Bidspirit auction | RECHKA JOSEF: (1910-1984) Signed on

RECHKA JOSEF: (1910-1984) Signed on the most significant day of the Battle of Britain - RECHKA JOSEF: (1910-1984) Czechoslovak fighter pilot of World War II who participated in the Battle of Britain. D.S., Rechka Josef , one page, oblong 8vo, n.p. (RAF Duxford, Cambridgeshire), n.d. (15th September 1940), in Czech. The document, originally part of a larger Combat Report, is completed in Rechka´s hand and states (translated) ´I initiated an attack from a higher altitude on a Hein 111 together with two Hurricanes. After the first attack on the Do [rnier], the right engine began to burn and the aircraft went down toward the ground. I followed it through the clouds and carried out two more attacks. The Heinkel landed east of London on the coast at Foulness. Two men got out of the aircraft´ . VG The present document was signed on the most significant day of the Battle of Britain, now officially commemorated annually in the United Kingdom as Battle of Britain Day. On 15th September 1940 the German Luftwaffe launched its largest and most concentrated daylight assault on London, involving around 1,500 aircraft. The Germans believed the RAF Fighter Command was down to its last reserves, however the RAF repelled two massive waves of attacks. Following this failure, the Luftwaffe suffered unsustainable losses, proving that Germany could not achieve the air superiority required for a seaborne invasion. Just two days later, on 17th September, Adolf Hitler indefinitely postponed Operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of Great Britain.