Fiala, Vlastimil

     
Příjmení:
Surname:
Fiala Fiala
Jméno:
Given Name:
Vlastimil Vlastimil
Jméno v originále:
Original Name:
Vlastimil Fiala
Fotografie či obrázek:
Photograph or Picture:
Hodnost:
Rank:
Plukovník generálního štábu Colonel General Staff
Akademický či vědecký titul:
Academic or Scientific Title:
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Šlechtický titul:
Hereditary Title:
- -
Datum, místo narození:
Date and Place of Birth:
11.08.1893 Opočnice u Poděbrad, Čechy /
11.08.1893 Opočnice u Poděbrad, Bohemia /
Datum, místo úmrtí:
Date and Place of Decease:
03.03.1947 Borohrádek, Čechy /
03.03.1947 Borohrádek, Bohemia /
Nejvýznamnější funkce:
(maximálně tři)
Most Important Appointments:
(up to three)
Velitel 1. československého leteckého a automobilového oddílu na Rusi (1918)
Velitel Československého Leteckého pluku 3 (1920 - 1923)
Commander of 1st Czechoslovak aircraft and automotive squadron in Russia (1918)
Commander of Czechoslovak 3st Aviation Regiment (1920 - 1923)
Jiné významné skutečnosti:
(maximálně tři)
Other Notable Facts:
(up to three)
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Související články:
Related Articles:
Zdroje:
Sources:
Historie a Vojenství 4/1995
Historie a Vojenství 2/2009
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Fiala-Vlastimil-t95440#356003 Version : 0
     
Příjmení:
Surname:
Fiala Fiala
Jméno:
Given Name:
Vlastimil Vlastimil
Jméno v originále:
Original Name:
Vlastimil Fiala
Všeobecné vzdělání:
General Education:
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Vojenské vzdělání:
Military Education:
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Důstojnické hodnosti:
Officer Ranks:
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Průběh vojenské služby:
Military Career:
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Vyznamenání:
Awards:
Poznámka:
Note:
- -
Zdroje:
Sources:
Historie a Vojenství 4/1995
Historie a Vojenství 2/2009
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Fiala-Vlastimil-t95440#563183 Version : 0
Colonel of the General Staff of the Czechoslovak Military Air Force Vlastimil Fiala


* 11. 8. 1893 Opočnice u Poděbrad, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary
+ 3. 3. 1947 Borohrádek, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia


In the Austro-Hungarian Army he reached the rank of Leutnant (in der Reserve).


Pilot K. u K. Luftfahrtruppe with 1 shot down, pilot of the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia and officer of the Czechoslovak Air Force


Units. Czechoslovak Air and Automobile Detachment - Commander, Air Detachment of the 2nd Rifle Division - Commander, Slovakia Air Group in 1920 - Commander, Aviation Regiment 3 - Commander


Born on 11 August 1893 in the village of Opočnice near Poděbrady in Bohemia. He graduated from a real school in Pardubice. He studied mechanical engineering at the Czech Technical University and philosophy at Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. On 22 May 1914 he was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian army as a one-year volunteer. He served in the artillery in Vienna and Cracow. At the turn of 1915-1916, he completed a course as an aerial observer in Vienna's New Town and was subsequently assigned to Flik 1, commanded by Hauptmann Otto Jindra. At that time he held the rank of Kadett in der Reserve. Here in Flik 1 he also learned to fly.
As an observer, he flew with pilot Hauptmann Otto Jindra on 9 April 1916 in an Albatros C.I 22.23 and together they shot down a Russian biplane (probably a Lebed), southwest of Kamenets Podolsky in Ukraine. For this action he was promoted to Leutnant in der Reserve.
On 22 April 1917, he piloted a Branderburg C.1 62.23 with observer Oberleutnant Johann Baumgartner on a reconnaissance flight. During the flight they were shot down by a Russian Spad S.A.2 aircraft numbered 482 (S-79) from the 30th Corps Air Detachment, with which the airmen Private Nědzeveskij and Corporal Rodin were flying. They were shot down probably in the area of Bukovina.
Brzo, after his capture on 15 May 1917, applies to join the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia, where he enters on 30 September 1917.) He is assigned to the 5th Rifle Regiment. In October, he tries to establish an aviation detachment at the headquarters in Jasech of the Czechoslovak Army Corps in Ruthenia (Romania). Due to the lack of material and the total disintegration of the front, his intention cannot be immediately met and so he leaves to join the Russian Tsarist Air Force on the northern front.


