Jaroslav Muzika

Jaroslav Muzika was born on April 11, 1915 in Čimelice near Písek. After graduating with honors from the classical gymnasium in Písek, he entered the military service on October 1, 1935. For the first two years he was in the dragoons (4th Dragoon Regiment in Klatovy, Reserve Officers' School in Pardubice, and 10th Dragoon Regiment in Mukacevo). 
On September 30, 1936 he was accepted to the Military Academy in Hranice and, after graduation, he was transferred to the Air Force. For the relevant pilot training in Prostejov, he was assigned on September 23, 1938 as an air force lieutenant to the 3rd Aviation Regiment in Spišská Nová Ves. 
After the Munich Agreement and the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, Muzika was discharged from military service. Together with three other airmen (Maj. J. Zahrádka, Spt. J. Šustr, and Capt. L. Svátek) Muzika went abroad, illegally, on February 22, 1940 to take part in the foreign resistance. In Hungary, they were all imprisoned in Miskolc and in the Budapest Citadel for illegal entry into the country. After two months of detention, Muzika managed to escape from the Citadel to Yugoslavia.
In order to join the Czechoslovak military units forming in France, Muzika had to sign up for service in the Foreign Legion at the French Consulate in Belgrade on April 8, 1940. Muzika was transported, with a group of Czech and Polish refugees, to France via Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. In Marseilles, in the Foreign Legion barracks at Fort St. Jean, Muzika was accepted into the French Air Force on May 12, 1940 and transferred to the Czech air group in the Agde assembly camp. However, before he could participate in aviation activity, he was evacuated following the German occupation of France.
Muzika moved to Port Vendre near the Spanish border in a group of soldiers and airmen, and from there Muzika went, by ship, via Gibraltar, to Liverpool, England on July 7, 1940. He was stationed at the Cholmondeley Park assembly camp and, after retraining on English aircraft, was assigned to the 501st English Squadron for operational duty on Hurricanes over the English Channel on 12 April 1941.
Muzika was transferred to the 313th Czechoslovak Squadron upon its formation on 20 May 1941. He served with the squadron in Spitfires as a fighter pilot until July 6, 1943, when he was sent on operational retirement.
During the war Muzika married. His wife, a Czech, was working in London, in the President's office. The best man at the wedding was Muzika's personal friend, fellow S/Ldr František Rýpl.
At the suggestion of General Janoušek, Muzika then specialized in aviation training. From July 7, 1943 to October 1, 1944, Muzika was a flying instructor at Woodley and Wolverhapton. From January 12 to April 12, 1944 Muzika was on a three-month course at the Empire Central Flying School at Hullavington. From April 13, 1944 to June 20, 1945 he was posted in London to the Czechoslovak Air Force Inspectorate and the Air Ministry in the Training Research Department. On June 27, 1945 Muzika was sent to the USA to study flight at various training centers in Texas. He stayed there until returning to England on August 31, 1945.
Muzika returned to Czechoslovakia on October 5, 1945. Upon his return, he was assigned to Hradec Kralove with the rank of Lt. Col. and he took part in the construction of the new Air Military Academy. Muzika served as commander of the training squadron in Hradec Králové and the branch in Pardubice.
However, Muzika refused to join the Communist Party before the February putsch and was, as a result, expelled from the Czechoslovak Air Force with many of his fellow officers on February 3, 1949, allegedly for unreliability and uselessness in the socialist establishment.
On April 22, 1949 J. Nyce took off for a normal flight of a twin-engine Siebel, but instead of landing in Pardubice, as planned, he landed at the near-field airfield near Náchod, where three colleagues were waiting for him--Colonel Muzika, Scpt. M. Laštovka, mjr. O. Filip--along with all of their families (four wives and four small children). Together, they flew to Manston in England.
The twin-engine Siebel was officially returned from England to Czechoslovakia. Squadron Leader Muzika was accepted back into the Royal Air Force and served for the next twenty years as a flying instructor in various English flying schools and later as an air traffic controller, until his R.A.F. commitments ended on April 11, 1968 at the age of 53.
After leaving the R.A.F. Muzika served with British Airways in "Flight Services" until his full retirement on April 11, 1980 at the age of 65. None of the six career officers who went abroad twice with Jaroslav Muzika to fight for the freedom of Czechoslovakia lived to return to their homeland.
At the end of 1997, General Muzika underwent an unsuccessful eye operation for macular degeneration, and lost the ability to read and write. Seven months later, his wife died. Muzika died on January 27, 2001.
Muzika was decorated many times: the Czechoslovak War Cross (4x) - Medal for Valour (2x) - Medal for Merit (1st Class) - Czechoslovak Commemorative Medal - 1939-43 British Star - Aircrew Europe Star - Defence Medal - Commemoration Medal. For his activities in the British Royal Air Force, Muzika was personally decorated by the Queen at Buckingham Palace on July 30, 1953 with the high honor of the "Air Force Cross". He was buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery in Britain https://galerie.valka.cz/showphoto.php/photo/155380
Category:1915 births
Category:People from Písek
Category:Military air services