Ján Gerthofer (27 May 1910 – 9 August 1991) was the third-highest scoring
fighter ace
A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...
from
Slovakia during
World War II. He accumulated 26 kills.
Gerthofer had joined the
Czechoslovak Air Force in 1927 flying bombers. In 1939, he became a pilot in the
Air Force of newly independent Slovakia. After completing training on
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...
fighter aircraft in October 1942, he was appointed deputy commanding officer of
13 JG 52
13. Staffel (slowakisches) Jagdgeschwader 52 (13.(slovak)/ JG 52) was a front-line unit of the Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe made up of Slovak personnel during World War II.
They operated on the Eastern Front using Messerschmitt Bf 109s (E,F and G) ...
, the Slovak air contingent on the
Eastern Front. In 175 sorties he shot down 26 Soviet aircraft.
In the
Slovak National Uprising in August 1944, Gerthofer joined the insurgents, but was taken prisoner on 31 August and spent the rest of the war in
Stalag XVIII-A.
After the war, Gerthofer served in the re–formed Czechoslovak Air Force before being discharged for political reasons in 1951.
References
Bibliography
*
1910 births
1991 deaths
People from Malacky District
Czechoslovak military personnel
Slovak military personnel of World War II
World War II flying aces
World War II prisoners of war held by Germany
Recipients of the Iron Cross (1939), 1st class
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