Page 15
Info Eduard - October 2010
Page 15
HISTORY
Info Eduard - říjen 2010
Strana 11
HISTORIE
After the war, Novák served
with the Czechoslovak air
force, and among others,
he demonstrated the only
Czechoslovak Fokker D.VII
(MÁG) at airshow aerobatic
displays. From August,
1921, he was employed as
factory pilot with Aero. In 1930,
he crashed flying an Aero A-34,
and although he survived, the severe injuries he sustained
were a factor in his untimely death in January, 1934.
Eugen Bönsch
Eugen Bönsch came from an Velká Úpa in Krkonoše
mountains (Bohemia), where he was born in 1897 to
a German family of Vinzenz and Anna Bönsch as a
second youngest of seventeen children. Extended family
of Bönsch had lived in this area for over 300 years, and
wereamong founding members of the community. They
also owned several moutain hotels and resorts. After
completeing engineering studies in 1915, Eugen Bönsch
volunteered for the army. He served in Infanterie Regiment
4. Shortly thereafter, he requested, and was granted,
transfer to the air force, and served as a mechanic. After
graduating from pilot training, he was assigned to Flik
51/J in August, 1917. Through the course of September,
he had already accumulated three kills. He gradually
added to his tally, and by the beginning of October, 1918,
he totaled 11 kills. At that time, the state of the Austro-
Hungarian monarchy was catastrophic, and it fell apart.
The same happened to its army. Separate units within
began to display non-compliance and morale and results
quickly fell to zero. But some of them stood fighting.
Among them was Flik 51/J,
which through October
gained nine victories.
Bönsch was involved
in five of these, and
he downed his last
Fokker D.VII (MÁG) 3867,
Josef Novák, Czechoslovakia, 1920
kill on October 29th. A few days later, the war came to an
end, as did the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
After the war, Eugen Bönsch, as a Sudeten German
attempted unsuccessfully to aid in separatist elements in
the predominantly German border regions of the newly
formed Czechoslovakia, serving as courier pilot between
Vienna and Trutnov. After the situation quieted down, he
returned to his native community, and here he co-owned
and managed a mountain resort, ‘Luční Bouda’ on a ridge
below the tallest Czech mountain, Snezka. Here, he also
enthusiastically flew his two gliders with some flights
loging even for several flight hours. After the Second
World War, in which he served in a Luftwaffe uniform as
CO of an airfield in Silesia, he decided to not return home,
and died in 1951 of cancer in a mountain hotel managed
by his brother in Ehrwald in Tirol.
Eugen Bonsch flew 153.140 from March to June 1918,
and gained five victories with it.
Albatros D.III (Oef), 153.140,
flown by Eugen Bonsch, Flik
51/J, Ghirano, Spring, 1918
Hotel Lucni Bouda at the time that
it was managed by Eugen Bonsch.
Buy Fokker D.VII (MÁG)
Book accommodation on Luční bouda