Czech Mates - 'The Air is Our Sea’ is a Czech fighter pilot campaign for BAT WAW. As a Czech pilot fleeing Nazi occupation, you will fly in Armée de l'Air, RAF, and Soviet units from the start to the finish of WW2.
Download here:
https://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads3&file=details&id=3101History and Background by LarsI have given a more than usual detailed background account of the history so that the player may have some idea of the mindset of the Free Czech airmen during this period. The Czech Air Force motto was ‘The Air is Our Sea’.
In March 1939 the Republic of Czechoslovakia was occupied by the German forces and split into two, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the State of Slovakia. The latter was nominally independent but followed the Germans into war against the Allies, especially from 1941. The Czech Air Force pre-war was a highly trained and motivated force let down by weak Allies, and the non-Slovak aircrews had a strong wish to fight the occupiers in any way they could. This led to strong feelings between Slovaks and Czechs.
Czechoslovakia had strong ties with both Poland and France so hundreds of airmen, including a few anti-fascist Slovaks, left for those countries to take up the fight. The Polish did not know what to do with the 700 pilots and ground crew who had arrived by August 1939 due to language difficulties and lack of facilities, so apart from a few men who flew in light bombers and biplanes in September 1939, most made their way to France and England. The French authorities also did not know what to do with a foreign air force within their territory, who could not, as foreigners, be enlisted directly into French armed forces. The Czechs agreed to be enrolled into the French Foreign Legion with a proviso that if and when the Germans attacked they would be released for action in the Air Force. The Czechs were certain that this was going to happen eventually.
When war was finally declared in September 1939 over 490 Czech airmen arrived from the Legion and the Protectorate. Most were pilots and a few were ground crew. The French Air Ministry was not sure what to do with them. There was a lack of aircraft, staff, and interpreters. This became worse as more arrived after the Polish conflict ended. From 584 in January 1940 the numbers grew to 786 by May. Among these were 44 Czech ground crew who were especially helpful to the fighter pilots as they settled in. While decisions were being made between the 3rd Air Force Department of the Czechoslovak Military Command and the French authorities, the Czechs were distributed piecemeal across the country, mainly at factory defence units and over twenty training bases in Metropolitan France and North Africa. The lack of trainers meant the Czechs ended up training themselves on the French fighters and picking up the language and fighting systems from friendly local airmen.
Some Czechs made their way eastwards but as Germany and the Soviet Union were currently on friendly terms they were sent to the Gulags or back to Germany. Later, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, those Czechs were released to the Soviet Forces and many made their way to the RAF in England to continue the fight. Several ended up in the Siege of Tobruk, manning the AA guns.
The French factory flights usually consisted of 3 French and 3 foreign airmen and 3 fighters. The foreigners were usually Czech or Polish pilots. Hundreds of Czech airmen were left waiting at training bases for months. The largest at this time was Chartres, which produced some of the most successful Czech pilots in the Battle of France, Including the 5th and 7th highest scorers of all participants. There were many Bloch 151s and FK58s in storage which could have been used but the French Ministry was under the misunderstanding that, due to the early success of their professional airmen in the Phoney War, there would be no need for these spare men.
From December 1939 Czech pilots were being allocated to French front line units on a flight by flight basis. This increased as more Czechs became familiar with French methods and language, especially from 10th May when losses needed to be replaced. On 18th May 1940 the first Czech Fighter Squadron was formed within GC 1/6 and quickly proved itself over the following days, although short lived. Due to lack of records this part of the campaign is guesswork based on the units present at the time. The limitation of the provided map areas means we have had to shift the action away from the east of France but still create the essence of what happened.
It is interesting that the average age for the fighter pilot combatants in 1940 was France 32, Czech 27, German 25, English 22. Indeed, of the 1900 French front line officer pilots, excluding NCOs, only 40 were under the age of 25. The Dutch and Belgian pilots were similarly in the older age range. These older men all had three times the flying hours from pre-war service but little to no combat experience. The Germans and Italians officers had a third of the flying time, around 250 hours, but mostly involving combat in Spain and Poland. My thanks to Robin Higham and Czech author Jiri Rajlich for their research on this little known aspect of the Battle of France.
135 Czech pilots flew with the French operational units, of which 22 defended French Colonies against the Italians. They claimed 78 confirmed and 14 probable kills for the loss of 19 pilots plus 30 wounded. They shared a further 51 kills with French pilots. Altogether they made up 12 per cent of the opposing Air Forces and claimed 12 per cent of the kills in the Battle of France. As many reports were lost these figures are likely lower than the actual results. Some pilots served in various units as the situation changed. We have tried to reflect this in the campaign.
