Anton Matúšek was born in Dolný Hričov. After graduating from the burgher school he attended a trade school. However, he graduated for only one year, after which he was employed as an administrative worker.
After joining the army, he studied at the Aviation Cadet School in Prostejov until October 1937 until March 1939. With the establishment of the Slovak state he was transferred to the pilot course in Piešt'any. He started on 24.3.1939 and finished on 15.7.1939.
Operationally he was transferred to Squadron 39, which after the reorganization of the SVZ became Squadron 11. While still in Squadron 39, he took part in the fighting with Poland and with the already reorganized Squadron 11 was briefly deployed in the summer of 1941 on the Eastern Front. The squadron was withdrawn back to Slovakia, where it carried out air defence of Bratislava until 30 June 1942. By order of the Ministry of National Defence, from 30 June Squadron 11 was again transferred to the east, where it supported the Reinsurance Division in the fight against the partisans. Matusek was one of the very active members of the squadron in the anti-partisan actions, for which he was awarded the Commemorative Badge of the First Degree and the Medal for Heroism of the Third Degree. The operational deployment of the squadron ended on 14.10.1942, after which its personnel began to move back to Slovakia.
After returning to Slovakia, Matusek was selected to participate in the night fighter course, which took place from 22 October 1942 to 22 April 1943 at Piešt'any airfield. In preparation for the formation of the new Squadron 14, a fighter retraining course Bf 109 E was opened at Piešt'any, which ran from 01.04.1943 to 01.06.1943. At the head of the training was Jozef Páleníček, who was replaced from 10.4.1943 by mjr. Ondrej Ďumbala. Until Ďumbala's arrival, the retraining was slow and Matúšek, in particular, had many missed flights and was lagging behind the others. From 1 January 1943 he was promoted to the rank of air force sergeant.
From the graduates of the retraining course (including Matúšek) was formed the 2nd garrison of the air staff squadron 13. Their transfer began on 23.6.1942 by train from Piešt'any to Sarabuza. For his combat deployment within Squadron 13 Anton Matusek received the German decoration Eisernkreuz II.Kl. and I.Kl.
However, on 09.09.1943, together with Ludovít Dobrovodský, he flew over to the Soviet side. By his desertion he had 12 kills to his credit. However, there were many doubts about the veracity of these kills, given Matusek's results in pilot courses, which can be assessed as mediocre.
On the aforementioned day, 9 September 1943, Matúšek was to fly with Dobrovodský on an operational reconnaissance flight. Instead, however, the two in Bf 109 G-4 took off from their home airfield Anapa and flew over to the Soviet side, landing in the Novomalorossiysk area. For some time Matusek was interned in several Soviet prison camps, but as early as 22 December 1943 he was accepted into a Czechoslovak unit in the USSR.
From March to mid-May 1944, he was retrained in Soviet fighter techniques at Vyazniki. He then joined the ranks of the 128th Czechoslovak Independent Fighter Aviation Squadron, which later became the 1st Czechoslovak Independent Fighter Aviation Regiment in the USSR at Ivanovo. With the regiment under the command of František Fajtl, he flew as a member of the regiment's 2nd Squadron, 17 September 1944 to the centre of the SNP, where his base became the Zolná airfield. The regiment remained in Slovakia until 25.10.1944, when the unfavourable situation at the front forced the pilots to leave. The overflight took place in bad weather conditions until finally Matúšek, Valoušek and Kubovič (on Bf 109 G-6) were separated from the others. Valoušek was lost in thick cloud cover. During an overflight by anti-aircraft fire, Kubovich's Messerschmitt was hit and crashed near the village of Štefanovce. The pilot was killed. Matusek was eventually forced to make an emergency landing near the village of Domanovce. Here he joined up with local partisans, with whom he spent the winter in the mountains.
In February 1945, he rejoined the newly formed 1st Czechoslovak Mixed Air Division, with which he was assigned to the 2nd Czechoslovak Fighter Aviation Regiment. The regiment was conducting training and retraining of new pilots and did not manage to intervene in the fighting. Matúšek remained in service in the post-war air force, serving as squadron commander and conducting a training course.
However, he was discharged from the Czechoslovak army on 01.12.1948 due to "air indiscipline". In fact, these were accidents caused by Matusek under the influence of alcohol. From April 1949 he was imprisoned for a year on suspicion of having served in the British Air Force. After leaving the army, he worked in various jobs - revision engineer, miner, miner... He was rehabilitated in 1960, when he was restored to the rank taken from him in 1950. On the 20th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising he was promoted to captain and a year later to major in the Air Force Reserve.
Decorations awarded: Commemorative medal without a plate For Heroism, Third Class Commemorative Badge of the First Degree Eisernkreuz 2.Kl. Eisernkreuz 1.Kl. Czechoslovak War Cross 1939; awarded 3 times Czechoslovak Military Commemorative Medal with USSR Shield Order of the Slovak National Uprising I.st. Czechoslovak Military Medal Za chravrosť pred nepřtelem Medal for the victory over Germany
author's archive Bystrický,Šumichrast - Squadron 13 in documents and pictures; Magnet press 2004; ISBN 80-89169-02-3 Rajlich, Sehnal - Slovenští letci 1939-1945; Kolínske noviny Publishing House 1991 Ch.Kliment - Slovak Army 1939-1945; Mustang 1996; ISBN 80-7191-132-1 Šumichrast, Klabaník - Slovak Air Force 1939-1944,Volume 2; Magnet-Press 2000; ISBN: 80-968073-6-6 Military Personalities of the Czechoslovak Resistance; Prague 2005; ISBN 80-7278-233-9 František Fajtl - Opäť doma; Pravda Publishing House 1989; 1st edition
URL : https://www.valka.cz/Matusek-Anton-t48912#190247
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