Warrant Officer Dezső Szentgyörgyi (16 January 1915 – 28 August 1971) was the highest scoring Hungarian

fighter ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviation, military aviator credited with shooting down a certain minimum number of enemy aircraft during aerial combat; the exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ...

of the Royal Hungarian Honvéd Air Force in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Early life/Royal Hungarian Honvéd Air Force

Dezső Szentgyörgyi was born in 1915 in

Kőkút Kőkút is a village in Somogy County, Somogy county, Hungary. References External links Street map (Hungarian)
Populated places in Somogy County {{Somogy-geo-stub ...

. He finished his studies in Enying, and was 18 years old when he volunteered for the

Royal Hungarian Air Force The Hungarian Air Force (, ), is the air force branch of the Military of Hungary, Hungarian Defence Forces. The primary focus of the present Hungarian Air Force lies in defensive operations. The flying units operate are organised into a single ...

. Initially he was an aircraft-mechanic, but later received pilot training. He finished the aviation school in

Székesfehérvár Székesfehérvár (; ; ; ; Serbian language, Serbian: ''Стони Београд''; ), known colloquially as Fehérvár (), is a city in central Hungary, and the country's ninth-largest city. It is the Regions of Hungary, regional capital of C ...

with excellent ratings. He was trained as a fighter pilot, and took part in 1/2 FS's operations in northern Hungary with the Fiat CR.32. In summer 1942 he was transferred with the 1/1 "Dongó" (Bumblebee) Fighter Squadron to the Soviet front. He flew the Reggiane Re.2000 Falco (MÁVAG Héja), then the

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a monoplane fighter aircraft that was designed and initially produced by the Nazi Germany, German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt#History, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW). Together with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the ...

G. He shot down his first aircraft on 7 August 1942 in a friendly fire accident, while flying a Re.2000. The victim being a German

Heinkel He 111 The Heinkel He 111 is a German airliner and medium bomber designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934. Through development, it was described as a wolf in sheep's clothing. Due to restrictions placed on Germany a ...

bomber that opened fire on him while Szentgyörgyi was trying to identify the aircraft. His first victory over an enemy fighter was almost a year later, 26 June 1943, a Soviet fighter, a

Yak-1 The Yakovlev Yak-1 () was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. The Yak-1 was a single-seat monoplane with a composite structure and wooden wings; production began in early 1940.Angelucci and Matricardi 1978, p. 239. The Yak-1 was a man ...

Yak-7 The Yakovlev Yak-7 (; NATO reporting name: Mark)Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1955-56 p. 188 was developed from the earlier Yak-1 fighter, initially as a trainer but converted into a fighter. As both a fighter and later reverting to its ori ...

, on Gresnoje.Punka 2002, p. 84. His record on the Eastern Front was 142 sorties and 6 kills.

In the Puma Group

The 101. Honi Légvédelmi Vadászrepülő Osztály (101st "Puma" Fighter Group) was formed on 1 May 1944. Szentgyörgyi was transferred to the 101/2 "Retek" (Radish) Fighter Squadron. He continued to score his kills among the Pumas, and shot down 6 American planes. By the summer of 1944 he was a flight leader. He was promoted to Ensign on 16 November 1944. After the "American Season" ended, once again Soviet fighters became the main enemy. Dezső scored an additional 17 kills. He achieved his last air victory on 16 April 1945: a

Yak-9 The Yakovlev Yak-9 (; NATO reporting name: Frank) is a single-engine, single-seat multipurpose fighter aircraft used by the Soviet Union and its allies during World War II and the early Cold War. It was a development of the robust and successful ...

on Guttenbrunn.Punka 2002, p. 84. He never crashed a plane due to pilot error, and he was never shot down. By the end of the war he had completed more than 220 sorties, and had 30 confirmed kills; the most successful Hungarian fighter pilot.

After the war

After the war, he returned home and became a pilot of the MASZOVLET (Hungarian-Soviet Airlines) between 1946 and 1949. Between 1950 and 1956 he spent several years in Communist prisons, before becoming a pilot of the renamed

Malév Hungarian Airlines MALÉV Ltd. (), which did business as MALÉV Hungarian Airlines (, abbreviated ''MALÉV'', ), was the flag carrier of Hungary from 1946 until 2012. Its head office was in Budapest, with its main hub at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airpor ...

again, logging 12,334 flight hours and covering more than 5 million kilometres in the air.

Death

On 28 August 1971 Szentgyörgyi was the pilot of MALEV Hungarian Airlines Flight 731, and was among the 32 people killed when the

Ilyushin Il-18 The Ilyushin Il-18 (; NATO reporting name: Coot) is a large turboprop airliner that first flew in 1957 and became one of the best known Soviet aircraft of its era. The Il-18 was one of the world's principal airliners for several decades and wa ...

(HA-MOC) crashed into the sea during a storm on its approach to a landing in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

in Denmark. Szentgyörgyi and the other eight members of his crew died, and only two of the 25 passengers survived.Aviation Safety Network
/ref> He was due to retire in less than three weeks. The MH 59th "Szentgyörgyi Dezső" Air Base of the

Hungarian Air Force The Hungarian Air Force (, ), is the air force branch of the Hungarian Defence Forces. The primary focus of the present Hungarian Air Force lies in defensive operations. The flying units operate are organised into a single command; under the A ...

Kecskemét Kecskemét ( ) is a city with county rights in central Hungary. It is the List of cities and towns of Hungary, eighth-largest city in the country, and the county seat of Bács-Kiskun County, Bács-Kiskun. Kecskemét lies halfway between the ca ...

(equipped with

MiG-29 The Mikoyan MiG-29 (; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a twinjet, twin-engine fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Developed by the Mikoyan design bureau as an air superiority fighter during the 1970s, the MiG-29, along with the large ...

(until 2010) and

JAS 39 Gripen The Saab JAS 39 Gripen ( ; English: ''Griffin'') is a light single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft manufactured by the Swedish aerospace and defence company Saab AB. The Gripen has a delta wing and canard configuration with rela ...

fighters) is named in his honour.

Victories

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Becze Csaba – Elfelejtett Hősök – A Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő ászai a II. világháborúban, Puedlo Kiadó, 2006, * Becze Csaba – Elfelejtett Hősök – A Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő ászai a II. világháborúban, Zrinyi Kiadó, 2016, second, extended edition * Császár Ottó – Élet és Halál a Levegőben – vitéz Szentgyörgyi Dezső életrajzi regénye, Malév Kiadó, 1994, * Pataki I./Rozsos L./Sárhidai Gy. – Légi Háború Magyarország Felett I., Zrínyi Kiadó, 1992, * Pataki I./Rozsos L./Sárhidai Gy. – Légi Háború Magyarország Felett II., Zrínyi Kiadó, 1993, * Punka György – Hungarian Aces of World War 2, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, England, 2002. * Punka György – A "Messzer" – Bf 109-ek a Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierőben, OMIKK, 1995, * Punka Gy./Sárhidai Gy. – Magyar Sasok – A Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő 1920 – 1945, K.u.K. Kiadó, 2006, * Tobak Tibor – Pumák Földön-Égen, Lap és Könyvkiadó Kft., 1989,

External links

Second World War uniforms of the Royal Hungarian Honvéd Air Force
{{DEFAULTSORT:Szentgyorgyi, Dezso 1915 births 1971 deaths Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in Denmark Hungarian World War II flying aces Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1971