After the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941, the Slovak Republic, sent various contingents of troops, among them, some veteran pilots who were trained in the Bf.109G and created their own squadron, the 13 .(slow) which was assigned to JG 52 and acted mainly in Ukraine, Kuban and Caucasus regions.
One of those pilots was Jan Reznak, whose Bf.109G was, perhaps, the most famous of the Slovak Bf.109Gs. He scored 32 victories during 20 missions. As the pilots weren't assigned particular missions, his aircraft was flown by other pilots, including other Slovak aces as Vladimir Krisko with nine kills and Stefan Martis with five kills. That particular aicraft (depicted below) fell into Soviet hands on 9th September 1943 when another ace, Anton Matusek defected to the Soviet side.
As the machines weren't Slovak in the strict sense of the word, they were leased from the Luftwaffe, they beared German national insignia with the only indication of their Slovak identity being the three coloured white-blue-red band in the spinner. Jan Reznak was the most successful Slovak ace who flew various Bf.109Gs and also survived two crash-landings with the aircrafts being generally recovered, when possible, and repaired.
The Slovak Squadron in the USSR, performed well, as they remained there from April 1943 until September 1943 and even from before if we count the period they were equipped with the Bf.109E. After that they were called back to defend their homeland it was attacked by the Allied bombers.
Sources:
1. Osprey - Aicraft of the Aces 58 - Slovakian and Bulgarian Aces of World War 2
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Bf_109_operational_history
another great plane!
ReplyDeletethanks WD..
best,
mtutor