Yugoslav Royal Air Force
Encyclopedia
The Yugoslav Royal Air Force was formed in 1918 in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia
in 1929) and existed until Yugoslavia's surrender to the Axis powers
in 1941 following the Invasion of Yugoslavia
during World War II
.
Some 18 aircraft and several hundred aircrew escaped the Axis invasion of April 1941 to the Allied base in Egypt, eventually flying with the Royal Air Force
in the Northern Africa initially and then with the Balkan Air Force
in Italy and Yugoslavia, with some even going on to join the Soviet Air Force
, returning to Yugoslavia in 1944.
Germany distributed captured Yugoslav Royal Air Force aircraft and spare-parts to Romania, Bulgaria, Finland and the newly created Independent State of Croatia
.
of 1912 to 1913). The Serbian Air Service survived occupation by Austria-Hungary
by being based in exile in neutral Greece
during World War I
where its pilots served and trained with the help of the French Air Force
. In 1918, Serbia lead the creation of a united Yugoslavian state togeather with former Austria-Hungary terriroties in the Balkans. then called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
began to modernize its air force and established contracts within the country and abroad which contributed to their large variety of aircraft in service at the time of World War II
. In 1923, the government consolidated the bureaucracy for the air force by joining the Aviation Command with the Ministry of War and Marine.
Little is known of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force and its brief fight with the German Luftwaffe
and the Italian Air Force in April 1941.
By 1941 the JKRV had on its strength over 150 modern fighters, made up of 61 Messerschmitt Bf 109
Es (out of 73 delivered), 44 Hawker Hurricane
Is and 30 Hawker Fury IIs, as well as 10 Ikarus IK 2
s and 11 Rogozarski IK-3
s, both locally designed and built.
Its bomber force of 175 aircraft comprised 70 Dornier Do 17
Ks, 60 Bristol Blenheim
Is (both being license manufactured in Yugoslavia by the State Aircraft Factory, 50+ Dorniers and Ikarus, 40+ Blenheims, respectively) and 45 Savoia-Marchetti SM.79
s.
Maritime patrol and strike had on hand a dozen each of the Do-22K and locally designed and built SIM XIV-H floatplanes.
The situation whereby the Kingdom of Yugoslavia had to acquire or manufacture aircraft from whatever source presented itself meant that by 1941, the JKRV was rather uniquely equipped with 11 different types of operational aircraft, 14 different types of trainers and five types of auxiliary aircraft, with 22 different engine models, four different machine guns and two types of aircraft cannon.
The Yugoslav manufactured Dornier Do-17K, for example, was a German aircraft with French 1000 hp Gnome-Rhone engines, Belgian armament from Fabrique Nationale, Czech photo-recon equipment and locally produced Yugoslav instrumentation.
During 1938, The Yugoslav government purchased 12 Hurricane Is for the Royal Yugoslav Air Force and followed this up with an order for another 12 together with a manufacturing licence to allow production of the fighter at the Rogozarski (orders for 60) and Zmaj (orders for 40) factories. These plants, together with the Ikarus concern, had been designing and manufacturing sporting and training aircraft since the 1920s. Production was expected to reach eight per month from each assembly line by mid-1941. In the event, by the time of the German onslaught of April 1941, which put an end to further production, Zmaj had delivered 20 Hurricanes but Rogorzarski had delivered none.
The local design team working on improved versions of the IK-3 fighter had originally planned to power later IK-3s with new 1,100 h.p. Hispano-Suiza 12Y-51 engine. The German occupation of France had frustrated this plan, and British or German engines were considered. The Air Ministry favoured the DB 601 A, and as part of IK-3 development program, a Daimler-Benz engine was installed experimentally in a Hurricane airframe in 1940.
Engineers Ilic and Sivcev at the Ikarus plant Zemun, outside Belgrade, made the conversion by the fitting of new engine bearers, cowlings and cooling system manufactured at the Ikarus factory. The one Hurricane fitted with a DB601A engine for comparison with the Merlin-engined version was tested early in 1941. It was given the designation "LVT-1".
The conversion was extremely successful, and experimental aircraft displayed better take-off performance and climb rate than either the standard Hurricane or the Bf 109 E-3 and was only slightly slower than the latter. JKRV pilots who flew the Hurricane conversion considered it to be superior to the standard model.
At the same time, a 1,030 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin III was installed in one of the IK-3 airframes, but this machine had only just been completed at the time of the German attack, and as enemy forces neared Belgrade it was destroyed by the factory workers, together with four other IK-3s undergoing overhaul or modification and a further 25 on the production line.
