Milan Kulík

"I was able to enter the army only in 1942 after the Americans came along with the English army committee. One of the denizens was pronounced the commander and he started the enrollment among the Czech people living there. I wasn’t old enough yet though, but because my brother entered the army in 1943 I started to think about it later too. I have been influenced by his decision. I have to admit I thought about it as adventure rather than as patriotism. I simply wanted to go to England. We can’t talk about patriotism as far as I’m concerned."

"I come from a diplomatic family. My dad was employed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and therefore he was sent to several countries and cities, where he worked on the Embassy. In fact, I lived abroad every since I was two. At first in Hamburg, then in Strasbourg and finally in Casablanca, Morocco. So I have only French education, I never visited any Czech school. After my return to Czechoslovakia in 1945 I must have learned the Czech language or at least the writing. But the French language is still my second mother language. And because I have visited the business school I have learnt different languages as English or German too."

"We were flying back to Prague on the B-24 Liberators. Before we took off the Englishmen asked us: ´Do you really want to go back to Czechoslovakia? If you don’t, you can stay here.´ I made a fatal mistake saying that I want to go to Prague. As I have mentioned already before I lived there only until I was two, so I didn’t have any real relationship to this country. I have regretted this decision later, because I loved living in England, the people there were friendly."

"The Czechs carried the guns on their right shoulder unlike the Englishmen, who would carry it on their left shoulder. Also the commands like turn right, turn left, turn about. The uniforms were also different. We had blue pilot kinds of uniforms which looked better on us I think. And we also must have sworn on Bible to the English king. I’m not sure how was it if someone was an atheist, but all of us had to swear that we will protect the king and his family. And when I served the Czech army until November 1944 I had to take the oaths to President Benes. And after the war in 1949 when I was in the Czechoslovak army for two years I had to swear once again, this time to President Gottwald. So I have sworn many times. I have disobeyed them all after all, but it doesn’t matter."

"I have been a member of the Scout Movement which influenced my life a lot. I think it somehow helped me to be a better person, but I don’t mean to show off. It is - the scouting - good thing after all."

"In 1957 the order to release everyone who got involved in the western army came. This concerned everyone who worked at the Ministry or in export business. People, who married a German woman or served the western army for an example, all of these people have been dismissed. Then it was my turn and I lost my job too."

"It was just when I got to England, when they started to use the V1 and V2 flying bombs. Especially the V1 could cause quite damage particularly in London city. It flew until it ran out of fuel. Those were pilot less planes. They flew very low above London tearing the roof tops off and because they were loaded with the explosives they caused a great damage. They set up several fires, a lot of people died. I saw once the fire ball flying. Later on the Englishmen tried to fire off these bombs already above the canal and they were quite successful doing it. They have discovered that all it took for the plane to lose its balance and crash into the sea was knocked on the plane wing using their own planes. But after some time the Germans found out what the Englishmen were doing and so they installed some explosives also into the wings. So what could happen now was that when the Englishmen wanted to take down this V1, he touched the wing and as it exploded he also damaged his own plane and fell down too. But much worse were the V2 bombs. Those were bombs weighing 6 tons coming down from the stratosphere straight on London city. They were really dangerous. But the Englishmen found the launching places located in France and Belgium coast side very quickly and destroyed them all so these bomb attacks didn’t fortunately last for too long. And that’s pretty much all about our enemy."

"American soldiers landed in Morocco in 1942. I think we can say that the second front has formed there although they say it formed in Normandy. Right after the American landing the enrollment into Czech army began. I was only fifteen so I wasn’t allowed to apply yet, but my brother entered the army the following year 1943 and left to England. And when I was seventeen two years later in July of 1944 I have joined the foreign army too. I spent some time in Algeria first where the main camp was and later they took us on boat to England."

"I wasn’t any patriot when I was fifteen or sixteen. I didn’t have any relationship toward Czechoslovakia, because I hardly ever lived there. But my dad was a great patriot. He served the Austro-Hungarian army during the WW I, but after the end he participated on the liberalization of Slovakia against the Hungarians. He was talking about war often, but didn’t really spread the patriotism on us. But also the other denizens were quite patriots themselves."