Date of birth:

April 14th, 1919 (Jablonica, Czechoslovakia)

Date of death:

September 19th, 2007 (Martin, Slovakia)

Nationality:

Czechoslovakian (1918 - 1948, Republic)

Ján Režňák - Jan Reznak was the top Slovakian fighter ace in the Slovak Air Force during the Second World War and accumulated 32 kills on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union.
06.-08.1941: first battle tour on the Eastern Front - 13 combat missions over Ukraine

During his second deployment on the Eastern Front, Režňák flew 194 combat missions, participated in 36 aerial combat and reached 32 confirmed kills. Other three victories were not confirmed.

He remained in German-occupied western Slovakia until the end of the war. When the front approached in the spring of 1945, Režňák was offered to retreat with the Germans and fight in the Luftwaffe, but he refused.
After the arrival of the Red Army, he was brought to the local headquarters and handed over to the military court in Martin, but he was acquitted.

After WWII, he first worked at the airport in Trenčanské Biskupice, later in the Military Aviation School in Olomouc.
After the Communists came to power in April 1948, he was demoted and released. He subsequently worked as chief pilot and flight instructor for the firm Považské strojírny.
In 1951, after several attempts, the StB (State Security Services) took his pilot's license definitively. He then worked as a designer, designer and inspection engineer in Považská Bystrica and Piešťany.
In 1979 he retired and lived in Piešťany.
After 1989 he applied for rehabilitation but failed.

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