Karel Janoušek

Karel Janoušek (2nd from right) visiting the government in exile in Northern Ireland

Karel Janoušek (born October 30, 1893 in Přerov , † October 27, 1971 in Prague ) was a Czechoslovak soldier and participant in the resistance during the First (1916 legionnaire in Russia ) and the Second World War. As Army General of the Czechoslovak Army and Air Marshal of the British Royal Air Force (RAF), he made outstanding contributions to the establishment of the air force units of the Czechoslovak Army in Exile as part of the British RAF. After 1948 he was convicted in Czechoslovakia and imprisoned for twelve years.

Life

Childhood, adolescence and studies

Janoušek, whose father was an official of the Austrian Reichsbahn and in 1878 one of the founders of the later Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party of Workers in the Přerov region, which was founded under the name “Sociálně democická strana českoslovanská v Rakousku” (Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party in Austria) , visited the high school in Přerov which he graduated on July 10, 1912; this was followed by a crash course at the commercial school. He was influenced by the then popular left-wing columnist and writer Josef Svatopluk Machar .

From 1936 to 1939 he studied - during his military career - meteorology and geophysics at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Charles University in Prague , where he graduated in 1939 with an RNDr.

Military career

Janoušek was drafted into the Austrian army on June 2, 1915 and after five months first sent to the Italian front, but then transferred to the Russian front in June 1916. After he was captured, he enlisted in the Serbian Volunteer Division in August 1916, and in October 1916 he switched to the new Czechoslovak legions in Russia. Here he took part in numerous battles. After returning to the already established Czechoslovakia, he attended the military college, which he graduated in 1923. Gradually he was active in various facilities of the Air Force, which he commanded, he completed a few stays abroad (such as twice in France). In 1937 he was promoted to brigadier general.

After the occupation of the country and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in March 1939, Janoušek made contacts with the resistance organization Obrana národa and fled to France on November 15, 1939 via the "Balkan route" (Slovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Greece, Middle East) where the Czechoslovak army in exile was formed; Here he became the commander of the air force that was also forming, which consisted of several thousand pilots and other personnel who had fled. After France surrendered , the Czechoslovak army in exile was evacuated to Great Britain in June 1940. Even before Great Britain recognized the new Czechoslovak government-in-exile on July 21, 1940, Janoušek began negotiations with British authorities and achieved that Czechoslovak pilots could immediately intervene in the fighting, first in the units of the RAF and later in their own units - the 310th squadron was established on July 10, 1940 as the first association of the Czechoslovak air force units in the RAF and, like the other later squadrons, is subordinate to the RAF; this was contractually regulated with Great Britain about three months later on October 15, 1940.

Janoušek, who after his arrival in Great Britain as Brigadier General was temporarily the highest representative of the Czechoslovak Air Force in the country, was appointed on July 12, 1940 with the direction of the Inspectorate of the Czechoslovak Air Force , which was newly established by the British Ministry of Defense ( The Inspectorate of Czechoslovak Air Force , also Czechoslovak Inspectorate General ). Janoušek joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) as an Acting Air Commodore and was also appointed Inspector Air Vice Marshall . The appointment as inspector of the Czechoslovak Air Force by the government-in-exile on October 15, 1940 was formally retroactive by decree of June 18, 1941 (Janoušek retained this rank until October 19, 1945). On May 17, 1945, he was finally promoted to Air Marshal .

Arrest and trial

Karel Janoušek returned to liberated Czechoslovakia on August 13, 1945. His further career failed because of the reluctance of the new Gottwald government , which was installed after the 1946 elections on July 2, 1946, against all soldiers fighting on the so-called "Western Front". After the February revolution in 1948 by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia , he was given compulsory leave on February 28, 1948 with the prospect of being decommissioned soon. Janoušek received an offer to work for the International Civil Aviation Organization ICAO in Montreal, for the establishment of which he actively campaigned and at whose founding congress on December 7, 1944 in Chicago ( Chicago Agreement ) he represented Czechoslovakia. However, his application to leave the country was strictly rejected. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested on April 30, 1948 while attempting to flee. In the trial at the Supreme Military Court in Prague on June 17, 1948, he was sentenced to 18 years of heavy imprisonment; in the appeal before the State Court on February 9, 1949, the sentence was extended to 19 years. The charges in this show trial were desertion and high treason. Janoušek was one of the first victims of the purges of the new regime - in 1948 a total of 27 generals and 813 high officers of the army in exile were sentenced, from 1948 to 1950 a total of 6,500, many of whom were executed.

Memorial plaque in Prague on a house where Janoušek partly lived

Janoušek was in some notorious prisons like leopoldov prison , prison Pankrác , prison Bory and in prison Prague-Ruzyne prison. In Bory, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for another attempt to escape. It was not until May 9, 1960 that he was released after twelve years' imprisonment due to an amnesty given by the President, but was not rehabilitated. Because he received a marginal pension, he had to pursue a small job.

Rehabilitation, awards

Although he was rehabilitated in 1968, but without the old ranks would have been awarded to him. This did not happen until 1990, 19 years after his death, and on December 2, 1990 he was promoted in memoriam to the highest rank of the Czechoslovak Army Army General.

Karel Janoušek has received a total of 40 military awards, including Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (1941), Commandeur de la Legion d'honneur (1945), Commander of the Order of Merit and other Czechoslovak, French, Yugoslav, Russian, Polish, Romanian, Norwegian, British and US awards.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Karel Janousek , CV on Free Czechoslovak Air Force - Karel Janousek, online at: fcafa.wordpress.com/… , English, accessed on June 7, 2015
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Karel Janoušek , curriculum vitae on the server of the Prasha 14 district, online at: www.praha14.cz/… , in Czech, accessed on June 7, 2015
3. ↑ JANOUŠEK Karel , curriculum vitae on the website of the grammar school in Přerov, online at: www.gjs.cz/… , in Czech, accessed on June 7, 2015
4. ↑ O příčinách vítězství komunistů v únoru 1948 , 1st part, online at: www.totalita.cz , Czech, accessed on June 7, 2015
5. ↑ Českoslovenští piloti v cizích službách, online at: druha.svetova.cz/… , in Czech, accessed on June 7, 2015
6. ↑ Dohoda mezi vládou Československou a vládou Spojeného království o československé BRANNE moci (agreement between the government of Czechoslovakia and the Government of the United Kingdom over the Czechoslovak armed forces) of 25 October 1940 online at: cs.wikisource.org/... , Czech, Retrieved June 7, 2015

Web links

• Karel Janousek , very detailed résumé compiled by Free Czechoslovak Air Force Associates Ltd., online at: fcafa.wordpress.com/…