The impulse to build this model came during a meeting with Colonel Petr Uruba in December 2007 when he was the guest of a modelling competition in Prague. This charming and modest man, a pilot with 311 Squadron, engagingly narrated his experiences from World War II and the postwar period, including the sad and shameful story after 1948. This year, the Communist coup took place and he along with other heroes, fighting for the freedom of their country in WWII, were imprisoned and sent to labour camps and prisons where shamefully, many of them did not survive the hardship. They eventually had their honour restored however not until late in life after 1989[]when Czechoslovakia returned to a democratic system. The Prague competition was one of the last chances to meet Colonel Petr Uruba as he sadly died in March 2009 at the age 92. He flew with the RAF as a bomber pilot and as Captain of Wellington Mk.1 C, registration code KX-T,L7842. This aircraft was flown on the fateful night 2nd June 1941, when owing to technical failures coupled with the inexperience of the navigator, the crew landed at Flers airport in occupied France. After they realised their mistake, they tried to take off again but failed and the crew spent the rest of the war as prisonors of war in Germany. One of his crew, Arnost Valenta, died before the end of the war, shot whilst trying to escape from the camp at Sagan in 1944. Their undamaged Wellington KX-T was evaluated by the Luftwaffe at Rechlin after an application of German national insignias and yellow on the bottom surfaces.
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