Joy Kadečková

* 1921  †︎ 2006

  • "I was working voluntarily as an Air Raid Precaution Member. That meant running around with messages during air raids or when air raids were expected at the moment. I had been asked to take a message to a gentleman who happened to be at dance at the local Town hall. I went to the Town hall, stood in the doorway, watched the people dancing and looked for this gentleman or young man. They didn't take my coat off because I hadn't come to dance, I had come to do my duty. Suddenly, somebody touched me on the shoulder and said: 'Will you please take off your dress and dance?' I said, 'Oh, my goodness, will I took off my dress??' I turned around saw this wonderful Czech pilot. What he meant was will I take off my "coat" and dance. Well I did take off my coat and I did dance. What happened to the message, I don't know. I've never found out, I didn't deliver it, but I think it wasn't responsible for us loosing the war, we won it anyway, message or no message. But that was how my life with the Czech pilots started..."

  • "These women had quite a difficult time when we came here because we looked different, we were dressed differently, we couldn't speak Czech. We really had difficult time without my going into details. But anyway the situation got so bad that the Czech radio had to broadcast several times that there were wives of Czech soldiers living here who had somewhat different clothes, different brands and look sometimes as if they might be Germans and to be very careful not injure them or insult them and so on."

  • "When we were radiotelephoning we had direct contact with the pilots or radio operators. The Czechs and the Poles communicated among themselves even when they were supposed to remain in silence. This was very interesting because they were extremely vulgar. They had been told a lot of really vulgar, horrible expressions by the English air crews and they used them. The situation got so bad that the head officer of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force had to apply to the government, to intern the commanding officers of the Polish and Czech air squadrons to remember that women were operating all of the communications and to remember that fact and behave accordingly. Well I must say it didn't help very much, but it was an amusing interlude during the war."

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    v Praze, 04.07.2003

    (audio)
    duration: 01:04:46
    media recorded in project Příběhy 20. století
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Joy Kadečková
Joy Kadečková
photo: Pamět národa - Archiv

Joy Kadečková, roz. Turner, se narodila roku 1921 v Suffolku ve Velké Británii. V prosinci 1940 přerušila vyšší střední školu, aby mohla sloužit jako dobrovolnice u WAAF (ženská část Royal Air Force). Pracovala jako souřadnicová zapisovatelka. Po dokončení výcviku byla přidělena na společné velitelství britského letectva, námořnictva a pozemních vojsk ve Skotsku ke službě u radarových stanovišť a radio-operačních zařízení. V roce 1942 se provdala za pilota 311. čs. bombardovací perutě Aloise Mžourka, který hrdinsky zahynul o dva roky později. V letech 1944-1945 pracovala jako sekretářka na čs. ministerstvu vnitra v Londýně a v červenci 1945 byla se svým ročním synem repatriována do ČSR. Po roce 1948 byla perzekvována pro své silně antikomunistické názory. Podruhé se vdala za Slavoše Kadečku. Po velkých  problémech zapříčiněných svou národností pracovala během 60. a 70. let v mnoha profesích, např. jako učitelka angličtiny, překladatelka nebo externí redaktorka časopisu „Czechoslovak life” Plk. Joy Kadečková byla členkou Svazu bojovníků za svobodu, výboru Svazu letců ČR a nositelkou medailí a vyznamenání, např. Medaile Za zásluhy v ČSLA, Čestného odznaku československého vojenského pilota, Medaile československých leteckých perutí ve Velké Británii (310., 311., 312., 313.) a Britské pamětní medaile za zásluhy v boji za vítězství ve II. světové válce. Naposledy pracovala jako dobrovolná pomocnice v Armádě spásy. Zemřela 20. dubna 2006.