page_title: Miloslav Mansfeld
section_title: French Air Force
hierarchical_section_title: Miloslav Mansfeld / In France / French Air Force
caption_attribution_description: Bloch MB.200
context_page_description: Miloslav Mansfeld DSO DFC AFC was a Czechoslovak fighter pilot who became a flying ace in the UK's Royal Air Force in the Second World War.
  Mansfeld was a Czechoslovak Air Force pilot in the 1930s, flying initially reconnaissance aircraft, then night fighters and latterly bombers. When Germany occupied and partitioned Czechoslovakia in 1939 he escaped via Poland to France. When France capitulated in 1940 Mansfeld was evacuated to Britain, where he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.
  From 1941 to 1944 Mansfeld flew Bristol Beaufighters with the Czechoslovak flight of No. 68 Squadron RAF and scored most of his victories. From 1944 he flew de Havilland Mosquitoes, with which he shot down two V-1 flying bombs.
  In 1945 Mansfeld returned to Czechoslovakia, but after the Czechoslovak Communist Party seized power in 1948 he returned to Britain and the RAF. He flew Gloster Meteor jet fighters, specialised in photoreconnaissance and commanded a squadron. In 1958 he left the RAF for a civilian career. He retired in 1970 and died in 1991.
context_section_description: On 17 November the French Government and Czechoslovak National Liberation Committee agreed that Czechoslovak airmen would be transferred from the Foreign Legion to the French Air Force pending the formation of a Czechoslovak air force. On 27 November 1939 Mansfeld was posted to Châteauroux-Déols Air Base in central France for training.
  On 10 May 1940 Germany invaded the Netherlands and Belgium and attacked France. On 21 May Mansfeld was posted to Tafraoui airfield near Oran in French Algeria for training on obsolescent Bloch MB.200 and Bloch MB.210 bomber aircraft.
  After France capitulated to Germany on 22 June, Mansfeld was evacuated by the British-India Steam Navigation Company ship Neuralia, which reached Liverpool, England on 12 July.
caption: The French Air Force trained Mansfeld on obsolescent bombers including the Bloch MB.200
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