THE FALL OF FRANCE (1940)
In December 1939, the Czechoslovak ground troops in France consisted of approximately 3,500 soldiers who had left the country after the occupation. They were trained in Agde, France. In January 1940, they were joined by 444 members of the International Brigades who were interned in France after the defeat of the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. By March 1940, almost14,000 Czechoslovaks, who were living or working in France, were mobilized.
Colonel Josef Berounský, Brigadier General Karel Janoušek and Brigadier General Alois Vicherek gradually took over the command of the Czechoslovak Air Force in Great Britain. The first fighter planes were sent to the front on 2 December 1939. Josef Berounský published in the periodical Česko-Slovenský boj, in which he summed up all the hopes: "The first of our airmen are going to the front and at last to fulfil their desire, which is the desire of all of us, to meet the enemy, which we saw at our home, as he spread out across our airfields. Unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to test our strength at that time. I remember the mobilisation of 1938, when the crisis was approaching its peak, when these airfields could at any moment be attacked by enemy’s bomber air force, which had us overwhelmingly outnumbered and ready to strike. I examined carefully then the effect of this superiority on the morale of our people and found with great satisfaction that it had only reinforced their determination to inflict maximum damage on the enemy and to even pay the ultimate price, since none of us airmen believed that we would come out of this unequal fight unscathed. It was a beautiful display of determination. Then came the terrible disappointment as the enemy landed at airfields which, had already gone quiet, drenched in the blood of our many comrades, and only because the enemy had deceived all of Europe, and with it us, in a way that was unprecedented in history.
And now the first of our airmen have the opportunity to retaliate, under conditions far more favourable to us — not at a ratio of 1:10, but at a ratio of 1:1. No overwhelming superiority. Only technical maturity, determination, perseverance, and the will to win will decide. And if our people had these qualities to an excellent degree during the mobilisation of 1938, I am convinced that they have them all the more today, when the enduring humiliation and suffering of our people at home has surely whipped everyone to give their highest effort.
You, who are fortunate to go to the front first, also have the responsibility to be able to apply these qualities. You have our military and air reputation in your hands. You are the first Czechoslovaks to intervene in this war here on the Western Front, and therefore you will be closely observed and critically judged by your French commanders and comrades. You will prepare the ground for others, and it is now up to you that the name of the Czechoslovak soldier and Czechoslovak airman has the resonance here in France that our nation deserves. The whole Czechoslovak army is waiting here in France to see how you will do and how you will represent our armed forces on the battlefield.
We, the airmen, have no doubt that you will accomplish your task well. We wish you success in this 'Flight'!"
By mid-June 1940, all the senior officers of the Czechoslovak army suspected that the defeat of France was inevitable. Therefore, the main effort of the command became to gather as many Czechoslovak soldiers as possible in some place from which they could be evacuated to Great Britain. However, the situation was far from clear and there was a lack of communication channels between the commanders. General Vicherek was with other senior officers in the southern French town of Béziers. On Tuesday, 18 June 1940, in the evening, General Vicherek spoke by telephone with General "Miroslav", which was the code name of Brigadier General Bedřich Neumann. Alois Vicherek thought that the Czechoslovak airmen should gather in some port on the west coast of France, but General Neumann confirmed that the British were discussing the transfer of Czechoslovak soldiers to some port on the Mediterranean coast. In Bordeaux, where the French government was temporarily based, General Karel Janoušek, Colonel Josef Berounský and Staff Captain Karel Náprstek were at the Ministry of Aviation. General Vicherek demanded that they try to get an order from the French Ministry of Command to concentrate all the Czechoslovak airmen. In the evening, however, General Sergej Ingr and Army General Louis-Eugène Faucher, former chief of the French military mission in Czechoslovakia and then chief of the French-Czechoslovak military mission, arrived in Béziers. They themselves decided to go to Bordeaux to meet with the French commander-in-chief, Army General Maxim Weygand. They were supposed to negotiate with him the details of the evacuation of the Czechoslovak soldiers. However, they were not successful, as on 19 June 1940, General Vicherek received a message that Ingr and Faucher had negotiated with Weygand, but reported that he would not comment and announced that he would not give them orders until 20 June 1940. Meanwhile, the Czechoslovak commanders already knew that the Czechoslovak soldiers should embark in the vicinity of the port of Marseille. Later came a message that it should be the ports of Port-Vendres or Séte on the coast of the Lion's Bay (Golfe du Lion), while Séte lies not far from Béziers.