Following the loss of France, hundreds of Czech airmen made their way to England. They came with hope that they would receive more worthwhile treatment but also with divisive splits in their own ranks. Some had been released from Soviet prisons, some had suffered from overzealous French police after the Armistice then the Gestapo. When they found themselves once again languishing in training bases for similar reasons that had prevailed in France tensions surfaced. Many Communist sympathizers began agitating and were eventually sent to work in the Pioneer Force. Some were given the option to join the Soviets from June 1941. When the airmen arrived England was in the grip of Parachute fever where every foreigner was suspect as a spy. This especially applied to Germans, Italians, and Czechs from the German Protectorate. The other nations were welcomed as they had fought and lost, something the Czechs had not endured.
The Czech existing abilities and combat experience was gradually recognised and they were absorbed into the RAF Volunteer Reserve. This meant a two month training course in the English language and RAF systems before it was felt they could form their own squadrons, albeit under English commanders. Many were allotted to RAF squadrons but as numbers swelled with new arrivals the Air Ministry agreed that Czech units could be formed complete with ground crews which would ease the provision from the home grown ranks. 310 Fighter Squadron was the first to be formed, with their motto ‘We Fight to Rebuild’. 311 Bomber, 312 and 313 Fighter Squadrons followed.
By February 1941 there were 1500 Czech Air Force members in England, of which 227 were aircrew, all of Officer or NCO rank. A shortfall of ground crews was made up by 240 RAF men. Due to the lack of new recruits the Czech squadrons were often relegated to quieter areas of conflict. This was no reflection on the bravery and sacrifice that the aircrews showed but to save on losses. 311 Squadron was transferred from Bomber to Coastal Command when concern was expressed about treatment if shot down in Germany and the irreplaceable losses entailed. The RAF had its own issues with lack of personnel so wanted their ground crews back and this problem was never fully resolved. Very few suitable airmen recruits were found in the Free Czech Army. The fighter squadrons were always running at 50 to 85 per cent Czech establishment. Consequently, the Free Czech Air Force was barely self-sustaining throughout the conflict, unlike the other Allied units who managed to receive more regular replacements. By the end of the war the three RAF Fighter Squadrons had claimed 80 aircraft plus 5 V-1s. Over 500 Czech and Slovak aircrew died helping the Western Allies fight the Fascists in the hope of returning to their Motherland.
When a Slovak uprising took place in August 1944 there was a call by the Free Czech Government for the four RAF squadrons to be sent to help them. This would need the approval of the Soviets, as well as the English Air Ministry. After some consternation, over twenty ex RAF fighter pilots flew to the Soviet Union to help their countrymen. The Soviets agreed to provide training for a Fighter regiment using La5FNs. The new unit arrived on the front line in September 1944, joining the Slovak Combined Squadron at Tri Duby, Czechoslovakia. After being overwhelmed by the enemy, a new Czech Mixed Division equipped with Il2m3s and La5FNs, then La7s, became operational from April 1945. The Czech pilots continued to fight on the Eastern Front until the war was over. The Czech Fighter regiment downed 13 enemy aircraft for no loss, and the Czech Mixed division downed one enemy aircraft for no loss. The latter was due to few Luftwaffe aircraft being active towards the end of the war, thus most missions were ground attack. In this campaign you will get to fly Bloch 151 and 152, Hawk 75A2, MS 406 and 410, D520, Hurricane 1, Spitfire Vb and IX, La5FN and 7.
InstallationThis campaign was written and tested using the SAS BAT Mod Pack, available here at SAS:
https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php?board=264.0It may work on other modded systems but the campaign uses Command and Control objects and Triggers, so many mission features would be lost or unworkable.
Extract the zip file to a temporary directory.
• Copy the decompressed Missions folder and the decompressed PaintSchemes folder to your IL-2 1946 root folder.
• In the New Pilot Career page, choose Czechoslovakia in the Air Force selection drop-down. Choose Czech Mates - 'The Air is Our Sea’ in the Career drop-down.
• We recommend turning off No Instant Success for this campaign.
• The campaign is designed to be compatible with any rank selection.
CreditsA million thanks go to Hayate for making the player squadron skins for this campaign. He provided the Spitfire, MS406, MS410, and La-7 skins that we use here and they are included in the download.
Many thanks to the BAT team for developing, maintaining, and improving the BAT Modpack. As always, we made extensive use of Kurfurst’s mission templates.
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Topic: Czech Mates - 'The Air is Our Sea’ - a Czech fighter pilot campaign for BAT WAW (Read 1668 times)
