small bus to the port town of Casablanca
was organised for us. From there we went on a fishing boat
to Gibraltar. On the same day we started a dangerous journey
to England with a convoy of 50 cargo ships.
In my log I have many Czech pupils and from my
memory I can say that I never failed any Czech pupil; they
were all sent to Canada for further training where they could
choose to train for single engine or twin or multiple engine
aircraft.
After a period of time as an instructor I was posted to
join the English 24th Transport Squadron. I had known for
quite a while that here were seven Czech pilots in that
squadron whom I knew personally from pre-war years,
including my friend Hubek. There were also two Czech
telephone operators and two Czech navigators.
Here I served as a VIP pilot, which means that I was
flying very important passengers to all parts of England, and
at the end of the war also to France and Belgium.
I happened to be in the first crew of the American
Dakota dual engine transport aircraft that flew with a full
cargo to an airfield in Germany near the Buchenwald
concentration camp. We knew from the American
Intelligence Service that there were many Czech prisoners
there.
The Czech prisoners welcomed us with joy and trust that
their lives were saved.
I took a suit with me that I had when leaving for Poland
before the war for a Czech person who knew me quite well
before the war. Unfortunately, today I cannot remember his
name.

They also showed us around the concentration camp and

I will never in my life forget what I saw and heard there.
Inhuman tyranny of all kinds were used. The German
inhabitants of the surrounding villages claimed that they had
known nothing about this camp for the whole duration of the
war. What an excuse?
Another important flight with the Dakota transport
aircraft was when we moved the English ambassador to
Prague with all his personnel. This was an interesting story
which will be described in detail.
And the third fight in the Dakota transport aircraft was
the happiest one of my life at that time. It was me and my
fellow pilots return to our homeland and the golden city of a
hundred spires, Prague, for good. Again, I will add some
interesting information on that.
In a short while, when I located members of our Pda
family, my joy at returning to my homeland turned into its
exact opposite. I want to describe this human tragedy in clear
detail. For now, I dont want to mention a single word about
it in this letter so as to not to open a moral wound; what I
want to explain briefly to you is only a third of the reality.