Page 16

HISTORY

Leconfield, August 1941. Picture taking for the local press. From the left Sgt P. Brazda, F/O F. Fajtl, S/Ldr G. L. Sinclair, Sgt V. Truhlar, Sgt J. Reznicek and P/O V. Jicha.

above water the following year only through the exhaustion of every available

resource, and this gradually led to the loss of air supremacy over Western

Europe to beyond the shadow of a doubt.

But that was still far off in mid-1941. Czechoslovak airmen were not absent

from the Non-stop Offensive. Eventually, the newest of the Czechoslovak units,

No.313 Squadron, joined in the fighting along with No.310 and 312 Squadrons. And along with them came Frantisek Fajtl.

Shortly after No.313 Squadron was deemed combat-ready, it was moved.

On the first day of July, 1941, the unit bid farewell to its home base of Catterick and said hello to the new base at Leconfield, 16km northeast of the east

English port city of Hull in the County of Lincolnshire. There, it fell under the

command of the 12th Group, Fighter Command. The north English base at Leconfield was an old facility with concrete runways and offered its personnel all

the comforts possible. At the time, the base was shared with No.129 (Mysore)

Squadron, a unit that was about a month younger than No.313 Squadron, and

was likewise equipped with the Spitfire Mk.I.

The unit was tasked with protection of the strategically important port of

Hull, and the industrial centres of central England. It was also to provide cover

for naval convoys off the eastern English shores. 18 ‘Our tasks were rather dull,’

wrote Frantisek Fajtl. ‘We patrolled over naval convoys moving along the coast

and guarded against enemy raids that didn’t come. From time to time, the anti-aircraft artillery units at Hull asked for our assistance, and we provided nighttime

patrols and interception duties, but without much opportunity for success.’ 19

Even though the unit was by then active three weeks, it had not yet submitted

the status of its pilots. So, these were determined, so that the unit could be moved to a base in southern England, where the 11th or 10th Groups had jurisdiction, and from which missions were flown into occupied Europe. The pilot status

work was completed by August 1st, and this was followed by re-equipment.

Starting on August 14th, the no longer satisfactory Spitfire Mk.Is began to be

withdrawn in favor of the Spitfire Mk.IIa, which began arriving two days later.

These had the same eight-gun armament, but they had the more powerful

Merlin XII engine, rated at 876kW (1175hp), allowing for a maximum speed

of around 355mph. The conversion to the Mk.II was completed by August 25th,

1941. This was followed by a transfer into the combat zone, from which offensive operations were conducted over occupied Europe.

The move came on August 26th. The new base was 770km to the southeast.

It was RAF Portreath, under the 10th Group Fighter Command. Groundcrews,

supply personnel and personal items were transported by a pair of obsolete

eduard

Bristol Bombays. Eighteen pilots ferried in their Spitfire Mk.IIa fighters directly,

with one stop at Colerne. The remaining eight pilots drove to their new base. 20

TO BE CONTINUED

František FAJTL: Létal jsem s Třistatřináctkou, page 11.

František FAJTL: Létal jsem s Třistatřináctkou, page 13.

VÚA-VHA, ČsL-VB, sign. 1893/CIII-3b/1-78/342-346. Personel Occurence Reports 1941.

VÚA-VHA, ČsL-VB, sign. 1761/BI/1/307. Chronicles of No.313 Squadron. NA, Kew, AIR 27/197. No

313 Squadron Operations Record Book.

The core of the new squadron was formed by pilots: S/Ldr Gordon L. Sinclair, DFC (who arrived on

May 12th, 1941), Sgt Jiří Kučera (may 18th, 1941 from No. 501 Squadron), Sgt Prokop Brázda and

Sgt Jaroslav Šika (both May 19th from No.43 Squadron), F/O Jan Čermák (May 19th from No.312

Squadron), F/O Karel Mrázek (May 19th from No.257 Squadron), P/O Alois Hochmal and P/O Jaroslav

