How to shy away from death

Fates of Czechoslovak fighters in air battles

Antonín Liška published his wartime experiences in the books Shadows in the Sky, How to Shy Away Death and The Ways of Men. Especially the latter is considered one of the best books about Czechoslovak airmen fighting in England.

Sometimes it is even compared to Filip Jánský's famous Heavenly Horsemen in the sense that while Jánský created a literary monument to Czechoslovak bomber pilots, Antonín Liška honoured his fighter friends with this book.

The Fox depicts the life of a group of our fighter pilots during the Second World War at Whitehill airfield, both in the exciting moments of aerial combat, when lives are decided in split seconds and whoever has the better weapon wins, and in moments of rest.

Although this is not explicitly a memoir, the individual stories have their real-life antecedents. A great deal of emphasis is placed on the personal level of the characters involved. The pilots here experience battles not only behind the Spitfire's nose, but above all with themselves.

It reads: Martin Hruska