Page 48 - Demo

48comrades who only hit on the solution of letting him fly as a guest of %u2018303%u2019 as an option to having him posted off the squadron altogether. The pre8war Czechoslovak Air Force was also highly selective and in 1933 only 22 cadets from the famous military academy at Hranice progressed to advanced aircrew training. The syllabus at the Central Flying School at Prostejov was divided equally between athletics, aviation theory and flying training and discipline was stern.49 Those that stayed the exacting year8long course found themselves posted to the highly motivated and relatively competitive Czechoslovak Air Force. By the time of the Munich Crisis of September 1938, the CAF was composed of six regional Air Regiments and equipped with more than 1,500 aircraft, around 800 of which were front8line types.50 With the German occupation in March 1939, the CAF was disbanded but 470 airmen escaped to France and were temporarily enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. A further 93 airmen, including Sergeant Frantisek, were accepted into the ranks of the Polish Air Force.51 On 1 September 1939, the PAF%u2019s 300, mostly obsolete, front8line aircraft were opposed by a Luftwaffe equipped with over 1,300 modern fighters and bombers. The PAF%u2019s Eskadras were not destroyed on the ground in the first days of the campaign, as is often asserted, but were intelligently dispersed to forward airfields located around the country. Furthermore, though equipped with obsolete PZL P.11 and P.7 fighters, the Polish pilots fought surprisingly well; and in the brief campaign managed to shoot down 126 enemy machines for the loss of 114.52 Following the Soviet invasion and German victory, most of the Polish airmen spent time in internment camps in Rumania, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania before escaping to France to continue the war. Once there, the Slavs were angry to discover that their French allies were inclined to treat them with disdain, disparaging their fighting skills and neglecting their welfare. They later bitterly resented the French decision to commit them haphazardly to a battle against the German Blitzkrieg which they appeared unable or unwilling to fight themselves. Nevertheless, the exiles%u2019 superior training and that most precious commodity, combat experience, stood them in good stead. The Czechoslovak airmen performed well during the Battle of France claiming 157 victories in return for 28 killed.53 A fair proportion of these would, however, have been counted as %u2018probable%u2019 or %u2018shared%u2019 victories by the RAF. Though only engaged in the latter part of the