Josef Bernat Wellington captain, No. 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF
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Sources & Credits

All facts on this site are drawn from the sources listed below. The numbered references in the text [1] point to this list. Sources were last verified in July 2026.

Written sources

  1. Czech Wikipedia: Josef Bernat (airman) Summary biography with a list of decorations (in Czech).
  2. rafaci.cz — Josef Bernat's operational flights with No. 311 Squadron Complete table of his 40 operational sorties (10 Feb – 19 Jul 1941) with crews and targets (in Czech).
  3. Free Czechoslovak Air Force (fcafa.com) — They Flew to Exile 1948 Detailed account of the Dakota escape flight from Kbely to RAF Manston, 14 June 1948.
  4. Czech Ministry of Defence — press release on the 28 October 2023 state honours
  5. Novinky.cz — full list of the 28 October 2023 honours Official citation: “Colonel Josef Bernat (in memoriam), pilot of No. 311 Czechoslovak Bomber Squadron RAF — for heroism in battle.”
  6. valka.cz — Bernat, Josef Military career, ranks and decorations (in Czech).
  7. fcafa.com — 311 Sqn Air-Crew Training, Bomber Command Training crews and the first Thousand Bomber Raid on Cologne, 30/31 May 1942.
  8. Czech Wikipedia — list of Medal for Heroism recipients
  9. Office of the President of the Czech Republic (hrad.cz) — press release on the state honours
  10. fcafa.com — 311 Sqn “Never Regard Their Numbers”, Bomber Command Detailed account of the Wellington R1532 fire over Münster, 5/6 July 1941, and the DFM award.
  11. fcafa.com — Wellington aircraft of 311 Sqn Aircraft and crew lists, incl. the Essen raid of 1/2 June 1942 (Z8854 KX-V).
  12. fcafa.com — British awards to Czechoslovak RAF personnel Table of British decorations; Josef Bernat's DFM dated 15 September 1941.
  13. fcafa.com — The Other Side Of Brookwood Source of Josef Bernat's quotation about his double exile.
  14. London Gazette, Supplement 38862, p. 1285 (14 March 1950) Naturalization: “Bernat, Josef; Czechoslovakia; Serving Officer in His Majesty's Forces.”
  15. London Gazette, Supplement 45214, p. 11463 (16 October 1970) Retirement, 1 October 1970: “Flight Lieutenant J. BERNAT, D.F.M. (120761), retaining the rank of Squadron Leader.”
  16. rafaci.cz — register of Czechoslovak RAF airmen RAF service numbers: 787377 (NCO), 120761 (officer).
  17. Wikidata — Josef Bernat (Q100671050)
  18. fcafa.com — Escapes of Karel Stastny Complementary account of the 14 June 1948 escape (route over Cheb, help from sympathetic guards).
  19. asisbiz.com — RAF 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron
  20. Wikipedia — Vickers Wellington Technical details of the type: geodetic structure, engines, crew.
  21. Wikipedia — Douglas C-47 Skytrain Technical details of the Dakota type.
  22. Family recollections (2026) Details of Josef Bernat's immediate family provided by his great-nephew; not yet verified externally.
  23. fcafa.com — 1429 Czech Operational Training Flight bomb Cologne History of No. 1429 (Czechoslovak) Operational Training Flight and its part in the thousand-bomber raids.
  24. czechairliners.net — History of ČSA, part 2 (1945–1968) ČSA's post-war rebuilding, the DC-3 fleet and international routes including Bucharest (from 1946; in Czech).
  25. CASPIR (warplane.com) — Douglas C-47 43-48406 History of the individual aircraft: from the USAAF via Kbely, the Prague research institute (OK-WZA), Germany, Israel and Colombia to its end at Medellín, 2009.
  26. Czech Wikipedia — Rudolf Haering Wireless operator of Bernat's crew; details of the R1532 fire and his DFM.
  27. valka.cz — Air Transport Regiment (1946–1949) The regiment's equipment and duties, including state flights (in Czech).
  28. armada.vojenstvi.cz — The Aviation Academy at Prostějov History of the academy and its 1930s training types (in Czech).
  29. GRO — civil registration indexes of England and Wales (via FreeBMD) Marriage Bernat × Bridger, Jun quarter 1942, Bury St. Edmunds (vol. 4a, p. 3107); birth of Raymond O. Bernat, Dec quarter 1942, Burton (vol. 6b, p. 551); birth of Katherine Bernat, Dec quarter 1970, Plymouth (vol. 7a, p. 1963).
  30. Find a Grave — Josef Bernat (1915–2000) Grave in St. John of Beverley churchyard, Whatton, Nottinghamshire.

Photographs

Every photograph in the gallery carries its source and owner directly in its caption. An overview of all images used:

  • Portrait on the home page and in the gallery — Josef Bernat in RAF uniform; from his profile at rafaci.cz — Czech RAF Airmen (original source not stated on the page).
  • The crew preparing for a flight — image Imperial War Museums CH 2187 (Wikimedia Commons, IWM Non-Commercial Licence); crew names per the VHÚ reproduction in Novinky.cz — the article on 311 Squadron's first retaliatory raid (Alex Švamberk, 2020).
  • The Wellington formation in flight — photo VHÚ Prague, reproduced ibid. (Novinky.cz).
  • The crew at the bomb and the crew with their kit — from Evžen Jedlička's booklet Josef Horák of Hřebeč (municipality of Hřebeč); owner not stated in the booklet, evidently the same official series as IWM CH 2187 (East Wretham, winter 1940/41).
  • Airmen of 311 Squadron, East Wretham 1941 — photo Tomáš Jambor archive; reproduced at hbhistory.cz and in the Wings in Exile virtual exhibition.
  • Training in France, 1939–1940 — photo Jiří Rajlich collection; reproduced in fcafa.com — Alois Šedivý.
  • “Places and machines of his life” section — images from Wikimedia Commons: Imperial War Museums (public domain, catalogue numbers in the captions), USAAF (PD), NIMH (CC BY-SA 4.0), Bundesarchiv (CC BY-SA 3.0 DE), Alan Murray-Rust / geograph.org.uk (CC BY-SA 2.0), Petr1888 (CC BY-SA 4.0), Mojmír Churavý (CC0). The exact licence and source-file link are given with each photograph in the gallery.

The images are used here as part of the non-public local preparation of this site. Before public publication, permission must be sought from the rights holders (VHÚ Prague, the Tomáš Jambor archive, the Jiří Rajlich collection / the fcafa.com maintainers).

A note on the name

The correct form of the name is Josef Bernat — with a short “a”. Many sources, especially English RAF records and some Czech databases, use the incorrect spelling “Bernát”. It is always the same person (verified by his birthplace Kojice, No. 311 Squadron service and the DFM award).

Acknowledgements

Particular thanks belong to the Free Czechoslovak Air Force research project and the rafaci.cz database, whose work preserves the memory of the Czechoslovak airmen of the RAF, and to everyone who keeps writing about and remembering Josef Bernat and his comrades.