Perina died in the Prague Stresovice military hospital. He had been admitted on April 26 when his health deteriorated.
PRAGUE: One of the most famous Czech fighter pilots, Frantisek Perina, who fought with the French during World War II, died in Prague on Saturday, one month after his 95th birthday, the Czech CTK news agency said.
The highly-decorated general died in the Prague Stresovice military hospital. He had been admitted on April 26 when his health deteriorated following the death of his wife, Anna, CTK said.
Shortly after his marriage in 1939, Perina, who fiercely opposed the Nazi occupation of his country, fled to France to fight with the Allies. His wife stayed behind in the then Czechoslovakia and spent most of the war in Nazi jails.
The legendary pilot clocked up 14 victories during the war, including five on May 10 and 11, 1940, in the early hours of the Nazi invasion of France.
Perina's famed feats include destroying four enemy planes in four minutes during the defence of Sedan, northern France, and single-handedly taking on around 60 Nazi Messerschmitts over Paris on June 3, 1940.
During that Nazi raid on Paris he was hit. But he managed to shoot down an enemy plane and make an emergency landing, despite sustaining 18 shrapnel wounds in one leg. Perina was the last surviving member of the French 1/5 fighter squadron to have fought in June 1940.
When France fell to the Nazis he moved to Britain, where he concentrated on training fighter pilots.
The Perina couple returned to Czecheslovakia after the war but were persecuted by the Communists who took power in Prague in 1948 and emigrated to the United States. They did not return to their home country until 1991, two years after the fall of the regime.
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