| Emil Boček | |
|---|---|
 Emil Boček in 2016 | |
| Born | 25 February 1923 |
| Died | 25 March 2023 (aged 100) |
| Place of birth | Brno, Czechoslovakia[1] |
| Place of death | Brno, Czech Republic[2] |
| Allegiance |
Error creating thumbnail: Czechoslovak government in exile  United Kingdom Czechoslovakia Czech Republic |
| Unit | No. 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards |
|
| Spouse(s) | Eva Svobodová (m. 1951)[3] |
Emil Boček (25 February 1923 – 25 March 2023) was a Czech World War II veteran and the last surviving Czechoslovak RAF pilot.[3]
Early life[]
Emil Boček was born 25 February 25, 1923 in Brno, Czechoslovakia[4][1] He graduated from the municipal school in Brno-Tuřany. In September 1938, he began training to be a machine locksmith.
In 1939, following the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, Boček managed to leave the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia illegally and joined the Czechoslovak foreign army in France.
World War II[]
Boček reached Beirut and took part in the Battle of France in the summer of 1940. After the French surrender, he was evacuated to Great Britain, where, in September 1940 he graduated from the Aircraft Mechanics Course and was accepted as one of the youngest members of the RAF.[5]
He served first as an aircraft mechanic with the 312th Fighter Squadron. In 1943, he was on pilot training in Canada, and from October 1944, he served as a fighter pilot in squadron "B" in the No. 310 Squadron RAF fighter squadron. He had 26 operational flights and flew for a total of 73 hours and 50 minutes. His last combat action was on May 12, 1945 from Manston airfield.[3]
On August 13, 1945, Boček landed with other pilots of the Czechoslovak fighter squadrons in Prague-Ruzyně, subsequently assigned to Air Regiment 2 in Prague-Kbely and on December 1, 1945 he got promoted to sergeant of the air force in the reserve.
As a member of the non-communist resistance, he became an inconvenience to the communists, and after the war, he was discharged from the army at his own request on March 2 March 1946.[5]
Life after the war[]
Before February 1948, Boček owned a car repair shop in Brno, which he had to "voluntarily" nationalize and hand over to Mototechna, where he then worked. It is thanks to this that he escaped persecution by the communist regime. At that time he was also a very promising motorcycle racer.
In 1951 he married Eva Svobodová, with whom he had a son named Jiří and a daughter named Zuzana.[3]
In 1958 he started working as a turner at the Institute of Instrumentation of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and from 1983 to 1988 at the company Drukov. He retired in 1988.[5]
Life post-retirement[]
In April 1990, he was promoted to the rank of captain and, in October of the same year, to major. In March 1993 he was promoted to the rank of retired colonel.[1]
On March 23, 1996, he personally met for a brief conversation with the British Queen Elizabeth II during her four-hour visit to Brno[6] accompanied by the President of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel.[3]
On October 28, 2010, President Václav Klaus awarded him The Order of the White Lion III class due to his "extraordinary merit for the defence and security of the state and outstanding combat activity".[7]
A documentary film about his life, called Nezlomný (English: Unbreakable), was made in 2012.[8]
President Miloš Zeman appointed him Brigadier General on 8 May 2014,[9] on 8 May 2017 to Major General[10] and on 8 May 2019 to Army General.[11]
A plaque saying "This tram bears the name of General Emil Boček"
In December 2016, one of the trams of the Brno City Transport Company was named after him, this being a suggestion of the Brno-Bystrc district.[12]
On January 31, 2017, Emil Boček received the 2016 City of Brno Award for Merit for Freedom and Democracy.[13] Since December 2017, he has also an honorary citizen of Brno.[14]
On October 28 October 2019, he was awarded the title of Order of the White Lion First Class by the President of the Republic Miloš Zeman.[15]
On September 19 September 2019, Kurt Taussig died, making Emil Boček the last surviving Czechoslovak pilot in the RAF during World War II.[16][17]
Boček lived in Brno all his life, except during World War II.[18] He was active in the Czechoslovak Legionary Community and the Association of Former Members of the RAF, and actively participated in events in Brno.[19]
He participated in several meetings, including one with Czech Technical University students and staff together with RAF airmen, organised after November 1989 by the Masaryk Academy of Labour, the Mechanical Engineering Society at CTU in Prague and the European Movement in the Czech Republic in the large lecture room 256 in Prague-Dejvice.
