On June 22, 1939, soon after the German occupation of Czech lands, Prchal illegally crossed the border into Poland and a week later arrived in France.
Eduard Prchal is now remembered chiefly as the pilot in the crash of the B-24 at Gibraltar in July 1943 which killed the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile Władysław Sikorski, and 15 others [REF].