Ján Gerthofer (27 May 1910 – 9 August 1991) was a Slovak war pilot. He was the third-highest scoring

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 ...

from

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

during

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 ...

. He accumulated 26 kills. Gerthofer had joined the

Czechoslovak Air Force The Czechoslovak Air Force (''Československé letectvo'') or the Czechoslovak Army Air Force (''Československé vojenské letectvo'') was the air force branch of the Czechoslovak Army formed in October 1918. The armed forces of Czechoslovakia c ...

in 1927 flying bombers. In 1939, he became a pilot in the

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

of newly independent Slovakia. After completing training on

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 ...

fighter aircraft in October 1942, he was appointed deputy commanding officer of 13 JG 52, the Slovak air contingent on the Eastern Front. In 175 sorties he shot down 26 Soviet aircraft. In the

Slovak National Uprising Slovak National Uprising ( Slovak: ''Slovenské národné povstanie'', abbreviated SNP; alternatively also ''Povstanie roku 1944'', English: ''The Uprising of 1944'') was organised by the Slovak resistance during the Second World War, directed ag ...

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 Air Force officers 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 {{Slovakia-bio-stub