During the landing, the pilot was in a sweat
In 1944, the 26-year-old lieutenant Tomáš Sedláček volunteered to fight on the Eastern Front. He served at the 2nd Parachute Brigade, which was first deployed as an infantry brigade. Its members were later landed to provide support to the Slovak National Uprising. He recalled: “When we flew for the first time, it was very foggy and the pilot refused to land at the Tri Duby airport. The second time, the situation was basically the same but the pilot decided to risk a landing. He flew through the fog, and we safely landed. I recall that I stood right behind him during the landing. He was in a sweat. There were many accidents. My friend, Franta Urbánek, was on a plane which was landing. Unfortunately, the undercarriage collided with an obstacle, the plane crashed and he got killed.”
Hodnocení
Abyste mohli hodnotit musíte se přihlásit!
Trasy
Príbeh nie je súčasťou žiadnej trasy.
Komentáre
Tomáš Sedláček
Tomáš Sedláček was born in 1918 in Vienna. After graduation, he joined the compulsory military service. In 1937, he enrolled in the Military Academy in Hranice na Moravě. In 1940, he escaped from the fatherland via the Balkans to France. After the fall of France, he emigrated to Great Britain. He served in the artillery until summer 1944, when he was sent to fight on the Eastern Front. As a member of the parachute brigade he engaged in the Carpatho-Dukla offensive as well as in the military operations during the Slovak National Uprising. After the war, he shortly served in the Division Headquarters in Pilsen. Mr. Sedláček was arrested on 11 February 1951. In a trumped-up trial, he was accused of espionage for a subversive group called Irena. In summer 1952, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for high treason. He was held prisoner in the Pankrác, Mírov, Leopoldov, and Valdice prisons as well as in the Bytíz camp. On 11 May 1960, he was released following a presidential amnesty. After 1989, he was rehabilitated and received the rank of army general, (i.e. the highest military rank). Mr. Sedláček died in August 2012.
