CZECHOSLOVAK NO. 311 BOMBER SQUADRON (1943)

"Soon after the first Liberator bombers appeared, the training period began for the aircrew personnel. Those few months were not the best, for the fighter pilots, after three or four years of war, many of whose achievements and accomplishments were recorded in ribbons on the left side of their breasts, certainly did not want to sit in front of a school blackboard. As a training commander, I had all sorts of difficulties with this, which I wanted to overcome by alternating the time at school with swimming in the sea, sports, soccer. Still, I couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for theoretical training. The old toffs, with their hundreds of operating hours, were hard to keep in line. But it had to be this way, because the Liberator was really something different from all the previous aeroplanes, we had in any of our missions. Interest increased when it was possible to move on to practical exercises and actual flight training. There, even the more experienced pilots admitted that the work with four engines was a little different from what we had done previously. Almost before the end of the training, the President came to visit us. It was a holiday, and yet everything was quite simple. He came, was greeted by the bomber squadron, and he proceeded to tell us on that short sunny day what the political situation was like and how the war was going. Then he had lunch with all the officers who were present. The following morning, we all played a little football. And here it can't be said that the President watched the game with interest, because that official phrase can be as true as it can be used as a polite way of covering up boredom. The President was quite openly cheering. Joining the President was the commander of Coastal Command [Air Marshal Sir John Slessor], who reaffirmed that the No. 311 Squadron was his best. Only he was surprised that the Czechs, coming from such a landlocked nation, had the best performances over the sea. He decided that they got used to the water quickly. I think that despite all the praise of many of us, tongues of many of our people were itching to reply that we had had enough of the water, and that we certainly didn't love it very much. When the training was over and the entire squadron was able to fly, the Group Command included our squadron in its battle plan. We took off for the first time on 21 August [1943]."