In October and November 1917, he flew with the 9th Corps Air Detachment of the Russian Army on the North German front in Voisin aircraft. On 25 November he returned to Kiev and on 5 December he was assigned to the 5th Ukrainian Air Fleet in Svyatoshin as technical director.
On 17 February 1918, the 1st Czechoslovak Aviation and Automobile Detachment is officially established under his command.
He takes over the aeronautical material from the departing French military mission and confiscates aircraft and other aviation equipment at the half-abandoned airfields near Kiev. All this at the last moment before the advancing Germans.
On 8 March 1918 the detachment is in Kharkov, where it was moved by rail. The following day, March 9, 1918, the regular classes of the aviation detachment began. Subsequently, the detachment was moved to Serdobsk, where it arrived on March 20. Here, too, flying began. During the negotiations of the representatives of the Czechoslovak Legions in Russia with the Soviet government, it was decided to move the transports of the Czechoslovak Legions in Russia to Vladivostok as soon as possible.
On the way during March, April and May, the Soviet government decided to partially and finally completely disarm the Czechoslovak Legions in Russia. This was conditional on the continuation of the transports to Vladivostok.
The 1st Czechoslovak Air and Automobile Detachment, under the command of Lieutenant Fiala, finally reached Vladivostok on 10 June 1918, but without aircraft, aviation material and the vast majority of weapons. All this he had to surrender to the Bolsheviks for the successful passage of his echelon to Vladivostok.
On June 19, 1918 the 1st Czechoslovak Air and Automobile Detachment was disbanded.
Lieutenant Vlastimil Fiala was transferred to the headquarters of the eastern detachment of the Czechoslovak Legions in Russia and on August 15, 1918 he was sent to the 2nd Czechoslovak Air and Automobile Detachment.


On September 26, 1918, it was decided by the provisional commander of the 2nd Czechoslovak Rifle Division in Russia, Lieutenant Colonel Kadlec, to form a new aviation detachment. Fiala was chosen as the commander. However, the detachment was without aircraft and so it was decided to purchase them in the USA. On November 21, the first order of the new I. Air Detachment was issued. This month also saw the arrival of the first load of aviation material from the USA (obsolete and used L.W.F. V. Tractor 2) ).
On 6 January he is promoted to Captain. On March 7, 1919, the first flight was made to celebrate the birthday of President Masaryk. It was piloted by Fiala himself, as he was the only pilot of the detachment. In the observer's seat sat Corporal Robert Hartman, who had the idea to write "T. G. Masaryk" on the lower part of the wings. For a reward, he was allowed to fly. After a few minutes in the air, the plane suddenly became difficult to control and crashed while trying to make an emergency landing on the ice of the Ussuri Gulf near Vladivostok. Both pilots were injured and transported to the Japanese Red Cross Hospital in Egersheda. Vlastimil Fiala was very seriously injured on his left knee.
He was thus evacuated as an invalid on the Heffron (probably the 8th transport) to Czechoslovakia on 12 August 1919. However, the vessel was wrecked in a storm off the Japanese islands and only after repairs in Japan did she reach Trieste on 17 December 1919 (about 870 persons, mostly wounded and invalids, were evacuated by the vessel).


After returning to his homeland, he was activated and promoted to major on 1 December 1919.

He subsequently held high staff positions in the Czechoslovak Air Force, commanded an air group in Slovakia in 1920, commanded Air Regiment 3 in Nitra between 1920 and 1923. On 31 December 1923 he was promoted to Colonel of the General Staff. Subsequently, he worked in the Air Navigation Department of the Ministry of National Defence.
On 1 January 1925 he retired for health reasons.


In 1922 he wrote the book "Our Air - Our Sea", which in the 1930s became the popular slogan "The Air is Our Sea".


His younger daughter is the well-known actress Květoslava Fialová. 3)


Decorations: Czechoslovak War Cross 1918 decree number 4914, Czechoslovak Revolutionary Medal


List of Victories:
Rank Date of kill / Time Unit On aircraft Enemy Location of kill
1. 09. 04. 1916 Flik 1 Albatros B.I (22.23) (4 ? southeast of Kamieniec



Notes:
1) The official date of joining the Legion is 28. October 1918.


2) The L.W.F. V. Tractor, a two-seat trainer and observation aircraft, was developed in 1916 in the USA. The L.W.F. biplane did not excel in flight characteristics therefore it was only used for secondary tasks in the US Army.
In late summer 1918, aircraft were purchased on an expedited basis for the newly formed air detachment of the 2nd Czechoslovak Rifle Division in Russia. The American side promptly filled the order by sending the aircraft "unfit for combat service".
One L.W.F. V. Tractor aircraft is preserved in the National Technical Museum in Prague.


Technical data:
Manufacture: L.W.F. (Lowe, Willard, Fowler) Engineering Company, Long Island, New York State, USA, 1917
Upper wingspan: 14.20 m
Lower wingspan: 12.80 m
Fuselage length: 7.05 m
Fuselage width: 0.8 m
Max. 140 km/h
Initial climb rate: 1.77 m/s
Survival time: 4 hrs.


3) Květoslava Fialová * September 1, 1929, Vel'ke Dravce, Lučenec, Czechoslovakia.
"I was afraid of my father, he was strict. He was a Russian Legionnaire and maybe he meant well, but it was not good for me. To this day I am not reconciled with him...."


Sources:
History and Military 4/1995
History and Military 2/2009
http://www.162oddil.cz/db/detail.php?id=20964&
http://www.ntm.cz/cs/heslar/tractor
www.novinky.cz
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Fiala-Vlastimil-t95440#356013 Version : 0
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