Muzika (both May 20th from No. 501 Squadron), P/O Karel Kasal (May 20th from No.607 Squadron),

Sgt Josef Gutvald (May 20th from No. 3 Squadron), Sgt Bohumil Dubec (May 25th from No. 32

Squadron), F/O František Fajtl, F/O Karel Vykoukal, P/O Václav Jícha, Sgt Václav Foglar and Sgt

Jiří Řezníček (all May 27th from No.17 Squadron), F/Lt Thomas W. Gillen (June 3rd from No. 403

Squadron), F/Lt John L. Kilmartin, DFC (June 4th from No.602 Squadron), Sgt Karel Čáp (June 6th

from No.245 Squadron), Sgt Rudolf Ptáček (June 11th from No.615 Squadron), Sgt Otto Špaček (June

16th from No.615 Squadron), Sgt Václav Truhlář and Sgt Josef Valenta (both June 18th from No.56

Squadron), P/O Karel Drbohlav and P/O Vladimír Michálek (both June 22nd from No.601 Squadron),

etc. VÚA-VHA, ČsL-VB, sign. 1893/CIII-3b/1-78/342-346. Personel Occurence Reports, 1941, Jiří

RAJLICH: 313. stíhací peruť (No.313 Fighter Squadron). Plzeň 1996, s. 155-159.

This concerned older model Spitfire models that, as a rule, remembered the Battle of Britain. In

August, 1941 No.313 Squadron converted to the higher performing Spitfire Mk.IIa, and in October,

1941, onto the standard Spitfire Mk.VB, which the unit used until February, 1944, when the Spitfire

LF.Mk.IXC arrived. Frantisek Fajtl did not serve on these, as at the time he was flying in the Soviet

Union.

František FAJTL: Létal jsem s Třistatřináctkou, page 16.

Pilot´s Flying Log Book F. Fajtla.

František FAJTL: Létal jsem s Třistatřináctkou, page 16.

František FAJTL: Létal jsem s Třistatřináctkou, page 47.

František FAJTL: Létal jsem s Třistatřináctkou, page 48.

VÚA-VHA, ČsL-VB, sign. 1762/BI/1/307. Kronika 313. Peruti (Chronicles of No.313 Squadron), NA,

Kew, AIR 27/1697. No 313 Squadron Operations Record Book.

VÚA-VHA, ČsL-VB, sign. 1762/BI/1/307. Kronika 313. Peruti (Chronicles of No.313 Squadron)

Hugo Jindřich Slípka (b. May 1st, 1905, Rakovník, d. April 19th, 1982, USA) was not a military

pilot, but a trained journalist. After the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, he defected to the

west and joined the Czechoslovak Army in Exile as an infantryman. He was assigned to No.313

Squadron through 1942-1943 from those experiences he gathered material for his book Ohnivá křídla

(Fiery Wings) (published by Orbis, Prague, 1945). Similarly, he used his experiences with No.311

Squadron through 1943-1944 for the book Biskajská dramata (The Biscay Adventures) (Orbis, Prague,

1945). From his experiences into the Soviet Union, and his stay with the 1st Czechoslovak Mixed Air

Division, he wrote Cesta nejsladší (the Sweetest Road) (Orbis, Prague, 1946).

Winston S. CHURCHILL: The Second World War (The Tide Turns) Prague 1994, Page 689.

Operation Jubilee, Docking at Dieppe, will be covered in 2021 when our attention is turned to the

Spitfire Mk.V.

VÚA-VHA, ČsL-VB, sign. 1762/BI/1/307. Kronika 313. Peruti (Chronicles of No.313 Squadron). NA,

Kew, AIR 27/1697. No 313 Squadron Operations Record Book.

František FAJTL: Vzpomínky na padlé kamarády, page 152.

VÚA-VHA, ČsL-VB, sign. 1762/BI/1/307. Kronika 313. peruti. NA, Kew, AIR 27/1697. No 313

Squadron Operations Record Book.

INFO Eduard - DECEMBER 2020