Published: November 10, 2009 05:52 pm      

VETERANS DAY FEATURE: WAR STORY

Fighter pilot shares his memories of WWII

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Sixty-four years later, Henry "Hank" Hodek of Live Oak still has vivid memories of his fighter pilot days during World War II.

"Time has taken its toll. There's only a couple of us left in the squadron. But I can still recall some things that happened in World War II," said 85-year-old Hodek. "They stand out in my mind."

Born in Orlando, Hodek said his interest was planes and flying.

"It was my interest growing up as a boy," said Hodek.

He would construct planes from kits and even built some of his own scale models out of balsa wood.

Hodek enlisted in the Army in 1942 right after high school. In May of '44 he found himself in England as a replacement fighter pilot. The following month, just two days before D-Day, he received his assignment. would fly with the 412th Fighter Squadron of the 373rd Fighter Group. Hodek piloted both P-40 and P-47 Thunderbolts, he said.

He said his mother wasn't too thrilled.

"I think mother liked the uniform and the fact that before I had two feet on the ground," said Hodek. "Little do mothers know."

His job was to support ground troops and to disrupt supply lines the Germans used by bombing them.

"Barges were the main mode of transportation, so we took them out in quite a hurry," said Hodek.

"As a fighter pilot we never really witnessed any of the horrors of war," he said. However, he did shoot down a German plane.

That was Aug. 7, 1944. He said it was his 10th mission. They were to dive bomb a target in France but the Germans on the ground saw them coming.

"We got ambushed by about 30 plus Germans. They took off before we got there," he said.

That's when the German fighter plane entered his view.

"We trained for that. I shot one ME-109 down," said Hodek. "I didn't see this person as a person. I saw it as a target and it was either him or me, and I came out the best in that one."

The "rushed up mission," as Hodek called it, resulted in the loss of three of our own. Five German planes were shot down.

"I never realized I was going to engage in enemy aircraft that day," he said.

Hodek said each mission consisted of eight planes loaded with bombs. Four were strictly equipped with machine guns, eight .50-caliber machine guns to be precise, four per wing. These four were used to protect the bombers, so they could fulfill their mission, disrupting the Germans supply lines.

"We didn't realize how much destructive power we held," said Hodek.

In March of '45, Hodek said the squadron was briefed to dive bomb a railroad yard. He said there were dummy airplanes the Germans used for decoys.

"As I pulled up I could see parked under a crop of trees a bunch of airplanes that they put on the field."

He said the Germans didn't want the Allies to know they had a whole arsenal of the deadly flying machines. So they dive bombed the trains and other supplies on the ground. He said when they turned around to attack the other planes, they made their prescence known.

"That's when they really started shooting at us," Hodek said.

Hodek said they claimed 112 airplanes, either destroyed or damaged on the field.

Before Hodek left the European Theater he had 83 missions under his belt. Most were like the one in which they dive bombed the French railyard.

Hodek smiled when he spoke of dropping 1,000 pound bombs alongside roadways or trails. He said the bombs had a two to six hour fuse on them. He said after the mission, while back at their tents, he would look at his watch, and say "Well, I guess it's time for my bomb to go off ... Surprise," Hodek said with a laughin.

Before arriving in Europe, he and others in the squadron were told to not "make close of buddies so you're not affected mentally or physically by the loss of close friends."

Hodek tried to live by that standard, but he was close to one pilot. Hodek and Floyd Hodges went through flight school together. They even shared the same tent while in England. Then they were assigned together in the same squadron. After a few missions the troops were treated to a few days of rest and relaxation.

"We were in France at the time the Gooney Bird was coming in," said Hodek. The Gooney Bird, as it was affectionately known, was a Douglas C-47 used at the time to carry troops and cargo.

But Hodges had other plans.

"Floyd said he didn't want to go. He wanted to stay and get his time in and go home," said Hodek.

So Hodek went to London and enjoyed 10 days without the constant sounds of bombs or gunfire. When Hodek returned, everything had changed.

"I came back and he was gone," Hodek said.

Hodges was flying a mission when he and another allied plane crashed in midair.

"So I was convinced then, don't volunteer anything in the military. Go on R&R because you earned it," he said.

Hodges was buried in France. After the war, his mother asked Hodek to accompany her to places they had been in Europe so she could have closure. She also wanted to bring her son's body back to the States.

"But I turned down that invitation because I didn't feel comfortable with that," said Hodek. "Maybe I didn't make the right decision, I don't know."

Hodek enjoyed the civilian life for a while but remained in the reserves. In 1951 he was recalled to help in the Korean War.

"I just got settled into civilian life, got married and had two children," said Hodek.

"Our main threat to our safety was Russian air threats," said Hodek. "We didn't have much of a defense at that time."

Hodek's role in the war was to help build air defense strategies against the Russians while stationed in the states. He went to Korea in 1954 and stayed until 1955. He worked on ground control and commanded pilots.

Hodek recalled Korea as a "sad situation."

"It's not the type of war we fought in World War II," he said. "Then we had military leaders that understood war. You didn't send your troops into a war that you couldn't win."

Hodek spent the next 18 years on active duty in the Air Force.

"War is a dirty thing," said Hodek. "You can't fight it in a way that's going to be acceptable to everybody."