pplk. Miroslav Vaňáček

* 1931  †︎ 2022

  • "Sixty-eight, that year I lived through a lot. I was just going to that home guard, from home, we were there and some Russian general came there among us. And we ignored him so much, giving him signs of disagreement, and he started shouting, that we are acting like pigs in front of the Russian general and whatever. Well and then he argued with those officers and with pretty much anyone, and it was absolutely no use. And everyone was against, there was a single person there, that agreed with the entry. Not one, not even the last. Everyone was against it. And so that's how it ended up there. They threw us out of the airport and for three months I went to dig there on the northwest, where we were digging a water pipe for some agricultural co-operative. Three months, they didn't even let us go to the airport. And we were doing it with pickaxes and shovels. That's how I lived through it here, well and I later then wrote things like: 'Occupiers go home,' hung it up in the middle of the airport, I said it all. Only they had picked out their own people and now there were enough of those, which they threw out, but they left me. And so I continued on serving."

  • "It was on a MIG 19 aircraft, which watched after those fifteens (MIG 15) and we were always the first to have this, because we were the ambush squadron and the only squadron completely and totally trained, which held these duties. It was a Sunday, beautiful weather, visibility all the way to Spain, that was exceptional. Well and they lifted me, that there was this goal, here somewhere, some American, and when I lifted off, I flew here and there as I was used to, simply going north or going south, diagonally like this, always and suddenly there was chaos, shouting, shouting over the radio, the command, which was superior to this military base, took me over and they told me, that they are taking me over and that they will lead me. You see I was already in Western Germany, for ages, this whole time. And they gave me a turn right, because there was total confusion. Well and then they made me set course zero-sixty, which means to the east, straight home, like to the Republic and forsage (afterburners), it had two engines that nineteen, and so I did forsage and I whizzed eastwards. And then they always wanted my position, well I knew absolutely nothing, When they shouted a lot, I could already see the airport in the distance in front of me to the east, and so I said, that I can see 490, that was the number of Žatec. Only it was the airport near Aš, somewhere totally in western Czechia, which Hitler had built there, during the war. And I already knew then, that it was massive trouble..."

  • "I saw that band, just behind that front, still when there were Germans there, and so they dragged some old German grandfather, beaten up, and they made themselves out to be some kind of heroes, because they needed to liquidate Germans. Maybe they worked for the Greater German Reich during the war and now they made play as revolutionaries. They dragged him to some barn, this was in Bedřichovice, and so I sneaked over there. When this band saw, that that human was just on the brink of death, they let him go, left him lying on the ground and went away. Only he and I remained there. Now that grandpa did, after a time, calm down, sat by this kind of machine, which is used to mow grass or grain in the countryside, he sat down by it, leaned on it, then took off the belt, which he had, placed the belt there, somehow wrapped it around his neck, and you can't say, that he hanged himself, but he probably suffocated. Well and I watched all of this, until he was gone. Then, when he was dead, I still know, where he is resting. They threw him into it, as I said, into that big anti-tank trench, where there were horses and these Germans like him. That's where he ended up... Those weren't red guards, those were simply some idiots. It didn't have anything in common with humanity. Not even with politics. And so I disagree with it to this day. It is a a massive disgrace on this nation, because it mostly happened after the end of the war and that is something that I differentiate greatly. During war you can excuse almost anything, but if the war does not exist, then it is just a vulgar murder and so a person has to look at it differently."

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    Plzeň, 24.06.2022

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    duration: 03:12:10
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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They had the right to take their revenge and shoot me

Miroslav Vaňáček at the beginning of his career as a fighter pilot
Miroslav Vaňáček at the beginning of his career as a fighter pilot
photo: archiv pamětníka

Miroslav Vaňáček was born on the 6th of January 1931 in Brno. He grew up in the nearby village of Bedřichovice, where his parents had a small farm. He started attending the first grade of school at the start of the Second World War, to which many of his memories are tied. He remembers the German defense of the city, the repeated massive bombardments and even the situation during the intensive fighting. He became witness to the arrival of the soldiers of the Red and Romanian Armies, which liberated Brno on the 26th of April 1945. As an adolescent boy he also became witness to the inhuman treatment of the Germans in the tense atmosphere after the end of the war. Since his very young childhood he longed to become a pilot and that’s why he attended the very difficult preparatory pilot course in the year 1949. Following this he was admitted to study at the elementary pilot school in Olomouc, and he finished his education at the pilot school in Prostějov. After successfully finishing his studies he remained at the school as an instructor of fighter pilots and in the year 1953 he was ordered to the newly-built military airport in Plzeň-Líně. The army was planning a restructuring of the air forces at that time and was reequipping to a brand new type of jet aircraft. Miroslav was selected as one of the first adepts to be trained on the MIG-15 jets and very quickly became one of its elite pilots. He was the commander of the so-called ambush wing, which guarded the airspace above the western border during the Cold War. He has many memories of this period, including memories of dramatic stand-offs with American fighters on the other side of the border. He was very disillusioned by the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact armies in August of 1968, where not only the pilots, but the entire staff of the airport in Líně stood up to the Soviet occupiers. During his long career as a fighter pilot he executed many successful lift-offs and ended his career at the rank of lieutenant colonel. Miroslav Vaňáček passed away on December, the 28th, 2022.