in early 1930' he taught in military academy in prague. after the munich betrayal in spring 1939 he was in underground organization named national defence (obrana národa). he started with cooperation with soviet union (sssr). in start of june he moved to poland and established a czechoslovak legion, but when sssr invade poland from east, he was captured and senteced to die. his contacts in moscow freed him.with connection to moscow he started to free people from gulag and used them to his legion.he became a commander of czechoslovak army on east. the first battle of his was in 1943 in battle of sokolov in ukraine. his position was leader of 1st czechoslovak corpses. in this battle died a czech hero captain jaroš. then he fight in battle of dukla pass. with trust from klement gottwald he became a general in year 1945 and was named a hero of east front.