Into the Blue

In the weeks that followed the 1939 Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, thousands of Czechs and Slovaks fled to continue the fight from abroad. More than 2,000 of them joined Britain's Royal Air Force (R.A.F.), and nearly 500 died in the line of duty. Yet when the survivors returned home, their heroes' welcome was short-lived. After the communists took over in 1948, many of those who had fought with the Western allies were arrested, tried and imprisoned as traitors; others were dismissed from their jobs and victimized. For the next 40 years, their story was virtually unknown in their own...