Edvard Beneš resigned as the President of Czechoslovakia on the 5th of October 1938, and retired with his wife to their country house, Sezimovo Ústí, near Tábor. However, his friends were convinced that he would not be safe in Czechoslovakia.
On the 15th of October his nephew, Bohuš Beneš (Václav's son) travelled from London to visit him and urged him to leave the country quickly. Arrangements were made and after travelling to Prague the night before, they flew out via Rotterdam to London on the 23rd of October.
When Beneš and his wife reached his nephew's house in Putney, Beneš retired to bed for a fortnights mental and physical rest.
Publicly, Beneš remained silent for the next four months.
In the early part of 1939, Beneš was invited by the University of Chicago to give a series of lectures on democracy. He accepted the offer and flew out with his wife, arriving in New York on the 10th of February, recieving a warm welcome on their arrival.
Beneš started work at the University on the 25th February 1939. His lectures were open to the public and were always crowded - In June 1939, Beneš was nominated as the most outstanding man of the year at the University
.
Tiso (Slovakia) demanded complete independence. German support made him Premier of an autonomous Slovakia in January 1939. Beran (the Czech PM.) dismissed him. Tiso rushed to Berlin where on March 13th he was received with honours.
On the 14th March 1939, just a couple of days before the final invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis, Colonel Fratisek Morovec, the Czech Intelligence Chief flew out of the country in a small plane supplied by the British SOE along with 10 of his most highly valued personnel. Following a dreadful journey in bad weather and a stop-off in The Netherlands they flew to London and set themselves up in a hotel in Kensington.
On the 15th March 1939, Dr Hacha signed Czechoslovaki over to the Nazis. This signing had been under extreme circumstances in which Dr Hacha had been exposed to extreme pressure by Goering and Ribbentrop and had fainted and Had to be revived by doctors.
Benes immediately spoke out publicly. He argued that deployment of German forces had wiped out all concessions imposed on Prague by its enemies and friends in the name of peace during the 1938 crisis.He proclaimed that the First Republic of Czechoslovakia now existed legally and that its territory was occupied by an agressor.
Colonel Morovec wrote to Benes telling hime about his arrival in London and offered himself and his staff at Benes's disposal. Benes answered at once saying how glad he was that they had escaped and that he would come to London in July.
The online memoirs of Frank Munk provide a picture of Beneš's thoughts in July 1939. Munk describes how Beneš had already decided to move back to Europe and set up a government-in-exile. Some historians believe that his haste had been fuelled by a fear that the Czech minister to France, Osusky, would try and do the same thing in Paris and he wanted to beat him to it. Munk describes how Beneš thought the war would start badly for the allies but that at least Britain would hold out. Interestingly he also thought that the Soviets would win the day, and Munk describes how Beneš repeated this belief about the Soviets a number of times.
On the 18th July 1939, Dr. Beneš and Mme. Beneš travelled to London, and took up residence in a small house in Putney, near his nephew Bohuš (We believe that Beneš lived at 26 Gwendolen Avenue, Putney, SW 15). In a house opposite, workers were soon busy on the organisation of the Czech cause.
At the time there were only a few Czechs in London:
Benes began to negotiate for interntational recognition of his government and also for a renunciation of the Munich agreement and its consequences.
After an allied victory, Beneš wanted the Czechoslovak state to be reinstated to its original form prior to the the Munich agreement.
Jan Masaryk was ambasador to London at the time of the Munich agreement and he worked with Beneš in the government in exile as Foreign Minister. His father was Tomáš Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia.
After March 1939, some Czechs stayed and joined the local resistance in Czechoslovakia while others including a number of Slovaks escaped abroad to continue the struggle. After the fall of France in June 1940, they arrived in Britain.
On the 13th October 1939 the Czechoslovak Minister in Paris, Dr. Osuský, notified the French Prime Minister of the creation of the Czechoslovak National Committee. Daladier replied a month later, recognising the committe and its qualification to represent the Czechoslovak people and re-constitute the Czechoslovak army.
On the 20th December 1939, Dr. Beneš notified Lord Halifax in England similarly, and he received a reply the same day indicating the British government's recognition of the committe.
They were:
British forces suffered defeat in Norway and Neville Chamberlain's own party rebelled against him, forcing his resignation.
In May 1940, Winston Churchill was selected to form a new government to run the country and fight the war. An all party coallition resulted. Neville Chamberlain joined Churchill's cabinet briefly but resigned in October 1940 and died on the 9th November 1940.