Emil Boček died on March 25, 2023 at the age of 100 in Brno.[20]
Awards and decorations[]
- File:CZE Rad Bileho Lva 1 tridy BAR.svg Order of the White Lion, First Class, Military military group (2019)
Order of the White Lion, Third Class, – military group (2010)- File:Czechoslovak War Cross 1939-1945 (2x) Bar.png Czechoslovak War Cross 1939–1945, double receiver
- Medal "For Bravery Before the Enemy"
- Czechoslovak Medal of Merit, Second class
- File:TCH CS voj pametni medaile BAR.svg Commemorative medals of the Czechoslovak army abroad
- Cross of Merit of the Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic, Third class[21]
- Error creating thumbnail: Medal of Karel Kramář (2016)
- 1939–1945 Star
- Air Crew Europe Star[22]
- Error creating thumbnail: France and Germany Star[23]
- Error creating thumbnail: British Defence Medal[24]
- Error creating thumbnail: War Medal 1939–1945[25]
- File:CZE Honorable Commemorative Badge 60th Anniv WW2 End v1 BAR.svg Ribbon for the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II award[26]
- File:Čestná pamětní medaile k 90. výročí vzniku Československé republiky - Ribbon.jpg Ribbon of the 90th anniversary of the Czechoslovak republic[27]
- File:TCH Commemorative Medal 20th Anniv Liberation CSSR BAR.svg Commemorative Medal for the 20th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
- File:Pamětní medaile za účast v boji proti fašismu a za osvobození vlasti - ribbon.jpg Commemorative medal for participation in the fight against fascism and for the liberation of the Czechoslovak homeland[28]
- File:Čsol 3945.jpg Commemorative medal of the CSOL "1914–1918 / 1939–1945"[29]
- File:Medaile ČsOL III. třídy.jpg Commemorative Medal of CSOL, Third Class
- File:Čsol 100 let.jpg Commemorative medal 100 years of CSOL (2021)[30]
- File:Cyriakowie.svg The Grand Cross of the Canons Regular of the Penitence of the Blessed Martyrs
_Bar.png){kind=link}
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Letci z Holásek a Tuřan ve II. světové válce" (in cs). Virtual Fighters.cz. http://history.virtualfighters.cz/odboj/kniha12.htm.
- ↑ "Emil Bocek obituary". https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/emil-bocek-obituary-wq5nxr00l.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "Armádní generál ve výslužbě Emil Boček" (in cs). Encyklopedie dějin města Brna. 2004. https://encyklopedie.brna.cz/home-mmb/?acc=profil_osobnosti&load=3925.
- ↑ "Emil Bocek, last Czech RAF pilot during WWII, dies at 100". 2023-03-25. https://apnews.com/article/czech-pilot-war-britain-spitfire-obituary-bb8b0e7698c32147b5a7ccb0bf3e8f0a.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "plukovník v. v. Emil Boček (1923) – Životopis" (in cs). Memory of Nations. Post Bellum. http://www.pametnaroda.cz/witness/index/id/253?locale=cs_CZ.
- ↑ "Visit by Queen Elizabeth II to Czechia remembered 25 years on". 2021-03-26. https://english.radio.cz/visit-queen-elizabeth-ii-czechia-remembered-25-years-8713110.
- ↑ "22 vyznamenaných: stateční vojáci, Jágr, Maciuchová i básník Šiktanc" (in cs). Czech News Center. 2010-10-28. ISSN 1213-9017. http://www.reflex.cz/clanek/dokument/39149/22-vyznamenanych-statecni-vojaci-jagr-maciuchova-i-basnik-siktanc.html.
- ↑ "Nezlomný (2012)" (in cs). https://www.csfd.cz/film/444195-nezlomny/komentare/.
- ↑ "Prezident jmenoval generály AČR" (in cs). Hrad.cz. 2014-05-08. https://www.hrad.cz/cs/pro-media/tiskove-zpravy/aktualni-tiskove-zpravy/prezident-jmenoval-generaly-acr-1-10599.
- ↑ "Prezident republiky jmenoval nové generály" (in cs). Hrad.cz. 2017-05-08. https://www.hrad.cz/cs/pro-media/tiskove-zpravy/aktualni-tiskove-zpravy/prezident-republiky-jmenuje-nove-generaly-13345.
- ↑ "Prezident republiky jmenoval nové generály" (in cs). Hrad.cz. 2019-05-08. https://www.hrad.cz/cs/pro-media/tiskove-zpravy/aktualni-tiskove-zpravy/prezident-republiky-jmenoval-nove-generaly-7-14773.
- ↑ "Nové tramvaje v Brně. Po městě jezdí Menšík, Gollová i generál Boček" (in cs). iDNES.cz. 22 December 2016. http://brno.idnes.cz/nove-tramvaje-v-brne-pojmenovali-po-osobnostech-fup-/brno-zpravy.aspx?c=A161222_151421_brno-zpravy_vh.
