Karel Janoušek

Karel Janoušek, KCB (30 October 1893 – 27 October 1971) was a senior Czechoslovak Air Force officer. He began his career as a soldier, serving in the Austrian Imperial-Royal Landwehr 1915–16, Czechoslovak Legion 1916–20 and Czechoslovak Army 1920–24.

In 1924 Janoušek transferred to the Czechoslovak Air Force and in 1926 he qualified as an aircraft pilot. In 1930 he co-wrote a textbook on aerial warfare tactics. In the 1930s he was a staff officer. From 1936 he studied meteorology and geophysics at the Charles University and in 1939 he was awarded a doctorate in natural sciences (RNDr).

In the Second World War Janoušek escaped first to France and then the United Kingdom. In the UK he commanded the RAF's Czechoslovak squadrons, was knighted by HM King George VI and ultimately promoted to Air Marshal. In occupied Czechoslovakia the Nazis retaliated against Janoušek's Free Czechoslovak service by jailing his wife and much of their family.

In 1945 Janoušek returned to Czechoslovakia, where he found his wife and several of their relatives had died in imprisonment. He was sidelined by the increasingly pro-Communist commanders of the Czechoslovak Air Force. After the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état Janoušek was court-martialled, sentenced to 18 years in prison and stripped of his rank, doctorate and awards. In 1949 his sentence was extended to 19 years. In 1950 it was extended to life imprisonment for a separate offence, but in 1955 this sentence was shortened to 25 years.

In 1956 Janoušek' sentences were reduced and in 1960 he was released in a Presidential amnesty. A military tribunal cancelled his convictions in the Prague Spring in 1968. Janoušek died in Prague in 1971. He was not fully rehabilitated until after the 1989 Velvet Revolution ended the Communist dictatorship.