Alois Vaà ¡Ã¡tko DFC (25 August 1908 â 23 June 1942) was a Czechoslovak artillery officer who became an air force pilot. In the Second World War he was a fighter ace, first in the French Air Force in the Battle of France and then in the Royal Air Force.
In the French Air Force Vaà ¡Ã¡tko shot down at least 12 enemy aircraft in May and June 1940. In the RAF he shot down another 14 enemy aircraft between October 1940 and his death in June 1942. He commanded No. 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF from June 1941 and RAF Fighter Command's Czechoslovak fighter wing from May 1942.
France awarded Vaà ¡Ã¡tko the Croix de guerre 1939âÂÂ1945 with seven palms, two gold stars and one silver star, and made him a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. The United Kingdom awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Vaà ¡Ã¡tko was killed in action in June 1942 by a mid-air collision over the English Channel between his Supermarine Spitfire and an enemy Focke-Wulf Fw 190.
Vaà ¡Ã¡tko was born in 1908 in ÃÂelákovice in central Bohemia. He was one of five children of a cabinet-maker, also called Alois Vaà ¡Ã¡tko, who served in the Austro-Hungarian armed forces and returned from the First World War as an invalid.
When Vaà ¡Ã¡tko was still a child the family moved to Týnià ¡tànad Orlicàin northeastern Bohemia, where Vaà ¡Ã¡tko completed secondary school. He then studied at a teacher training college in Hradec Králové and became a schoolteacher in LitomÃÂà Âice in northern Bohemia.
On 1 October 1928 Vaà ¡Ã¡tko changed career, joining the Czechoslovak Army as an artilleryman. In 1929 he began training at the military academy in Hranice. In July 1931 he passed out as a Poruchik (junior lieutenant) and was posted to Olomouc in Moravia as commander of the 2nd battery of the 7th Artillery Regiment. On 1 October 1935 he was promoted to senior lieutenant.
Also in 1935 Vaà ¡Ã¡tko trained as an air observer at the military aviation school at ProstÃÂjov in Moravia. On 31 December 1936 he transferred from the Army to the Czechoslovak Air Force. On 15 November 1937 he was appointed commander of the 14th Observation Squadron of the 2nd "Dr Edvard Beneà ¡" Air Regiment stationed at Olomouc, which was equipped with Letov à  -328 reconnaissance aircraft.
On 30 September 1938 France and the United Kingdom allowed Germany to annexe the Sudetenland. Vaà ¡Ã¡tko continued his training and on 1 March 1939 he qualified as a pilot. On 15 March Germany occupied the remainder of Bohemia and Moravia and imposed a Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia with a puppet government that it ordered to dissolve its armed forces. The Czechoslovak Air Force ceased to exist, and the Luftwaffe confiscated its aircraft.
Leaving the protectorate was not allowed, but many airmen chose to do so illegally. In July 1939 Vaà ¡Ã¡tko passed through the now independent Slovak Republic and over the Beskid mountain range into Poland, where he reported to the Czechoslovak Consulate in Kraków. On 28 July he and other Czechoslovaks left Gdynia aboard the Polish ocean liner .
Vaà ¡Ã¡tko disembarked in France, where Czechoslovak refugees were not yet allowed to join the Armée de l'air. After France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939 Czechoslovaks were allowed to join the French Foreign Legion. Only after 17 November were they allowed to the Armée de l'air.
Vaà ¡Ã¡tko enlisted and was trained at the Centre d'Instruction de la Chasse ("Fighter Training Centre") at Chartres air base. On 1 May 1940 he was promoted to captain. On 10 May Germany invaded the Netherlands and Belgium and attacked France.
The next day Vaà ¡Ã¡tko and fellow-Czechoslovaks Adolf Vrána and TomÃ¡à ¡ VybÃÂral were posted to the Groupe de Chasse I/5 "La Fayette", which was equipped with new Curtiss H-75-C1 fighter aircraft.
Vaà ¡Ã¡tko quickly became a fighter ace. By the end of the six-week campaign he was credited with shooting down 12 German aircraft and probably two more. France awarded him the Croix de guerre, to which it added seven palms, two gold stars and one silver star. He was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur.
After France capitulated to Germany on 22 June 1940, GC I/5 withdrew to French Algeria. Vaà ¡Ã¡tko left and travelled via Morocco to Gibraltar, whence he went by ship to Cardiff in Wales.
The United Kingdom quickly agreed to enlist Czechoslovak airmen in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Vaà ¡Ã¡tko was commissioned as a Pilot Officer and retrained to fly Hurricane Mk I aircraft. He was posted to the newly formed No. 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF, where he was allocated to Yellow Flight with Sergeant Josef StehlÃÂk and led by Flight Lieutenant Denys Gillam.
