Lechner, Karel

xxx Karel Lechner (Charles Lamberton)


Many Czech tourists come to the Spanish island of Ibiza. Little do they know that the buildings, built 2500 years ago by the Phoenicians, were reconstructed at their own expense by former Czechoslovak wartime aviator Karel Lechner with the help of three local workers and his Spanish companion...

He was born on 9 February 1922 in Prague. Already his father was an aviator, during World War I he underwent pilot training on Austro-Hungarian Rumplers. After four years of common school and four years of English Public School he graduated from the Business Academy. Under the influence of his Austrian mother, who had taught at a comprehensive school in England before World War I, he travelled there in 1938 and in 1939 joined Birkenhead School (part of the Officer Training Corps).
After the formation of Czechoslovak troops, Karel Lechner decided to join them. He enlisted on 28 August 1940 with the Czechoslovak Army Replacement Corps. From there he was transferred to the Air Force on 21 May the following year. With the rank of AC2, he was assigned to ground maintenance at Wilmslow. He joined the 312th (Czechoslovak) Fighter Squadron as an assistant mechanic on 4 July 1941, working in the maintenance hangar of Hurricanes. However, like many other ground personnel, he signed up for pilot training, where he was sent on 10 August 1942.
He underwent successive theoretical training with the ACRC in London and with 4 ITW at Paington, and completed a refresher course in Tiger Moth biplanes with 3 EFTS at Shellingford. In January 1943 he went to Canada where he underwent basic and continuation training with the 31st EFTS and 34th EFTS at Medicine Hat between 22 March and 17 September. After returning to England he underwent an acclimatization course at 5(P). AFU in Tern Hill (December 1943), in April 1944 final fighter training at 57. OTU in Eshott and combat training at the 1st TEU in Tealing.
On 31 July he was assigned to the 310th (Czechoslovak) Fighter Squadron, operating temporarily from Digby in deep-wing LF Mk. On 22 October Sgt. Lechner was transferred to 312 Squadron, but fourteen days before that he managed to graduate from the Czechoslovak high school. By the end of the war he had flown over 80 hours, mostly escorting British bombers over the continent, for which he was awarded the Czechoslovak War Cross twice and the Medal of Valor once. He was promoted to officer rank after the war, on 27 June 1945 to the British rank of Pilot Officer and on 1 October 1945 to the Czechoslovak rank of Second Lieutenant.
On 9 August he disembarked from Liberator PP-N of the Czechoslovak 311th Bombardment Squadron (piloted by S/Ldr Alois Šedivý) at Ruzyně Airport. However, he was not too impressed by the atmosphere here. The people in RAF uniform mostly ignored him, the new "owners" of his parents' house did not even open the door for him. Apart from the reception at Prague Castle, the only thing that excited him was meeting his childhood sweetheart Bibi. They met after eleven long years. She introduced him to her husband, the well-known hockey player Mr. Blue, and they invited him to lunch. After just four days, he returned to Manston. He described the situation here to his friends and concluded by saying that he did not think things would end well here. He did not return to his homeland after that. In February 1946 he demobilised at the Czechoslovak Depot in Cosford.
In 1948 he married for the first time and in August of that year joined the ranks of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, whose personnel, unlike the RAF, consisted of active reservists attending on their personal leave. At the rank of Flying Officer he was posted to 610 Squadron RAuxAF, stationed at an airfield situated on the south bank of the River Mersey, not far from Lechner's home at Birkenhead.
Reactivated pilots first had to undergo a refresher two-month course in two-seater Harvards. Lechner made his first flight on 2 September 1948, becoming the third Czechoslovakian to join the squadron (the first two were F/Sgt. Mareš and Sgt. Kohout, fighting in Mk.VB Spitfires of 610 Squadron "County of Chester" between March and May 1942). After passing all tests and trials, he flew solo on 15 October for a familiarisation flight in a Spitfire Mk.22.
However, this weekend flying was not enough for him. From 1950 he flew as a co-pilot on DC-3s and Bristol 170s for the Irish airline Aer Lingus from Dublin. After a year he worked his way up to captain of the aircraft and flew on routes to London, Birmingham and Manchester. In addition, he flew the "Sixty" on regular days off. Usually this was by using the regular service to Liverpool, from where a colleague at Harvard would take him across the river to the base.
In 1951, the "610" was re-equipped from Spitfires to F.4 jet Meteors.
Mr Lechner was also an excellent aerobat (As he admitted himself, his model was Czechoslovak pilot Karel Pošta...). In addition to the rating of "outstanding", entered by the squadron commander in Lechner's Flying Log Book, he was also commissioned to perform solo aerobatics in a Spitfire Mk.22 at the base's Air Day on 15 September 1951, the anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Just two days later, due to developments in Korea, he is called to active duty...
By this time, at the prospect of deployment to Korea, he had his name changed to Charles Eagan Lamberton, with Great Britain appearing on his identification card as his place of birth. He was also promoted to Flight Lieutenant. At this time he also began training with the Meteor F.8 aerobatic group.
From the summer of 1953 he worked at Croydon for the Field Air Service, an organisation responsible for such things as transporting British-made aircraft for the air forces of the countries that purchased them. His first such flight was on 8-12 September 1953, when he transported a Vampire T.11 trainer from deHavilland's factory airfield at Hatfield to India, en route Nice - Luqa - El Adem - Nicosia - Habbaniya - Bahrain - Sharjah - Karachi - Jodhpur - Cawnpore. These long-haul flights, from which he returned on regular scheduled flights of world-famous airlines (PANAM, BOAC, etc...), were interspersed with flying liner aircraft with Aer Lingus (where he also upgraded his qualifications to pilot four-engine machines) and aerobatics on Meteors. There was no shortage of hot moments either. On 31 May, while flying over a night Vampire NF.54, he found that the landing gear could not be extended and he had to put the fighter on its belly...
In July 1954, specifically on 16 July, he took part in NATO exercise "Dividend" when British fighters intercepted and attacked a group of 100 "enemy" bombers within 100 miles of the islands. On that occasion he was introduced to the Canadair Sabre Mk.5, a licensed aircraft, and flew it on five test flights in August. In the autumn of 1954 he was offered permanent employment with the Field Air Service. As it was getting beyond his strength to fly for three entities at the same time, he decided to leave Aer Lingus on 17 September 1954. The next day he also said goodbye to the 610th Squadron. What better way than with a performance by the Meteors aerobatic trio...


