• Vergeltungswaffe 2

Date of birth:

June 28th, 1910 (Brno, Czechoslovakia)

Date of death:

July 26th, 1976 (Brno, Czechoslovakia)

Service number:

787695(NCO/68138 (Officer)

Nationality:

Czechoslovakian (1918 - 1948, Republic)

Joseph Keprt joined the Czechoslovak Air Force, completed the training as a fighter pilot in 1934. After the occupation of his country in 1939 he escaped to France via Poland. He undertook a conversion training in France, joining GC III/3 as a Sergeant on December 1st, 1939. His French log book recording more than 50 operational missions up to June in which he had amassed more than 2000 flying hours and considerable combat experience against the Luftwaffe in France. Following the fall of France he flew to the UK and joined No. 312 Squadron.
His first ‘Scramble’ in Hurricane 1748 is noted on the 29th September, 1940, and thereafter his log book records more than 230 operational patrols through to the 30th September, 1944. In March 1941 he joined No. 96 Squadron and converted to Defiants flying night interception patrols until the 2nd August when he was involved in crash at night which put him in hospital with serious injuries. On recovery, the following May, he rejoined his old Squadron No. 312 at Harrowbeer, now converted to Spitfires. Flying Spitfires for the remainder of his operational career, Keprt took part in numerous fighter escort and convoy protection patrols including the protection of the invasion fleet on D-Day. His last operations in September, 1944, included strafing "Big Ben" (V2) targets, escort for parachute troops, and cover for Dakotas flying to Nijmegen.
He went back to Czechoslovakia after the war where he was persecutioned by Communist regime.

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• Photo 1: Tom MacNeill
• - SHORES, CH., Those Other Eagles, Grub Street, London, 2004.
  - Dix Noonan Webb
  -Czechoslovak Airmen in the RAF 1940-1945l