First casualties
Three Cz airmen met their deaths just seventy years ago.
F/Os Kurka, Sandor and Rous were slain by a German bomb during the Luftwaffe air raid on the Deblin air base on Sep 2, 1939. P/Os Miloslav Stepanek, Viktor Krcha and Benignus Stefan were also injured by that. Three corpses still lying on the spot on the following morning were interred on the orders of St Cpt Bohumil Liska. Two pictures of six graves in the Balonna Military Cem are HERE.
NOTES:
1/ There are three more graves in this Cemetery in the right image. Hearing, they are to be of three unknown Cz airmen, Gen Skarvada objected.
2/ Nos 46 – 48 images of the first three Cz victims to WWII are available below Nos 1 - panels´ footnotes of the ´Wings of Victory´ film - HERE
3/ An article on the Cz airmen´s Sep 2 – 16 Polish Campaign 1939 is HERE
R&R :
Josef Vana, Jan Rail – Cz airmen in the 1939 Polish Campaign – The MoD´s AVIS Publ 2003