Probably one of the most interesting jobs was taking over the Spitfires LF.IXE of the Israeli Chel Ha'Avir, in the framework of operations "Orez A" and "Orez B" - delivery of 30 aircraft to Burma, at the Cypriot base Nykósia. Paradoxically, these are machines that were taken over as brand new by Czechoslovak pilots at Lyneham and Colerne in July/August 1945, flown to Manston as armament for our post-war air force, and with which they also landed later in Prague. Interestingly, Mr. Lambert himself also took part in the Manston flights...
On 26-28 September, several of these Spitfires flew at the Israeli base Lod. He noticed a few peculiarities, such as the additionally coated panels on the fuselage behind the tank - as he later learned from Israeli mechanics, these machines were fitted with grappling hooks, which Israeli pilots used to pull down Egyptian telephone lines during the War of Independence, or pipes hidden under the seat leading from the wings - these were part of the extended fuel system installed at LET Kunovice to carry additional fuel tanks from Messerschmitt Me-109s under the wings. Just for completeness, Czechoslovak Spitfires were flown to Israel in 1948 as part of operations "Velveta 1" and "Velveta 2"...
The route of the Israeli Spitfires' overflight to Burma was via anti-Israeli Arab states, so in practice the following procedure worked. The Israeli pilots flew the aircraft to Cyprus, where they were picked up by FAS personnel hired under a contract between Israel and the British Ministry of Supply. They then took them on a 7,500 km flight to Burma. In all, the route amounted to more than twenty hours of net flying time.
Again, this was no easy job. On one crossing at Dum-Dum airport in Calcutta, Lamberton's tyre burst on landing and the landing gear leg collapsed. On another overflight due to engine failure, Lamberton's fellow pilot Overburry was forced to make an emergency landing in Beirut. He was interned and the Spitfire was seized by the Lebanese. Eventually Lamberton, along with British Consul G. Southby, had to go to Beirut for trial. After presenting copies of the permit to fly over Lebanese territory, the judge replied that the permit was indeed valid, but only for east-west flights, not the other way around. The additional permit issued in the opposite direction subsequently cost $25,000!