By October 1940 the squadron was stationed at RAF Speke outside Liverpool. About 16:00 hrs on 8 October a lone Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 medium bomber of Kampfgeschwader 2/806 was sighted flying up the River Mersey. Yellow Flight was scrambled, with Vaà ¡Ã¡tko flying Hurricane L1926, code letters DU-J. All three fighters machine-gunned the Ju 88, killing its observer and setting fire to its two engines. At 16:15 the bomber made a forced landing in a field near Bromborough Dock and the surviving crew were captured.
The RAF promoted Vaà ¡Ã¡tko to Flight Lieutenant on 28 October 1940, and on 7 November he was given command of "B" flight of 312 Squadron. On 5 June 1941 Vaà ¡Ã¡tko was appointed to command the whole of 312 Squadron. In October the squadron converted from Hurricanes to Supermarine Spitfires. Vaà ¡Ã¡tko was promoted to Squadron Leader on 5 June 1941.
The RAF had three Czechoslovak-manned fighter squadrons: 310 Squadron, 313 Squadron and Vaà ¡Ã¡tko's 312 Squadron. In 1942 it grouped them into a Czechoslovak fighter wing to operate together. On 1 May Vaà ¡Ã¡tko was made its commanding officer and on 30 May 1942 he was promoted to Wing Commander.
Vaà ¡Ã¡tko continued the run of victories he had begun in France. He is credited with shooting down four enemy aircraft single-handed, another ten jointly with other airmen, and probably two more.
By June 1942, 312 Squadron was based at RAF Exeter. On 23 June a force of Douglas Boston light bombers was sent on a "Ramrod" raid to bomb an airfield in Brittany. Vaà ¡Ã¡tko commanded the bombers' fighter escort, which comprised Spitfire Mk VB aircraft from all three squadrons of the Czechoslovak fighter wing.
As the raiding force was returning to England a Staffel of Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters of Jagdgeschwader 2 "Richthofen" from Morlaix airfield intercepted them over the English Channel. The escorts successfully defended the bombers and destroyed two Fw 190s, but seven Spitfires were also destroyed.
Vaà ¡Ã¡tko's Spitfire collided in mid-air with an Fw 190 flown by Unteroffizier Wilhelm Reuschling of 7./JG 2, destroying both aircraft. Reuschling baled out, was rescued from the sea off Start Point, Devon and made a prisoner of war, but Vaà ¡Ã¡tko went down with his 'plane and his body was never recovered.
Vaà ¡Ã¡tko became a fighter ace twice: first in the Battle of France and again in the RAF. Among RAFVR Czechoslovak fighter aces, only Sqn Ldr Karel Kuttelwascher and Sgt Josef Frantià ¡ek shot down more aircraft than Vaà ¡Ã¡tko. As a Wing Commander, Vaà ¡Ã¡tko was one of the RAF's most senior Czechoslovak officers in front-line service. Vaà ¡Ã¡tko had just been awarded his DFC on the day of his death. The Inspector-General of the Czechoslovak Air Force, Air Commodore Karel Janouà ¡ek, called Vaà ¡Ã¡tko's death "the most cruel blow to our entire air force".
In 1945 after Germany surrendered, two Czechoslovak postage stamps commemorating Vaà ¡Ã¡tko were issued. The first has a face value of 50 hellers and the second has a face value of five Czechoslovak crowns.
On 23 June 1946, the fourth anniversary of Vaà ¡Ã¡tko's death, a memorial plaque was unveiled at his birthplace in ÃÂelákovice. On 23 June 2012 the 70th anniversary of his death was commemorated with a ceremony at his monument, which included a flypast by two Czech Air Force Saab JAS 39 Gripen multirole combat aircraft.
Three streets are named "Vaà ¡Ã¡tkova" after him. One is in ÃÂelákovice where he was born and another is in Týnià ¡tànad Orlicàwhere he grew up. The other is in the ÃÂerný Most suburb of Prague, which has streets named after numerous Second World War Czechoslovak airmen who served in the French Air Force or the RAF.
On 3 March 1948 the Czechoslovak Air Force named its 4th Fighter Regiment "Vaà ¡Ã¡tko", but in a reorganisation in 1950 it was renumbered the 6th Air Regiment and ceased to carry his name.
As Vaà ¡Ã¡tko has no known grave, his name is recorded on the Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede in Surrey.
Vaà ¡Ã¡tko has received numerous posthumous awards. The Czechoslovak government-in-exile promoted to him to major on 28 October 1942 and lieutenant-colonel on 1 May 1944. On 11 November 1949 Vaà ¡Ã¡tko was awarded the Military Order of the White Lion 1st class. In 1991 the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic promoted him to colonel. On 7 March 1992 it promoted him again to major-general and awarded him the Milan Rastislav Stefanik Order 3rd class.
In 2017, the Czech Mint issued silver and gold commemorative coins (under the authority of Niue) paying tribute to Alois Vaà ¡Ã¡tko.