Hubert Zemke - Biography and Character

Biography and Character

Born March 14, 1914 to German immigrant parents, Anna (1889-1972) and Benno Zemke (1882-1967), in Missoula, Montana, Zemke had no desire to fly; he intended to pursue a degree in forestry at Montana State University on football and boxing scholarships. He instead attended the University of Montana where he was a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity. His enshrinement at the National Aviation Hall of Fame states in part:

Growing up bilingual proved to be an asset later in life, but it was a liability in Missoula following World War I. Anti-German sentiment was still high when Zemke began grade school, and an 11-year-old bully on his block regularly terrorized him. Zemke's childhood necessity for self-defense may have influenced his enthusiasm for amateur boxing, a skill that earned him two state middleweight wins and several regional titles during high school and college. His success in the ring prompted a sports writer to dub him, “The Hub,” a name that stayed with him all his life. Zemke’s philosophy, forged in the boxing ring, and refined by the military, would help mold his successful fighter group, Zemke’s Wolfpack. He advised his men to “use your wits, size up the opposition, keep hitting him where it hurts ... and always keep the initiative.”

In 1936 Zemke's friends convinced him to try out for pilot training in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was accepted as an aviation cadet, gained his pilot's wings and commissions at Randolph Field, then attended the pursuit pilot course at Kelly Field, Texas, in 1937, becoming a P-40 pilot with the 36th Pursuit Squadron at Langley Field, Virginia.

In 1940, Zemke was sent to England as a combat observer with the Royal Air Force, studying the tactics of both the RAF and the Luftwaffe, observations that he would use later when the United States entered the war. In 1941, he was sent to the Soviet Union to instruct Russian pilots in flying lend-lease P-40 Tomahawks.