page_title: Josef Stehlík
section_title: On the Eastern Front
hierarchical_section_title: Josef Stehlík / On the Eastern Front
caption_attribution_description: English: Lavochkin La-5 Soviet fighter aircraft "Red 66" of the 21st Fighter Aviation Regiment
context_page_description: Josef Stehlík was a Czechoslovak fighter ace. In the Second World War he served in the French Air Force and then the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. In 1944 he transferred to the Eastern Front, where he commanded the 1st Czechoslovak Independent Fighter Air Regiment.
  Stehlík was a Czechoslovak Air Force pilot in the 1930s, latterly as a flying instructor. When Germany occupied and partitioned Czechoslovakia in 1939 he escaped via Poland to France. When France capitulated in 1940 Stehlík was evacuated to Britain, where he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.
  Stehlík returned to Czechoslovakia in 1945 and resumed his Czechoslovak Air Force career until 1948, when the new Communist government politically purged armed forces personnel who had served in Western armed forces. Stehlík was remanded in prison for a year, demoted but then released without charge.
  Stehlík was restricted to lowly civilian jobs until 1964, when the Communist government politically rehabilitated him and granted him a retired military rank. He died in post-Communist Czechoslovakia in 1991.
context_section_description: Early in 1944 Stehlík joined the 1st Czechoslovak independent fighter aviation regiment in the Soviet Union. He was commissioned as a nadporuchik (senior lieutenant) and commanded the regiment's 1st Squadron.
  From 15 September 1944 Stehlík was based at Tri Duby airfield in central Slovakia, fighting in the Slovak National Uprising. Flying a Soviet-built Lavochkin La-5FN fighter he shot down a Ju 88 on 19 September and shared in shooting down a Junkers Ju 87 ground-attack aircraft on 7 October.
caption: On the Eastern Front Stehlík flew a Soviet-built Lavochkin La-5FN fighter
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