In January 1955, Charles Lamberton left the ranks of 610 Squadron for good, ending his active RAF Reserve activities. He soon also left the FAS and began working in the purely civilian sector. In Beirut, he began working as a Captain-Instructor on DC-3s for Middle East Airlines, also an instrument flying instructor, and later (from July 1956) an instructor on Viscount and Viking aircraft for Iraqi Airways. He flies scheduled flights to Istanbul, Vienna, London, Tehran, Bahrain and Kuwait. His qualities are evidenced by the fact that for a time he was a pilot on the aircraft of the King of Iraq. He has also flown on Hong Kong Airways' Viscounts to such exotic places as Manila, Taipei, Okinawa, Tokyo, Iwakuni and Seoul. He also experienced a monsoon storm flight between Taipei and Okinawa. Together with the co-pilot, he and his co-pilot used all their strength to keep the Viscount, which was tossed around like a sheet of paper 1200 meters up, 1200 meters down, horizontal...
In March 1958, he returned to Iraq Airways, but not for long. On 18 February 1959, he left the country with his wife and two daughters aboard the last flight to Beirut. Here he was placed under house arrest, but thanks to an offer from Ariana, he was released from this and flew DC-4 scheduled flights in Arab countries. However, he fared much better from February 1960, when he joined Iranair as a pilot. His passengers included Shah Reza-Pahlavi and his second wife Farah...
In 1962, Charles Lamberton volunteered for service with the UN peacekeeping force operating in the then war-torn Belgian Congo. He transported materials and supplies aboard a DC-4 on a route from Léopoldville to Bakwanga, Luluaborgh, and later to E´ville, Kamina and Elizabethville. As he himself stated, he would never again experience the terrible conditions he experienced on his travels over Africa until February 1963...
After his African service, he went to Europe, where in the spring of 1963 he joined Alitalia as a freelance pilot and instructor on turboprop Dart Heralds, employed by British Channel Airways. Eventually he worked his way up to head of the Flight Operations Centre at Stansted, while still retaining the post of Captain-Inspector.
In 1968, after a divorce and second marriage, Charles Lamberton decided to give up flying for good. He resigned and in the spring of 1969 he and his wife settled on the Spanish island of Ibiza. He did, however, still get into the air. The American chief pilot of Iranair, a company run by PANAM management, invited Lamberton to Seattle. Here he was offered a job as a training and operations consultant for all Boeing customers in Europe. After four months at the American Airlines Flight Academy in Texas, he qualified as a Boeing 707 and 747 pilot and flew to Frankfurt as a member of the Federal Aviation Authority, representing the company in training and retraining Lufthansa and Condor pilots. The punctuation, now real, was a commercial flight of a decommissioned French Air Force Dakota from Siége to St. Louis, near Montreal. Without any special navigational or radio aids, this machine flew over Renfrew, Reykyavik, Sonderstromfjord, Goose Bay, Sept Illes to St. Louis, the longest route taking 7 hours and 40 minutes. It was the last flight of a man who had flown everything from a trainer biplane, to piston and jet fighters, to the enormous Boeing 747 in his career. His career is also perfectly characterised by the total flight time of an incredible and impressive 19,458 hours in the air...
At the beginning I mentioned the old Phoenician buildings in Ibiza. In 1973, already retired, Mr. Lamberton returned here. He learned Spanish and Catalan and began to repair the aforementioned Phoenician buildings. The mayor of Ibiza was very helpful in this regard, giving him the town hall library and old prints describing the local architecture. Mr. Lamberton invested his savings in the repairs, which was a huge risk, but a successful one. After completing the task he set himself, he moved first to Costa Brava in 1992 and eventually anchored in Wellington in the English county of Somerset...


Mr. Lamberton is no longer very good at English. No wonder, after 54 long years of not using the language. He is very modest, few would know that he has lived through war and travelled the world. He doesn't consider himself a hero. As he says: "...as soon as the engine started, adrenaline rushed into my veins and all concentration was focused on maintaining control of the plane. The rest was just a matter of pure self-preservation..."
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Lechner-Karel-t19453#72460 Version : 0
Charles Lamberton (aka Karel Lechner) stands in the brigadier's mess on the right in front of the embarked unit...
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Lechner-Karel-t19453#76833 Version : 0
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