Hurricane I - W9147
Augustin Preucil served as a reconnaissance pilot in Air Regiment 1 of the Czech air force in early 1939. When the Germans invaded his country during March 1939, he immediately volunteered to join the Luftwaffe, but was rejected because he wasn't a German national. He was then approached by the Gestapo in Prague and asked if he would like to work for them, which he accepted and was sent to Poland to report on other Czech pilots who had fled the country.
On the outbreak of war, Preucil joined the French Armee De L'Air and was sent to the fighter training school at Chartres. Here he was trained to fly Bloch MB151, Morane-Saulnier MS 406 and Dewoitine D 500 fighters. He saw no combat during the battle for France in 1940 and escaped to England by ship as France fell.
On arrival in the UK, Preucil joined the RAF volunteer reserve with the rank of Sergeant pilot, Serial number 787344. He was trained to fly Hawker Hurricanes and served with 43 (late 1940) and 605 (until 26/08/1941) squadrons. He saw no combat and was transferred to be a ferry pilot due to his poor (by choice?) flying abilities.
He then spent time with 10MU (maintenance unit), 33MU and 18MU before being posted to 55OTU (operational training unit) at RAF Usworth, Sunderland in the summer of 1941.
On September 18th 1941 Preucil took off from RAF Usworth in Hurricane I W9147/PA-A of 55OTU to practice dog fighting with a trainee Polish pilot over the North Sea. During the mock battle, the young Polish flier witnessed Preucil's aircraft spiralling towards the sea trailing smoke. Thinking it had crashed, the trainee returned to base to report the aircraft lost.
What actually happened was that Preucil had pulled out of the dive just above the waves and headed for Europe. He landed at Ortho in Ardennes, Belgium where he was sheltered by a farmer and members of the Belgian resistance who took him to be a crashed RAF flier. The next day Preucil informed on those who offered him protection. The farmer, Léon Charlier, and a resistance fighter, Armand Durand, were seized by the Gestapo and were later shot. The Hurricane was put on display in Berlin's National Aviation Museum only to be destroyed later by an allied bombing raid.
Preucil's talent for treachery found its final use in the concentration camp of Theresienstadt. Posing as a captured Czech pilot, he was used as a stool pigeon among Czech political prisoners. Again his spying is believed to have cost many of them their lives. He was captured in Prague on 19th May 1945.
On 14th April 1947, after a trial in which his betrayals were revealed, he was hanged.
The Hurricane on display in Berlin's Museum