This week marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe as the Allies finally smashed the Nazi war machine. All around Europe, there have been various commemorative ceremonies.
Today Vee and I attended a small but special ceremony at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey where Czechoslovak airmen, killed during the war while serving with the Royal Air Force, are buried. This is very meaningful to us because Vee’s father, Karel Kuttelwascher, was a Czechoslovak fighter pilot with the RAF and became its most successful night intruder ace.
The Brookwood memorial to
the fallen Czechoslovak airmenThe event was organised by the Czech and Slovak Embassies in London who presented special anniversary medals to the two surviving veterans in the UK. Both Arnost Polak and Ivan Schwarz served as crew on Liberators with the RAF’s Czechoslovak 311 Squadron during the war and are now aged 92. They are representative of
some 2,000 Czechoslovaks who served with the wartime RAF.
Arnost Polak (L) and Ivan Schwarz (R)A few days ago, British citizens, whatever their political persuasion, were able to cast a vote in free and fair elections. We could not have done this without the valiant efforts and sacrifices of all those who fought and defeated the Nazi regime. We remember them and we honour them.
This entry was posted on Sunday, May 10th, 2015 at 7:24 pm and is filed under History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.