In the summer of 1940, the German Luftwaffe tried to win air superiority over southern Britain. This became known as the Battle of Britain
. In the middle of these air attacks, Winston Churchill made his famous speech to Parliament on August 20th 1940 including the words: Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few
.
At this time, the Czechoslovak airmen represented the second largest national contribution (the Poles were the largest) to the Allied Forces during the Battle of Britain. There were 88 Czechoslovak pilots who took part and eventually eight of them lost their lives in action.
The Ace of Aces
of the Battle of Britain was a Czech pilot called Sgt. Josef František. During a short period of only six weeks he managed to shoot down 17 enemy planes. František is now buried in Northwood cemetry, details available on Richard Gaskell's website.
At the height of the Blitz, Edvard Beneš had been living in Putney for about a year, and he was persuaded to move with his government in exile, for their own safety, to two small villages in Buckinghamshire called Aston Abbotts and Wingrave. This proved to be a timely departure as only a few days later one of their buildings in London was bombed in an air raid.
On the 21st July 1940, the Provisional Czechoslovak Government was recognised by the British Government. They were:
The Czecho-Slovak State Council was formed in London on the 11th December 1940 with Dr. Beneš as President.
On the 18th July 1941, Great Britain gave full recognition to the President of the Czechoslovak Republic and of the Czechoslovak Government. On the same day, Jan Masaryk signed a mutual aid agreement with the USSR and this provided for the formation of a Czechoslovak army on Russian soil. Later on, he also signed a friendship pact with the soviets.
On the 16th December 1941, the Czechoslovak Government declared itself in a state of war with all of the enemies of Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union.
Jan Masaryk went on extensive speaking tours of Britain and the USA. He made daily BBC broadcasts to Czechoslovakia.
The assassination of Reinhard Butcher
Heydrich was planned by the government in exile. Heydrich had earned the title The Hangman of Prague
and was developing a secret program of racial assimilation.
The attack occurred on 27th May 1942 and he died soon after from his wounds. More information is available on our Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich page.
Abroad, the assasssination placed Czechoslovakia and the government-in-exile much more strongly in the political picture.
In 1942 (Edens formal renunciation) allied reudiation of the Munich agreement established the political and legal continuity of the First Republic and Beneš's presidency.
The Czechoslovak Army reassembled in a camp set up in Cholmondeley Park, near Malpas in Cheshire.
In September 1939, the BBC began broadcasting in Czech from London. Shortwave broadcasts in Czech from Moscow started in 1941. The Czech service of Voice of America started one year later.
The USA were involved in the war from December 1941.
on the 24th December 1942, Beneš donated a globe to Aston Abbotts School. This globe is now held in Buckinghamshire County Museum. More information is available on the Aston Abbotts School page.
On the 31st of October 1943 in the driveway of Aston Abbotts Abbey, a ceremony was carried out involving the planting of a Czechoslovak lime-tree of 'Liberty'. This was to commemorate the 25th anniversary of independence of Czechoslovakia - perhaps a little ironic with the country at that time still under occupation by the Nazis. More information about the lime tree is available on the Aston Abbotts Abbey page.
In November 1943, the government in exile held patronage to an exhibition of Czechoslovak postage stamps to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the independance of Czechoslovakia. The exhibition was attended by many of the government officials.
On the 17th July 1945, the Allied leaders gathered for their last wartime conference at Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam, Berlin. Only the day before, the first atomic bomb had been successfully tested in the USA. The Soviets agreed to enter the war against Japan, and agreement was made over the occupation of Germany by Britain, the USA, the Soviets and France.
Churchill returned to Britain for the results of a general election, only to find that he had lost in a landside victory to the Labour Party. The Potsdam conference resumed with Clement Attlee as the new British prime minister and Ernest Bevin as the new foreign secretary.
The conference finally agreed that each country would take its reparations from its own zone of occupation in Germany. The new Polish boundaries desired by the Soviets were agreed to, and the position of various 'satellite' counties were decided, leaving Italy to the Western sphere of influence and Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary to that of the Soviet Union. The nature of the regimes to be installed in in these countries was left unclear.
On the 6th August 1945, a B-29 superfortress called Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima.
On the 8th August, Stalin declared war on Japan. On the 9th August a second atomic bomb was dropped over Nagasaki, and on the 10th August, the emperor of Japan announced his intention to surrender. Terms were finally agreed on the 14th August.
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