MH: Did you have any say in your assignments with the air force?

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Perina: Well, if one had the talent for it, he went to fighter school. Early in 1932, I went to fighter school at Cheb in the Sudetenland. There, I trained in the Avia BH-9, BH-10 and BH-11 monoplane fighters. Those Avias were very dangerous planes–they easily went into a spin that was very hard to get out of. Many pilots were injured in them during training. Even then, we still flew French Potez C-4 aircraft in addition to our own. I also flew the Avia Ba-33 biplane. We trained in air-to-air and air-to-ground gunnery, as well as aerobatics.

MH: How long did that last?

Perina: After four months, I graduated from the Cheb school; then I was sent back to my original unit before being posted to a fighter squadron, the 34th, at Olomouc.

MH: What kind of first-line fighters did you fly at that time?

Perina: We had S molik S-20 biplanes, which were pretty good for that period–very maneuverable–but they could only do 150 to 180 mph.

MH: How long did you stay with the 34th?

Perina: When the squadron was posted to another station, the commander at Olomouc wanted me to stay, so I was transferred to the 36th Fighter Squadron when it was rotated to the airfield. I was with them during the Sudetenland crisis in 1938.

MH: Didn’t you have an occasion to meet some of your German counterparts before then?

Perina: Yes, the year before. In 1937, I represented the Czechoslovakian air force at the International Air Show at Zürich. We had the Avia B-534. The German team had arrived before us and was equipped with Heinkel He-51 biplanes and the new Messerschmitt Bf-109s. The Germans I met were mostly gentlemen, not Nazis. One of them, the former World War I ace Ernst Udet, offered to fly over the Alps to find a Czechoslovakian pilot who had become lost during the cross-country competition. We later learned that he had landed in Italy.

MH: How did you do in the air meet?

Perina: I took third place in aerobatics and in the climb-and-dive competition–first and second went to two of the Germans. During the cross-country flight, one of the two magnetos in my engine gave out, so I could not go at full throttle while flying over the mountains. Even so, I managed to come in fourth. At the banquet after the show, I sat between Ernst Udet, who would soon become chief of the Luftwaffe’s office of supply and procurement, and Erhard Milch, second-in-command of the Luftwaffe. I also made the acquaintance of the French squadron at Zürich; I didn’t know that I’d later be flying with them under different circumstances.

MH: What were your activities in the wake of the Munich crisis?

Perina: After returning from Zürich, I won air-to-air and air-to-ground gunnery competitions in Czechoslovakia. Then I was posted to a military school, to serve as Rotmistr (warrant officer). Following the loss of the Sudetenland to Hitler, the air force began to form new squadrons, and I joined the 52nd Fighter Squadron as its chief pilot.

MH: In March 1939, the Hungarians also occupied some Czechoslovakian territory. Were you involved in the short border war with them?

Perina: Yes, in March 1939 the 52nd Fighter Squadron flew to Viglas airfield in Slovakia, but my commander cautioned me, ‘Frank, we are ordered not to shoot unless attacked.’ In any case, they’started’ things. We operated along the border, but never saw any combat. We saw some Hungarian aircraft, but they quickly flew back over to their side of the frontier.

MH: What were your activities before the German invasion?

Perina: After a few days, the border war ended, with the Hungarians getting most of the territory they wanted. We returned to Olomouc. Not long after that, the Germans occupied the entire country. Meanwhile, I decided to get married. In the air force, commissioned and warrant officers were not allowed to marry until age 28, when their income would be enough to support a wife, and I now was 28. I married Anna Klimesova on June 24, 1939, and left for Poland on June 26. Under the circumstances, I could not take my wife with me. Anna was imprisoned by the Germans for three years–1942 to 1945.

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