On Thursday, the spitfire ace of British Royal Air Force Otto Smik would have turned 100. On this occasion, representatives of Slovak Armed Forces paid tribute to the late Slovak pilot at the Sliac military airbase in central Slovakia. As Peter Sumichrast from the Institute of Military History stated, Smik refused the authoritarian Slovak State and emigrated. After having been imprisoned in Hungary, he finally succeeded in joining the Czechoslovak troops in France from which he got to Liverpool in Great Britain. There he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. In 1943-1944, he shot down 13 Luftwaffe fighter aircrafts. Squadron leader Otto Smik was shot down in November 1944 while leading an attack in the Netherlands.
Source: TASR, RSI
