He was taken prisoner of war (one source says that he defected[2]) in 1916 on the Russian front and in 1917 he volunteered to join the Czechoslovak Legions in Russia and served with the artillery.

The brigade was moved to France in August 1944 and Liška commanded the siege of Dunkirk from October 1944 to May 1945, accepting the surrender of the German garrison.

[1][2] After the war, Liška returned to Czechoslovakia where he was reunited with his wife and daughter who had been repatriated from concentration camps; his son, Jaroslav, and older brother, Josef, had been shot during death marches.

He had been appointed as the Czechoslovak Army's Chief of Staff in April 1945 by President Edvard Beneš, but this was vetoed by the Soviet authorities and instead he became commander of the Military College[3] and was promoted to general in 1946.

The Communist takeover in 1948 and consequent purges of formerly London-based officers, however, led to his dismissal from the Army and obliged him to leave his country once again, without his family.