„All war decorations are useless at the time you are doing it.“
Oldřich Halad was born in Salesian Ostrava on October 4, 1922. He studied at a seven-year Military Music School in Prague from which he was dismissed in the autumn of 1938. When he was on his way home from the Czechoslovak Army to Ostrava after Munich, he was arrested by some Polish soldiers and taken to a provisional prison in Bohumín. But during the transport, he managed to flee home to Skřečoň. He was not allowed to stay there though. Then he returned to the Protectorate and he got home only after two months - as a civilian this time. He was forced to work in Bohumín Ironworks. On July 1, 1942, he was sent to the 26th Tank Division at the German front. He did training in France and served in Italy. However, he managed to desert to the Allies. He was transported to Liverpool where he served in the forming of the 1st Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade. He served as a signalman in Dunkirk with this troop until the end of the war. After the war, he worked as a national administrator in Karviná. Since 1949, he earned his living as a miner in Jáchymov.