Britain
supplied significant military aid to the JKRV, to strengthen its forces against the increasing German threat. In early March 1941, the German Luftwaffe
forces started arriving in neighboring Bulgaria
. On March 12, 1941
, JKRV units began to deploy to their wartime airfields. The overthrow of the pro-German government in Belgrade
on March 27 brought an end to hopes of a settlement with Germany
. On April 6, 1941, Luftwaffe units in Bulgaria
and Romania
attacked Yugoslavia
in what was known as the Bombing of Belgrade
. Equipped with a combination of obsolete equipment and new aircraft still being introduced into service, the JKRV was forced to defend the country's long borders against multiple attacks from many directions. The dubious loyalty of some military personnel did not help matters. Yugoslav
fighter aircraft and anti-aircraft artillery brought down about 90-100 enemy aircraft, but defending forces were unable to make any significant impact on the enemy advance. During the attack German aircrafts on Niš
Airport Medoševac, 6 April around 08:00, the fire from the ground shot down plane of German fighter ace Herbert Ihlefeld
. Captain Ilefeld, who was credited with over forty air victories, was shot down by Corporal Vlasta Belić, firing a machine gun Darne, caliber 7.69 mm taken down from a Yugoslav Breguet 19
. Having received a shot in the nose of oil cooler, Me -109 engine stopped and the pilot was forced to leave the plane. He rescue himself with parachute about 35 miles southeast of Nis. German ace was captured by Serbian peasants who handed him over to the gendarmesOn April 17, 1941 the Yugoslav government surrendered. Several JKRV aircraft escaped to Egypt
via the Kingdom of Greece
, and the crews then served with the British Royal Air Force
(RAF).
By the outbreak of the Second World War, Yugoslavia had a substantial air force with their own aircraft, aircraft from Allied countries like Britain and aircraft from Axis countries like Germany and Italy. In 1940, Britain attempted to bring Yugoslavia to the Allied side by supplying military aide to the Yugoslav Royal Air Force, including new Hawker Hurricane
fighter aircraft. However Germany sold a large number of Messerschmitt Bf 109
fighters to Yugoslavia and in early 1941, and German dismay towards a Balkans campaign convinced Yugoslavia to join the Axis forces.
Although Yugoslavia joined the Axis powers, Fascist Italy demanded that their ally Nazi Germany
invade Yugoslavia in order to reach Greece and help their disastrous campaign there and in the process break up Yugoslavia since Italians were laying claim on certain territories (mostly Dalmatia
). The German Luftwaffe then began to mass at the borders of Yugoslavia from allied Axis nations. The JKRV was forced to stretch out to defend Yugoslavia from an apparent invasion and imminent air war. http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/waf/yugo/jkrv/yugo-af1-home.htm
Following the Belgrade Coup on March 25, 1941, the Yugoslav armed forces were put on alert, although the army was not fully mobilized for fear of provoking Hitler – to no avail. The JKRV command decided to disperse its forces away from their main bases to a system of auxiliary airfields that had previously been prepared. However many of these airfields lacked facilities and had inadequate drainage which prevented the continued operation of all but the very lightest aircraft in the adverse weather conditions encountered in April 1941.
Despite having aircraft superior to that owned by some of the previously German-occupied eastern European nations like Poland or Czechoslovakia, the Yugoslav Royal Air Force could not match the numbers of the German Luftwaffe and could not defend all of Yugoslavia resulting in the devastating Luftwaffe bombings of Belgrade. Yugoslavia capitulated eleven days after the Axis invasion.
Yugoslavia immediately fell apart and the Royal Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland (Kraljevska Jugoslovenska Vojska u Otadzbini), the first anti-fascist resistance movement in Europe, and the Axis forces, including the Independent State of Croatia
, would continue a struggle over that territory that lasted until the middle of May 1945. Tito's communist Partisans only joined in in June, Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
The bomber eskadrilla (the equivalent of 22 squadrons) and maritime air force hit targets in Italy, Germany (Austria), Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece, as well as attacking German, Italian and Hungarian troops. Meanwhile the fighter eskadrilla (the equivalent of 19 squadrons) inflicted not insignificant losses on escorted Luftwaffe bomber raids on Belgrade and Serbia, as well as upon Regia Aeronautica raids on Dalmatia and Herzegovina, whilst also providing air support to the hard pressed Yugoslav Army by strafing attacking troop columns in Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Serbia (sometimes taking off and strafing the troops attacking the very base being evacuated).
Little wonder then that after a combination of air combat losses, losses on the ground to enemy air attack on bases and the overrunning of airfields by enemy troops that after 11 days the JKRV almost ceased to exist. It must, however, be noted that between 6 and 17 April 1941 the JKRV received an additional 8 Hawker Hurricane
Is, 6 Dornier Do-17Ks, 4 Bristol Blenheim
Is, 2 Ikarus IK 2
s, 1 Rogozarski IK-3
and 1 Messerschmitt Bf 109
from the aircraft factories and work-shops.
