Miloslav Jebavý (1911–1949)
Miloslav Jebavý was born at Háje nad Jizerou (Semily District, Liberec Region) on August 27, 1911. His father worked as a smith in a factory. After finishing elementary school at Loukov and passing his GCE at the Olomouc Gymnasium, he left for France in 1930. He stayed in Paris and later in Marseille, but he failed to find a corresponding job there and decided to join the Foreign Legion in November 1930. He served in Morocco, Algeria and The Sahara, reached the rank of Sergeant 1st Class, and eventually was appointed an aspirant officer.
At the beginning of World War II, Jebavý was sent with the 11th Infantry Regiment to France, and his unit was stationed on the front between the Maginot and the Siegried line where he went through heavy retreat fighting against German forces. At the time of France’s capitulation he was on the demarcation line near Dijon. Having been sent back to Africa, he decided to flee to England. He got himself an old fishing boat in Casablanca and in June 1941 successfully landed in Gibraltar, together with a couple of other Czechoslovak soldiers. There he joined the British Army, went through a paratrooper training and other specialized courses, and after his return was assigned to the Fortress Commander’s staff and used in intelligence service. In 1941 he operated in the territory of Morocco and Algeria, in 1942 he was stationed in Libya, and in the second half of that year he parachuted into northern France. At the beginning of 1943 he was deployed by a submarine on the south-eastern coast of France, but he was detained by French Vichy police in Montpellier in July 1943 and imprisoned at Eysses until January 1944. Then he escaped from the prison, crossed the Pyrenees and got successfully to Gibraltar and subsequently to England.
When in British service (RAF and M.I., with documents bearing the name CPT F. Stagarti), Jebavý reached the rank of Major. At his own explicit request he was posted to the French Army of General de Gaulle in the summer of 1944, to command the 1st Company of the Paratrooper Battalion in Camberley. Later he was sent back to the Foreign Legion and joined the liberation fighting. On March 4, 1945 he was seriously wounded on the Rhine. After protracted medical treatment, which lasted until February 29, 1946, he was relieved of service. He got several French awards for his combat activity.1
Jebavý returned to Czechoslovakia in 1946 (his father had been killed by Germans in 1941), and began to work with the Prago-Export company owned by his brother. On March 6, 1949 he was arrested by State Security (StB) and accused of subversive activity. He was said to be the head of a widely-branched conspiracy with contacts to British and American intelligence services (Action Norbert). According to communist investigators, this illegal group aimed at a military coup with the aid of the Žatec and Milovice garrisons. The State Court in Prague sentenced Miloslav Jebavý to death on charges of high treason and espionage in June 1949, together with Josef Gonic, Bohuslav Hubálek, Vilém Sok and Karel Sabela. He was executed at Prague’s Pankrác Prison on July 18, 1949.