6 Maintenance Unit Czechoslovak War Cross 1939–1945 × 2 Československá medaile Za chrabrost před nepřítelem × 2 Československá medaile za zásluhy, 1. stupně 2nd wife: Gertrude, née Dellar(1945–) Josef Bryks, MBE, (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjozɛv brɪks]; 18 March 1916– 11 August 1957) was a Czechoslovak cavalryman, fighter pilot, prisoner of war and political prisoner.

After his third recapture Bryks was moved to Stalag Luft III where he helped in the Great Escape, and then to Oflag IV-C in Colditz Castle, where he remained until it was liberated by the US Army in 1945.

Bryks studied at the Commercial Academy in Olomouc and passed his Matura (final exam of secondary education) in June 1935.

After his training, he was posted to the 5th Observation Squadron of the 2nd "Dr Edvard Beneš" Aviation Regiment, stationed in Prague.

[1] On the day that Bryks qualified as a fighter pilot, the United Kingdom and France signed the Munich Agreement that forced Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.

The Armée de l'air was fully occupied resisting the German advance and repeatedly having to retreat to different airfields.

On 11 November, he was posted to the Headquarters Ferry Pool at RAF Kemble in Gloucestershire, which worked with the non-combatant Air Transport Auxiliary.

[1] 242 Squadron's rôle was changed to Circus offensives over German-occupied Europe, escorting RAF bombers with the purpose of enticing Luftwaffe fighter attacks.

This was a late afternoon attack on Lille in northern France by 23 Bristol Blenheim bombers of 18, 105 and 110 Squadrons, escorted by 19 Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires.

Frenchmen who had seen him descend gave him a civilian coat to hide his RAF uniform and told him to go to a safe house in a nearby hamlet.

The occupants betrayed him by calling the Germans, but when Bryks heard their motorised patrol coming, he fled the house and hid in a garden.

Therefore, Bryks assumed the identity of "Joseph Ricks", born in 1918 in Cirencester,[1] a Gloucestershire market town about 8 kilometres (5 miles) from where he had been spent two months at RAF Kemble.

[1] When he was shot down, Bryks was wearing the Mae West lifejacket of a Polish colleague from 242 Squadron, F/O Henry Skalsky.

There he was accused of shooting a Luftwaffe fighter pilot who was parachuting from his Bf 109 in the air battle near St Omer on 17 June.

He was held in solitary confinement from 12 August, but fellow prisoners smuggled razor blades to him hidden inside bread.

About 10 kilometres (6 miles) south of Frankfurt, he found a Luftwaffe airfield where Bf 109 night fighters were based.

He reached Mannheim in Baden, where on the night of 8 September he was captured by German air defence troops, who handed him to the local Gestapo.

On 4 March 1943, Polish workers in the camp helped Bryks and a British officer, Squadron Leader Morris, to escape.

A fortnight later, Bryks and Černý were lodging with a Polish widow, Mrs Błaszkiewiczowá, who had two young children and lived in a village several kilometres outside Warsaw.

A collaborator told the German authorities, so on 2 June 1943 the Gestapo surrounded Mrs Błaszkiewiczowá's house and arrested everyone inside.

Bryks was one of the men listed to escape, but before his turn came, the guards discovered the tunnel exit just outside the perimeter fence.

[1] Only three days later, on 27 March, Bryks and a Royal Australian Air Force officer, Group Captain Douglas Wilson, tried to escape.

[2] The UK Government informed Bryks that he was to be made a Member of Order of the British Empire (MBE) in recognition of his escapes as a PoW and the help he gave to other escapees.

[1][3] He was charged with involvement in an alleged attempt by other former RAF airmen, including Air Marshal Karel Janoušek, to escape to the West.

[1] His wife obtained an exit visa for herself and their young daughter, stating that it was to pay her parents in England a short visit.

[1] His wife protested to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Rudolf Slánský,[2] but received no answer.

[1] Finally he was moved to a prison in Ostrov nad Ohří in western Bohemia and made to work in a uranium mine called Rovnost (The Czech word for "Equality").

A memorial plaque was unveiled outside 5 Hanáckého pluku, Olomouc, where Bryks was living with his wife and daughter when the StB arrested him in 1948.

[8][9] On 28 October 2006, the Czech Republic gave Bryks its highest award, the Order of the White Lion, military division, 2nd class.

[12] In 2007, Czech Television made a documentary about Bryks, Muž, který přecenil českou duši aneb Útěky Josefa Brykse (lit.