Emil Boček
Emil Boček in 2016
Born(1923-02-25)25 February 1923
Brno, Czechoslovakia[1]
Died25 March 2023(2023-03-25) (aged 100)
Brno, Czech Republic[2]
Allegiance Czechoslovak government in exile
 United Kingdom
 Czechoslovakia
 Czech Republic
UnitNo. 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF
Battles/warsWorld War II
Awards
  • Czechoslovak War Cross (1945)
  • South Moravian Region Award (2015)
  • City of Brno Award (2016)
  • Honorary citizenship of Brno (2017)
Complete list of decorations
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 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 of 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 12 May 1945 from Manston airfield.[3]

On 13 August 1945, Boček landed with other pilots of the Czechoslovak fighter squadrons in Prague-Ruzyně, subsequently was assigned to the Air regiment 2 in Prague-Kbely and on 1 December 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 and was discharged from the army at his own request on 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 23 March 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 28 October 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 31 January 2017, Emil Boček received the 2016 City of Brno Award for Merit for Freedom and Democracy.[13] Since December 2017 he was also an honorary citizen of Brno.[14]

On 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 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 25 March 2023 at the age of 100 in Brno.[20]

Awards and decorations

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Letci z Holásek a Tuřan ve II. světové válce" (in Czech). Virtual Fighters.cz. Archived from the original on 11 May 2011. Retrieved 19 December 2010.
  2. ↑ "Emil Bocek obituary".
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Armádní generál ve výslužbě Emil Boček". Encyklopedie dějin města Brna (in Czech). 2004. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  4. ↑ "Emil Bocek, last Czech RAF pilot during WWII, dies at 100". AP News. 25 March 2023. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 "plukovník v. v. Emil Boček (1923) – Životopis". Memory of Nations (in Czech). Post Bellum. Archived from the original on 8 May 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2010.
  6. ↑ "Visit by Queen Elizabeth II to Czechia remembered 25 years on". Radio Prague International. 26 March 2021. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  7. ↑ "22 vyznamenaných: stateční vojáci, Jágr, Maciuchová i básník Šiktanc". Reflex.cz (in Czech). Czech News Center. 28 October 2010. ISSN 1213-9017. Retrieved 19 December 2010.
  8. ↑ "Nezlomný (2012)". csfd.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  9. ↑ "Prezident jmenoval generály AČR" (in Czech). Hrad.cz. 8 May 2014. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  10. ↑ "Prezident republiky jmenoval nové generály" (in Czech). Hrad.cz. 8 May 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  11. ↑ "Prezident republiky jmenoval nové generály" (in Czech). Hrad.cz. 8 May 2019. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  12. ↑ "Nové tramvaje v Brně. Po městě jezdí Menšík, Gollová i generál Boček" (in Czech). iDNES.cz. 22 December 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  13. ↑ "Generál Boček obdrží Cenu města Brna – Brno Bystrc" (in Czech). Městská část Brno-Bystrc. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  14. ↑ "Čestní občané města Brna (od r. 1990)". brno.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  15. ↑ "Státní vyznamenání 2019: Medailonky osobností vyznamenaných prezidentem Zemanem". Seznam Zprávy (in Czech). Seznam.cz. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  16. ↑ "Zemřel jeden z posledních dvou žijících československých letců RAF Kurt Taussig. V mládí ho zachránil Nicholas Winton". Hospodářské noviny (in Czech). Economia. 20 September 2019. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  17. ↑ "Czechia loses its last Czechoslovak RAF pilot with death of Emil Boček". Radio Prague International. 27 March 2023. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  18. ↑ "G/Cpt. Emil Boček". Memory of Nations. Post Bellum. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  19. ↑ "Brno – Ceny města Brna". brno.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  20. ↑ "Zemřel válečný veterán Emil Boček". Novinky.cz (in Czech). BORGIS. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  21. ↑ "Záslužný kříž ministra obrany České republiky : Vyznamenání resortu obrany [1993-souč.]". Valka.cz. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  22. ↑ "Evropská hvězda leteckých osádek: Ostatní státní vyznamenání". Valka.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  23. ↑ "Hvězda za Francii a Německo: Ostatní státní vyznamenání". Valka.cz. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  24. ↑ "Medaile za obranu : Ostatní státní vyznamenání". Valka.cz. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  25. ↑ "Válečná medaile 1939–1945 : Ostatní státní vyznamenání". Valka.cz. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  26. ↑ "Čestný pamětní odznak k 60. výročí ukončení 2. světové války : Vyznamenání resortu obrany [1993-souč.]". Valka.cz. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  27. ↑ "Čestná pamětní medaile k 90. výročí vzniku Československé republiky: Vyznamenání resortu obrony [1993-souč.]". Valka.cz. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  28. ↑ "Pamětní medaile za účast v boji proti fašismu a za osvobození vlasti : Vyznamenání resortu obrony [1993-souč.]". Valka.cz. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  29. ↑ "Galerie veteránú R.A.F. – Jadran Šetlík". Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  30. ↑ Vysloužil, Zdeněk (14 October 2021). "Legionáři udělovali pamětní medaile. Podívejte se". Prostějovský deník. Vltava Labe Media. ISSN 1801-9846. Retrieved 6 March 2022.

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 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
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