František Peřina Wing Commander General František Peřina ( 8 April 1911 , Morkůvky u Břeclavi ; died 6 May 2006 in Prague ) was a Czech fighter pilot , an ace during World War II with the French Armée de l ' Air , who also served twice with Britain ' s Royal Air Force . Biography . Born into a farming family in South Moravian Region , Peřina had not visited the city of Brno until he was 14 . He undertook a full elementary school education , before serving an apprenticeship as a machinist . Six months after qualifying he joined the Czechoslovak Air Force . Czechoslovak Air Force . Reporting to Prostějov airfield on 1 October 1929 after undertaking army officer training , he trained to fly the Letov Š - 10 ( nicknamed " Sardinka " / sardine / by pilots ) , the Letov Š - 14 and the Letov Š - 18 " Komár " ( mosquito ) . Graduating in 1931 he spent two years as a first class airman before promotion to Sergeant . In 1932 he attended fighter school in Cheb , training for four months in air - to - air and air - to - ground gunnery and aerobatics on various biplane and single wing fighters . He returned to his unit and was then attached to the 34th fighter squadron at Olomouc on Letov Š - 20 biplanes . In 1937 Peřina represented the Czechoslovak air force at the International Air Show in Zurich , Switzerland in an Avia B - 534 . There he met the German contingent headed by World War I ace Ernst Udet , the then chief of the Luftwaffe ' s office of supply and procurement , and Erhard Milch , second - in - command of the Luftwaffe . The German team were equipped with the Heinkel He 51 and the new Messerschmitt Bf 109 . Peřina took third place in both aerobatics and in the climb - and - dive competition , and fourth in the cross - country flight : behind the German pilots . The 34th fighter squadron was then transferred , and Peřina transferred to the 36th Fighter Squadron when it was rotated to the airfield with reconnaissance pilot Josef František , staying with them through the 1938 German occupation of Czechoslovakia . He was then posted to military school to serve as " rotmistr " ( warrant officer ) , and in the aftermath of the Sudeten Crisis the Czechoslovak air force began to form new squadrons and he joined the 52nd Fighter Squadron . After a border war with Hungary , he married Anna Klimešová on 24 June 1939 and left for Poland without his wife on 26 June ( she was delayed through paperwork ) , with the intention of joining the French Foreign Legion in North Africa . Armée de l ' Air . Following the first dissolution of Czechoslovakia and the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia by Nazi Germany and after the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939 ; France declared war on Germany and the Czechoslovaks obtained a contract from the French Air Ministry to transfer from the Foreign Legion to the Armée de l ' Air . Initiated at Châtres , Seine - et - Marne , Peřina flew the Curtiss H - 75A . On 1 December 1939 Peřina was assigned to the " 1ère Escadrille " of " Groupe de Chasse I " , " Escadre de Chasse 5 " based at Suippes near Reims . The squadron was made up of French pilots who had attended the Zürich air festival , and commanded by Capitaine Jean Accart . His took on the French alias of François Rinopé , in case he was taken prisoner - the Germans would treat a French prisoner much better than they would an exiled Czech . On operations after 10 May 1940 , after Germany began executing its Manstein battle plan against France , the Netherlands , and Belgium , Peřina shot down four planes in two sorties . He was also promoted to " sergent - chef " . The next day he shot down his fifth , thus becoming the first Czech ace in the Second World War . A day after that he shot down two more planes . Promoted to " Adjutant " , he became well known throughout France through media coverage of his exploits . Peřina ' s squadron moved to Saint - Dizier on the Marne River on 14 May . In June 1940 as the Luftwaffe focused on Paris , Peřina and colleagues attacked a bombing formation . While his colleagues attacked the bombers Peřina focused on a fighter escort of 60 Messerschmitt Bf 109 ' s , shooting down one plane but getting badly shot up himself . In interview on his 95th birthday , he recalled : I had to gain them some time , and I could think of nothing other than to attack . I had