World War II: Interview with Czech Ace Frantisek Perina

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MH: Weren’t you wounded soon after that?

Perina: Yes, two busy days later. On the morning of June 2, the squadron was sent to a forward airfield–luckily, because St. Dizier was bombed in the night. After I returned to St. Dizier, I reported by phone. I then sat down on the edge of the tarmac, not knowing that I was sitting right over an unexploded bomb, and was so tired I fell asleep. The groupe CO picked me up, and a moment later the bomb went off–right where I had been sitting. The next day, at lunch time, we learned that 150 Germans were flying toward Paris. We quickly went to the airfield. Eight fighters from GC II/5 were already taking off; I, being on the other side of the airfield, followed them. They saw 90 Junkers Ju-88s, Do-17s, and He-111s. Just as they started to attack, I saw 60 Bf-110s above me. The bombers had come escorted this time!

MH: Those are pretty heavy odds. What did you do?

Perina: I didn’t know what to do, so I climbed a bit more–to 3,000 feet–then dived on the Bf-110s, hoping to break up their formation before they could shoot me down. The Germans turned left to form a big circle. I was very pleased to see that my figuring was right, because at least for a while the bombers would be unescorted. I got one of the Bf-110s in flames (though it wasn’t confirmed), but then one of them got me. I got away by spinning down. My Hawk took 15 cannon and 76 machine-gun hits, but I was still flying. I was hit in the forearm. A cannon shell burst in the cockpit, demolishing my radio. I also had 18 fragments in my right leg, but I didn’t feel anything. I thought a Bf-110 was still firing at me, until I looked down and saw that my fingers were still clenched on my own gun triggers–those were my own guns that I had heard!

MH: What then?

Perina: After I landed at the nearest airfield, I was sent to the hospital at Coulomiers, 30 kilometers east of Paris. When the Germans advanced, I escaped from the hospital and went to Paris, then Chartres, looking for an escadrille to join. At one railway station, where all the trains were stopped, an engineer recognized me from the newspapers, unhooked the engine from the train and took me 60 kilometers to another town. I finally found GC I/5 at Carcasonne, but there was no aircraft for me. On June 20, I came to a nearby airfield and found a Curtiss with a flat tailwheel tire. There was nobody around, so, without a parachute or any other safety device, I just took off in it and flew to Algiers, Algeria, in about two hours. To this day, I don’t know whose Curtiss it was.

MH: France was close to being finished by then. Where did you go after leaving Algiers?

Perina: I flew to St. Denis Siq, a small airfield near Oran. There, I was decorated as a Chévalier de la Légion d’Honneur, and was also awarded the Croix de Guerre with six palms. I felt pretty stupid, because I didn’t have a uniform–I had left it behind in France. I bought a new uniform in Oran, then went by train to Casablanca.

MH: Did you have trouble getting out of Casablanca?

Perina: Traffic was going pretty freely both ways at that time. Three ships full of anti-Gaullists wishing to be repatriated came in from England. Czech and Polish airmen wishing to carry on the war against the Germans, including myself, got aboard those same ships when they left for Gibraltar, where we transferred to a cargo ship. It took us 27 days to get to England.

MH: Did you then join up with the Royal Air Force?

Perina: Of course! I joined up in early September 1940. Most of us Czechs went to No. 312 Squadron, which was under the double command of British and Czech COs. The squadron started out with the Hawker Hurricane–a good aircraft, but heavier than the P-36 and, with a higher wing loading, not as easy to handle as a P-36.

Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Aces, Aerial Combat, People, World War II

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