- ↑ "Generál Boček obdrží Cenu města Brna – Brno Bystrc" (in cs). Městská část Brno-Bystrc. http://www.bystrc.cz/aktualne/3382-gener%C3%A1l-bo%C4%8Dek-obdr%C5%BE%C3%AD-cenu-m%C4%9Bsta-brna.html.
- ↑ "Čestní občané města Brna (od r. 1990)" (in cs). https://www.brno.cz/cestni-obcane-mesta-brna?rok=2017.
- ↑ "Státní vyznamenání 2019: Medailonky osobností vyznamenaných prezidentem Zemanem" (in cs). Seznam.cz. https://www.seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/kdo-dostal-vyznamenani-od-prezidenta-42-osobnosti-vecera-na-hrade-81609.
- ↑ "Zemřel jeden z posledních dvou žijících československých letců RAF Kurt Taussig. V mládí ho zachránil Nicholas Winton" (in cs). Economia. 2019-09-20. https://domaci.hn.cz/c1-66645000-zemrel-predposledni-ceskoslovensky-letec-raf-byl-jednim-z-deti-ktere-zachranil-nicholas-winton.
- ↑ "Czechia loses its last Czechoslovak RAF pilot with death of Emil Boček". 2023-03-27. https://english.radio.cz/czechia-loses-its-last-czechoslovak-raf-pilot-death-emil-bocek-8778720.
- ↑ "G/Cpt. Emil Boček". Memory of Nations. Post Bellum. https://www.memoryofnations.eu/en/bocek-emil-1923.
- ↑ "Brno – Ceny města Brna" (in cs). https://www.brno.cz/obcan/vyznamne-osoby-a-vyroci/ceny-mesta-brna/?pg=detail&idosobnosti=1152.
- ↑ "Zemřel válečný veterán Emil Boček" (in cs). BORGIS. https://www.novinky.cz/clanek/domaci-zemrel-valecny-veteran-emil-bocek-40426860.
- ↑ "Záslužný kříž ministra obrany České republiky : Vyznamenání resortu obrany [1993-souč."]. https://www.valka.cz/Zasluzny-kriz-ministra-obrany-Ceske-republiky-t79796.
- ↑ "Evropská hvězda leteckých osádek: Ostatní státní vyznamenání" (in cs). https://www.valka.cz/Evropska-hvezda-leteckych-osadek-t10448.
- ↑ "Hvězda za Francii a Německo: Ostatní státní vyznamenání". https://www.valka.cz/Hvezda-za-Francii-a-Nemecko-t10449.
- ↑ "Medaile za obranu : Ostatní státní vyznamenání". https://www.valka.cz/Medaile-za-obranu-t10419.
- ↑ "Válečná medaile 1939–1945 : Ostatní státní vyznamenání". https://www.valka.cz/Valecna-medaile-1939-1945-t10421.
- ↑ "Čestný pamětní odznak k 60. výročí ukončení 2. světové války : Vyznamenání resortu obrany [1993-souč."]. https://www.valka.cz/Cestny-pametni-odznak-k-60-vyroci-ukonceni-2-svetove-valky-t145218.
- ↑ "Čestná pamětní medaile k 90. výročí vzniku Československé republiky: Vyznamenání resortu obrony [1993-souč."]. https://www.valka.cz/Cestna-pametni-medaile-k-90-vyroci-vzniku-Ceskoslovenske-republiky-t159152.
- ↑ "Pamětní medaile za účast v boji proti fašismu a za osvobození vlasti : Vyznamenání resortu obrony [1993-souč."]. https://www.valka.cz/Pametni-medaile-za-ucast-v-boji-proti-fasismu-a-za-osvobozeni-vlasti-t86714.
- ↑ "Galerie veteránú R.A.F. – Jadran Šetlík". http://www.jadransetlik.com/portfolio/galerie-veteranu-r-a-f/.
- ↑ Vysloužil, Zdeněk (2021-10-14). "Legionáři udělovali pamětní medaile. Podívejte se". Vltava Labe Media. ISSN 1801-9846. https://prostejovsky.denik.cz/zpravy_region/legionari-udelovali-pametni-medaile-20211014.html.
Bibliography[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Category:Emil Boček. |
- Jiří Plachý: Emil Boček, Strach jsem si nepřipouštěl, Jota, Brno, 2018
- Audiokniha Jiří Plachý: Emil Boček, Strach jsem si nepřipouštěl, Jota an Audiotéka, 2018
- Memory of nations: Emil Boček
The original article can be found at Emil Boček and the edit history here.