THE HURRICANE PILOT WHO BECAME A GESTAPO AGENT The Betrayal and Treachery of an RAF Sergeant

Tucked away in the archives of Berlin’s Museum for Transport and Technology is a photograph of a Hawker Hurricane on public display, taken before the night of 23–24 November 1943, when the museum—and most of its collection, including the Hurricane—was destroyed in an RAF bombing raid. The aircraft, bearing squadron markings PA‑A and serial number W9147, with broken propeller blades and a commander’s pennant, sparked the author’s investigation into a remarkable tale of wartime betrayal.
Central to the story is Augustin Přeučil, known to friends and family as Gustav. A 26-year-old Czechoslovakian aviator, Přeučil had fled his homeland following Nazi Germany’s creation of the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. After escaping via Poland and France, he reached Britain and joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve, integrating seemingly seamlessly into life there and marrying an English woman in July 1941. Yet on 18 September 1941, he was reported missing during a training flight off Sunderland and Hartlepool, presumed killed. His wife received a war widow’s pension, and Přeučil appeared to be just another wartime casualty.
In truth, Přeučil had survived. He landed the “stolen” Hurricane near Bastogne in Belgium, was sheltered by locals, and entrusted to the Resistance. Remarkably, he betrayed that trust, surrendering to the Gestapo and providing detailed intelligence. This marked the beginning of his clandestine service to Hitler’s Third Reich, operating principally in Czechoslovakia, betraying both his homeland and his adopted country. His actions, the author shows, were motivated by complex personal and political pressures, yet they ended in inevitable consequences.
Found guilty of high treason, Augustin Přeučil was executed by hanging by Czech authorities in April 1947. His story, meticulously reconstructed from archival sources and eyewitness accounts, reveals the extraordinary moral ambiguities, dangers, and human betrayals of wartime Europe—a tale at once extraordinary, tragic, and true.