After the war came two glorious years, but then it was bad again
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Luděk Pícha was born in Prague on 4 July 1926 into the family of a Castle Guard officer. He grew up together with his brother in Dejvice, Prague. He trained with Sokol from an early age. He studied at a grammar school, later switching to the technical school in Presslova Street in Smíchov. This is where he met his classmate Luboš Fišer who led him to the Zpravodajská brigáda (ZB) resistance group in 1944. After graduating from high school, he worked at an airplane design company located at the Holešovice Exhibition Grounds near the railway line heading north from Prague to Kralupy and Ústí. He informed ZB about the movement of military equipment and the production of components for military aircraft. With his unit, he took part in the preparations and the actual fighting of the Prague Uprising in May 1945. After the end of the war, he assisted in the borderland along with ZB units for about one month, working in Ústí nad Labem, Karlovy Vary and Jelení. Luděk Pícha was admitted to the military aviation academy in 1948, but after the communists took over, he was expelled. His father also had to leave the army, and other ZB members were persecuted similarly. Luděk Pícha remained faithful to his profession, working as a chief mechanic in Armabeton and Průmstav. He raised two children with his wife and lived in Prague at the time of the interview (2011). According to findings in the Security Services Archive, the StB registered Luděk Pícha as a secret collaborator in the 1970s and 1980s.