Some 70 or so operational and training aircraft succeeded in escaping to Greece and 4 to Russia (8 Do-17Ks
and SM-79Ks
set out, but half were lost due to poor weather conditions, mountainous terrain and/or overloading). But further tragedy was to befall even these escapees with some 44 destroyed on the ground at the airfield of Paramitia in Greece by marauding German and Italian fighters. In the end only 3 Lockheed 10s
, 2 Do-17Ks
, 4 SM-79Ks
, 8 Do-22K
floatplanes and 1 SIM XIVH
floatplane reached the Allied base of Egypt in May 1941.
The Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia
came into existence in July 1941 with over 200 captured aircraft. Yugoslav Partisans were themselves able to form an air force in 1943 from captured aircraft from the Croatian Air Force.
! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|Quantity
! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|Role
! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|Origin
|-----
|Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3a||61||Fighter||
Nazi Germany
|-----
|Hawker Hurricane Mk.I
||44||Fighter||
|-----
|Hawker Fury Mk.II
||30||Fighter||
|-----
|Avia BH-33
||5||Fighter trainer||
|-----
|Ikarus IK-2||10||Fighter||
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
|-----
|Rogozarski IK-3
||11||Fighter|| Kingdom of Yugoslavia
|-----
|Potez 63||2||Fighter||
|-----
|Dornier Do 17 K
||70||Bomber|| Nazi Germany
|-----
|Bristol Blenheim Mk.I
||47||Bomber||
|-----
|Bristol Blenheim Mk.I
||11||Reconnaissance||
|-----
|Savoia Marchetti SM-79||40||Bomber||
Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)
|-----
|Caproni Ca.310
||12||Trainer/Utility|| Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)
|-----
|Messerschmitt Bf 108
||13||Trainer/Utility|| Nazi Germany
|-----
|Breguet 19
||120||Reconnaissance/Utility||
|-----
|Potez 25
||120||Reconnaissance/Utility||
|-----
|Fieseler Fi 156
||10||Utility|| Nazi Germany
|-----
|Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann||60||Trainer|| Nazi Germany
|-----
|Dornier Do 16 Wal seaplane||10||Maritime Reconnaissance/Decoy|| Nazi Germany
|-----
|Dornier Do 22
float-plane||12||Maritime Reconnaissance/Bomber|| Nazi Germany
|-----
|Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H
float-plane||15||Maritime Reconnaissance|| Kingdom of Yugoslavia
|-----
|Rogozarski SIM-XII-H float-plane||12||Training|| Kingdom of Yugoslavia
|-----
|Rogozarski SIM-Х
||21||Training|| Kingdom of Yugoslavia
|-----
|Rogozarski PVT
||64||Training|| Kingdom of Yugoslavia
|-----
|Rogozarski R-100
||25||Fighter Trainer|| Kingdom of Yugoslavia
|-----
|Zmaj Fizir FN
||20||Trainer|| Kingdom of Yugoslavia
|-----
|Zmaj Fizir FP-2
||23||Trainer/Utility|| Kingdom of Yugoslavia
|-----
|Avia-Fokker AF.39 ||2||Transport/Utility||
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
in 1929) and existed until Yugoslavia's surrender to the Axis powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
in 1941 following the Invasion of Yugoslavia
Invasion of Yugoslavia
The Invasion of Yugoslavia , also known as the April War , was the Axis Powers' attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Some 18 aircraft and several hundred aircrew escaped the Axis invasion of April 1941 to the Allied base in Egypt, eventually flying with the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
in the Northern Africa initially and then with the Balkan Air Force
Balkan Air Force
The Balkan Air Force was a late-World War II Allied air formation.-History:The formation was based at Bari in Italy, and activated on 7 June 1944 from AHQ 'G' Force to simplify command arrangements for the air support of Special Operations Executive-operations in the Balkans, i.e. across the...
in Italy and Yugoslavia, with some even going on to join the Soviet Air Force
Soviet Air Force
The Soviet Air Force, officially known in Russian as Военно-воздушные силы or Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily and often abbreviated VVS was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces...
, returning to Yugoslavia in 1944.
Germany distributed captured Yugoslav Royal Air Force aircraft and spare-parts to Romania, Bulgaria, Finland and the newly created Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
.
Creation
The Yugoslav Royal Air Force was established on the basis of Serbian Military Air Service, one of the earliest air forces in existence and one of the first to engage in battle (during the Balkan WarsBalkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
of 1912 to 1913). The Serbian Air Service survived occupation by Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
by being based in exile in neutral Greece
Kingdom of Greece
The Kingdom of Greece was a state established in 1832 in the Convention of London by the Great Powers...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
where its pilots served and trained with the help of the French Air Force
French Air Force
The French Air Force , literally Army of the Air) is the air force of the French Armed Forces. It was formed in 1909 as the Service Aéronautique, a service arm of the French Army, then was made an independent military arm in 1933...
