Czechoslovak war veteran Ervín Hoida dies at 105

Ervín Hoida, one of the last Czechoslovak veterans of World War II, who lived most of his life in Great Britain, has died at the age of 105, the Ministry of Defence announced on the social network X on Thursday.

Hoida, who was born in Ostrava in 1918, escaped Czechoslovakia after the Nazi occupation in 1939 and served in France and later with the Czechoslovak armoured brigade in the UK.

After D-Day, he took part in the liberation of Europe. He returned to Czechoslovakia in 1945, but went back to the UK few months later due to the rising communist threat.