Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

Jaroslav Šrámek (3 May 1929 – 16 February 2015) was a fighter pilot, active during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. He was known as the only pilot from the Czechoslovak Air Force ever to have shot down an enemy jet-propelled plane. Šrámek flew more than 2,000 operational hours during his career, which spanned from 1951 to 1989.

Biography

Šrámek had an interest in aviation from a young age, making model aircraft as a child. Entering high school, he attended the Czechoslovak Air Force Academy, a move which began his career in aviation. Later in his career, Šrámek became the first Czechoslovak to fly the MiG-23. He flew in the Czechoslovak Air Force until the 1980s, where he piloted MiG-23 aircraft. Šrámek described the MiG-23 as the best aircraft he had flown, because "it was the fastest". Šrámek ended his career with a total of 2,353 flight hours.

Air battle over Merklín

On 10 March 1953, Lt. Šrámek (5th Fighter Regiment, 2nd Squadron, Plzeň-Líně air base) had been flying close to the town of Domažlice in the west of Bohemia. His unit was assigned to patrol the edge of Czechoslovak airspace, close to the frontier with

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. Šrámek, who was flying a MiG-15, encountered two American F-84 Thunderjet planes above Merklín, a small village within Czechoslovak territory. The two American aircraft split and one escaped. The remaining craft was piloted by Lt. Warren G. A. Brown, a veteran of the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. No missiles were fired; Šrámek fired two cannon shots. The American plane sustained two hits, with the second one, from the N-37 cannon, causing a fire to break out. Brown ejected from the aircraft, which crash-landed in German territory, near Falkenstein, Bavaria, approximately from the border, and survived.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sramek, Jaroslav 2015 deaths 1929 births Military personnel of the Cold War Czechoslovak Air Force officers Czech military aviators