Brigadier General František Moravec | |
|---|---|
 Moravec in 1952 | |
| Born | 23 July 1895 |
| Died | 26 July 1966(1966-07-26) (aged 71) Washington, D.C., United States |
| Occupation | Intelligence officer |
| Espionage activity | |
| Allegiance | Czechoslovakia |
| Service branch | Military Intelligence |
| Operations | First World War Second World War Cold War |
František MoravecCBE[1] (23 July 1895 – 26 July 1966) was the chiefCzechoslovakmilitary intelligence officer before and duringWorld War II. He moved to the United States after the war.
In 1914, Moravec was drafted into theAustro-Hungarian Army and sent to theEastern Front, intoGalicia. In September 1914, he fought at theBattle of Rawa. On 13 January 1915, Moravec was taken as prisoner by Russian troops and sent to thePOW camp inTsaritsyn. In 1916, he joined theSerbian Legion and fought in theRomanian Front, was moved fromArkhangelsk to theUnited Kingdom, and in 1917 joined theCzechoslovak Legions at theSalonica front. In January 1918, the legions were sent to theWestern Front in France and in the summer of 1918, to theItalian Front.
After World War I, Moravec was sent toSlovakia to fight against theHungarian and theSlovak Soviet Republic. After 1919, Moravec served as an army officer inPlzeň and in 1928 he joined themilitary intelligence service and moved toPrague.[2]
From 1937 to 1938, Moravec was deputy head of the service and head of its operations department. In January 1939, he became the acting head of the service.
On the evening of 14 March 1939, he and 10 of his fellow intelligence officers secretly managed to fly away with the most valuable intelligence files and archives from PragueRuzyně Airport to LondonCroydon Airport, with a stopover inRotterdam on anad hoc charteredKLMDouglas DC-3, as they knew in advance from theirsecret agents operating inNazi Germany that the invasion leading to theGerman occupation of Czechoslovakia was to be on 15 March 1939 at 06:00. Rescued files and archives were handed over to theMI6 to be used against Germany.
In Great Britain from 1940 to 1945, Moravec served as the chief of the intelligence service of theCzechoslovak government-in-exile. The military intelligence headquarters were in Porchester Gate in London, but from 1940 his private residence was inAddington, Buckinghamshire, nearAston Abbotts, where the exiled President of CzechoslovakiaEdvard Beneš had his residence.
From 1939 to 1942, Moravec maintained secret radio contact with the Czech anti-Nazi resistance group known asThree Kings group. He supervised Czechoslovak cooperation with theSpecial Operations Executive (SOE) and participated in the planning and preparation ofOperation Anthropoid, which resulted in the assassination of seniorSS officialReinhard Heydrich. He also planned the assassination of his namesakeEmanuel Moravec, a traitor and Nazi collaborator who was known as the "CzechQuisling".
František Moravec returned to Czechoslovakia in 1945 after the defeat of Nazi Germany but left secretly again in 1948, shortly after thecommunist coup d'état. He settled in the United States, where he worked until his death as an intelligence advisor in theUS Department of Defense.
Moravec died on July 26, 1966 inWashington, D.C. On April 24, 2022, thedignified transfer of Moravec's remains from the United States to theCzech Republic took place atJoint Base Andrews.[3][4]
Awarded by the Czech Republic
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