to stop them somehow . I distracted them , and I even managed to shoot one down , but then I myself was hit . My plane took 15 cannon hits , 80 by machine gun . My leg and my arm were injured , although I didn ' t feel a thing . I knew I probably wasn ' t going to make it back . After being hospitalised in Coulomiers he left the hospital and escaped to Paris and then Chartres . He then joined GC I / 5 at Carcassonne , retrieving a Curtiss with a flat tailwheel tire from another airfield and flying to join the Free French Forces in Saint - Denis - du - Sig airfield located near Oran , Algeria . Having been awarded but never received the customary Croix de Guerre for his first air - to - air victory , the Free French decorated Peřina as a Chévalier de la Légion d ' Honneur and also awarded him the Croix de Guerre with six palms . He then travelled by train to Casablanca where he boarded a ship to Great Britain . Royal Air Force . After a 29 - day boat trip , Peřina was allocated to No . 312 ( Czechoslovak ) Squadron RAF , flying Hawker Hurricane s . He saw little action before suffering from acute appendicitis and was treated at hospital in Ely , Cambridgeshire . He returned to No . 312 on recovery and moved with the squadron to Ayr , Scotland in 1941 to convert to the Supermarine Spitfire Mk V . On 3 June 1942 while escorting bombers he claimed two Focke - Wulf Fw 190 ' s from a formation of four , one of which was confirmed destroyed and a second as ' probable ' . Peřina then served as sector gunnery officer for a year , and then spent the remainder of the war at Fighter Command as part of the Czechoslovak liaison establishment . His victory claims totalled 12 , and consisted of 3 solo and 9 shared destroyed , 2 probables , and 1 damaged Returned to Czechoslovakia . Peřina returned to Czechoslovakia where his wife Anna had been imprisoned from 1942 to 1945 . He became the Commanding Officer of a gunnery school and an aerobatic pilot with his own Bücker Bü 131 " Jungmeister " biplane provided by the air ministry . However as the communists took power and the Cold War developed there was a questioning of the loyalty of those ' westernised ' pilots who had served with the Allies . In December 1949 after an argument with Bedřich Reicin , Peřina was expelled from the army and forced to flee . In April 1949 Peřina , his wife Anna and a friend flew to West Germany , belly landing at Passau , eight miles from the Soviet zone . Return to the RAF . After his wife recovered in hospital from injuries received during the crash , he rejoined the RAF for five years , but at the age of 36 was not allowed to fly again . He joined the RAF rifle shooting team . Peřina applied for a United States visa in London in 1949 and emigrated to Canada , even though Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder tried to persuade him to stay . North America . In 1953 while in Canada he gained a job building fibreglass fishing boats , but also trained as a commercial pilot - however being over the age of 42 could not find work . At Christmas 1959 the couple ' s US residency was confirmed and he joined the new plastics division of ejection seat specialist Weber Aircraft in Burbank , California ( later a subsidiary of French based Zodiac Group ) . Supervising 347 people , his division made lavatories and kitchens for Douglas , Lockheed and Boeing including the Boeing 747 and seats for the Project Gemini space capsules . Following his retirement on 15 March 1979 Peřina and his wife retired to Arizona but finding it too hot moved to Las Vegas , Nevada . Return to the Czech Republic . In 1993 Peřina and his wife returned to the Czech Republic following the removal of the Communist regime . Many citizens , not least those in the newly emerging military , greeted him with a ' hero ' s welcome ' . Peřina commented that he simply wanted to die on home soil and that it was the country that he fought for and stressed repeatedly that he loved the Czech countryside . He was made a General of the Czech Republic Armed Forces . Peřina died on Saturday 6 May 2006 aged 95 in Prague ' s military hospital of an unspecified chronic disease and exhaustion . His wife Anna Peřinová ( née Klimešová ) had died several days before his admission to hospital on 21 April Radio Prague reported . One elementary school in Prague has been given his name .