In the UK he commanded the RAF's Czechoslovak squadrons, was knighted by HM King George VI and ultimately promoted to Air Marshal.

After the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état Janoušek was court-martialled, sentenced to 18 years in prison and stripped of his rank, doctorate and awards.

[1] In June 1915 Janoušek was conscripted into the Austrian Imperial-Royal Landwehr, trained at Opava in Czech Silesia and was promoted to corporal.

However, on 1 August 1916 Janoušek was released to join the II Volunteer Division of the Serbian Army in Odessa, which recognised his Austrian rank of corporal.

The Legion disobeyed Edvard Beneš' order to surrender "rebels" to the Bolsheviks, and in October 1918 Janoušek was promoted to interim commander of the 7th Company of the II Battalion of the 1st Regiment.

In October Czechoslovakia declared independence from Austria-Hungary, and in November the First World War ended with the armistices of Villa Giusti and Compiègne.

On 21 February 1921 he was promoted to staff captain and given command of the 12th Artillery Regiment at Uzhhorod in Carpathian Ruthenia, but in October he was transferred to a desk job in Košice.

He co-authored a book on aerial warfare tactics, inspired by the ideas of the Italian military theorist Giulio Douhet, which was published in May 1930.

Janoušek commanded the Air Force of General Sergei Wojciechowski's 1st Army, which was to protect the frontier with Nazi Germany from České Budějovice in the southwest to Králíky in the north.

But on 29 September France and the United Kingdom signed the Munich Agreement with Germany, forcing Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland without a fight.

[1] On 15 March 1939 Germany occupied Czechoslovakia and created the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which was required to dissolve its army and air force.

[1] Hundreds of Czechoslovak army and air force personnel responded to the German occupation by escaping to Poland or France.

[1] Janoušek was then to command a Czechoslovak Air Force training centre, which was to be built at Cognac in western France.

On 21 June, the day before France capitulated, the former Czechoslovak ambassador to the UK Jan Masaryk was reported as stating that Czechoslovakia "now has 1,500 young, trained pilots in England ready for service with the Allied air forces".

The UK War Department gave Janoušek the rank of Air Commodore, effectively giving him oversight of all Czechoslovak units of the RAF.

[1] However, the Defence Ministry of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile did not confirm Janoušek's appointment until 15 October 1940, followed by a Presidential Decree to the same effect on 18 June 1941.

Both President Beneš and his Defence Minister, Brig Gen Sergej Ingr, criticised Janoušek for securing an agreement that excluded the government-in-exile from any control over Czechoslovak units and personnel in the RAF.

But it also ensured that the RAF enlisted, trained and equipped 88 Czechoslovak fighter pilots in time for them to fight in the Battle of Britain,[1] including No.

On 31 December 1940 the New Year Honours list announced that Janoušek was to be made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB).

The qualities which make life worth living – liberty, decency, kindness and common sense – they are so evident here and more than ever we realise their value.

[3] In May 1945 the Second World War in Europe ended, and in August the RAF's Czechoslovak squadrons relocated to Ruzyně Airport, Prague.

On 3 August they held a farewell parade at RAF Manston in Kent, where Air Marshal John Slessor inspected them.

[1] He told listeners: Now that the time has come for us to leave this charming and hospitable land, where we have shared with you the joys and sorrows during the past five years of our common struggle; I would like to express to the British people on behalf of myself and of all Czechoslovak Air Force officers and men, our deepest gratitude for all the kindness they have at all times so readily shown us and for making us feel so much at home... ...we are departing with mixed feelings, for there are very few of us in the Czechoslovak Air Force whose families escaped persecution and often death at the hands of the Germans, a price our dear ones had to pay because their sons had taken up arms against the enemies of human freedom...

Although we are leaving you we all hope most sincerely that the bonds of friendship forged between our two nations as a result of our happen association with the Royal Air Force, which will always be one of our most treasured memories, will not only remain a solid link unifying our two peoples but will strengthen even further in the days of peace.

In January 1946 the Chief of the Staff of the Czechoslovak Armed Forces, General Bohumil Boček, appraised Janoušek as "lazy, insincere, and disgruntled".

[1] But at the same time the Czechoslovak Communist Obranné zpravodajství (OBZ) military and political intelligence organisation was monitoring Janoušek's social life and visits to foreign embassies.

Janoušek applied for a job at the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal, for which he had helped to lay the foundations at the 1944 Chicago conference.

Dr Josef Dubský at the ICAO offered him a job, but Bedřich Reicin at the OBZ refused to let Janoušek leave Czechoslovakia.

[1] In 2011 a European Military Rehabilitation Centre and Air Marshal Karel Janoušek Museum were established at Jemnice in Moravia.

[7] Janoušek's life in the Second World War is the subject of Swedish power metal band Sabaton's song Far from the Fame, on their 2014 album Heroes.