Josef Frantisek Remembrance
On Sat Oct 5 a Remembrance Ceremony will be held at the village of Otaslavice on a birthday centenary of its well-known resident. The event will be dedicated to the best scoring pilot of BoB Sgt. Josef Frantisek DFM&Bar who served with the Polish No 303 ´Tadeusz Kosziuszko´ Fighter Sqn. He was the first Cz pilot awarded with DFM.
The event is given by the Otaslavice Municipality. At 1000 hrs wreaths are to be laid at the memorial in front of the pilot´s native house. Afterwards are the atendees invited a small hall of a local Sokol Sports Gym to see a permanent exhibition dedicated to Josef Frantisek. The exhibits used to be on display on a ground floor of a local elementary School before. The school is situated opposite to a church which was attended by a little Joe on Sundays.
The event is also mentioned on a www.fcafa.wordpress.com website in the text ´Josef Frantisek Remembrance´posted on Sep 25.
On June 4, 2004 a group of the Cz Airmen Association´s members visited a Sgt. Josef Frantisek´s grave at the Northwood Cem in NW London. The paid tribute to his gravestone with a Polish Eagle – a bunch of carnations. A wife of a ´Treble One´ pilot Mrs Olga Zadrobilkova came up with an idea to gather the money and split and half the bunch so that Joe friend Wilhelm Koszarz´s gravestone could also be decorated. This event was filmed and you can see that HERE or in the ´CzAA´s members in England 2004´ Subsection of the ´Documentaries´ Section.
In the above mentioned Section you can also see Sgt. Josef František DFM&Bar front of his Hurricane Mk I fighter plane in No 167 picture of the third part of a ´Wings of Victory´ film.
NOTES : - The age of 26 seen on a Sgt Josef Frantisek´s gravestone is incorrect. It should
have been engraved one of 27
- The abbreviation ´PLT´stands for the rank of PLUTONOWY ie Sgt