. In 1918, Serbia lead the creation of a united Yugoslavian state togeather with former Austria-Hungary terriroties in the Balkans. then called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
Consolidation and modernization
In 1923, the government of the Kingdom of YugoslaviaKingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
began to modernize its air force and established contracts within the country and abroad which contributed to their large variety of aircraft in service at the time of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1923, the government consolidated the bureaucracy for the air force by joining the Aviation Command with the Ministry of War and Marine.
Little is known of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force and its brief fight with the German Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
and the Italian Air Force in April 1941.
By 1941 the JKRV had on its strength over 150 modern fighters, made up of 61 Messerschmitt Bf 109
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...
Es (out of 73 delivered), 44 Hawker Hurricane
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force...
Is and 30 Hawker Fury IIs, as well as 10 Ikarus IK 2
Ikarus IK 2
-Bibliography:* Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War, Volume Four: Fighters. London: MacDonald & Co. Ltd., 1961 . ISBN 0-356-01448-7....
s and 11 Rogozarski IK-3
Rogozarski IK-3
-References:NotesBibliography* Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War, Volume Four: Fighters. London: MacDonald & Co. Ltd., 1961 . ISBN 0-356-01448-7....
s, both locally designed and built.
Its bomber force of 175 aircraft comprised 70 Dornier Do 17
Dornier Do 17
The Dornier Do 17, sometimes referred to as the Fliegender Bleistift , was a World War II German light bomber produced by Claudius Dornier's company, Dornier Flugzeugwerke...
Ks, 60 Bristol Blenheim
Bristol Blenheim
The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
Is (both being license manufactured in Yugoslavia by the State Aircraft Factory, 50+ Dorniers and Ikarus, 40+ Blenheims, respectively) and 45 Savoia-Marchetti SM.79
Savoia-Marchetti SM.79
The Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero was a three-engined Italian medium bomber with a wood and metal structure. Originally designed as a fast passenger aircraft, this low-wing monoplane, in the years 1937–39, set 26 world records that qualified it for some time as the fastest medium bomber in the...
s.
Maritime patrol and strike had on hand a dozen each of the Do-22K and locally designed and built SIM XIV-H floatplanes.
The situation whereby the Kingdom of Yugoslavia had to acquire or manufacture aircraft from whatever source presented itself meant that by 1941, the JKRV was rather uniquely equipped with 11 different types of operational aircraft, 14 different types of trainers and five types of auxiliary aircraft, with 22 different engine models, four different machine guns and two types of aircraft cannon.
The Yugoslav manufactured Dornier Do-17K, for example, was a German aircraft with French 1000 hp Gnome-Rhone engines, Belgian armament from Fabrique Nationale, Czech photo-recon equipment and locally produced Yugoslav instrumentation.
During 1938, The Yugoslav government purchased 12 Hurricane Is for the Royal Yugoslav Air Force and followed this up with an order for another 12 together with a manufacturing licence to allow production of the fighter at the Rogozarski (orders for 60) and Zmaj (orders for 40) factories. These plants, together with the Ikarus concern, had been designing and manufacturing sporting and training aircraft since the 1920s. Production was expected to reach eight per month from each assembly line by mid-1941. In the event, by the time of the German onslaught of April 1941, which put an end to further production, Zmaj had delivered 20 Hurricanes but Rogorzarski had delivered none.
The local design team working on improved versions of the IK-3 fighter had originally planned to power later IK-3s with new 1,100 h.p. Hispano-Suiza 12Y-51 engine. The German occupation of France had frustrated this plan, and British or German engines were considered. The Air Ministry favoured the DB 601 A, and as part of IK-3 development program, a Daimler-Benz engine was installed experimentally in a Hurricane airframe in 1940.
The conversion was extremely successful, and experimental aircraft displayed better take-off performance and climb rate than either the standard Hurricane or the Bf 109 E-3 and was only slightly slower than the latter. JKRV pilots who flew the Hurricane conversion considered it to be superior to the standard model.
At the same time, a 1,030 h.p. Rolls-Royce Merlin III was installed in one of the IK-3 airframes, but this machine had only just been completed at the time of the German attack, and as enemy forces neared Belgrade it was destroyed by the factory workers, together with four other IK-3s undergoing overhaul or modification and a further 25 on the production line.
World War II
During 19401940 in aviation
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1940:- Events :* The worlds first high-performance, purpose-built night fighter, the British Bristol Beaufighter, enters combat.* The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation absorbs the Hall Aluminum Aircraft Corporation....
Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
supplied significant military aid to the JKRV, to strengthen its forces against the increasing German threat. In early March 1941, the German Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
forces started arriving in neighboring Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
. On March 12, 1941
1941 in aviation
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1941:- Events :* Jackie Cochran became the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean.* During the spring and summer, the Imperial Japanese Navys air arm conducts Operation 102, its second major bombing campaign against Chungking.* By early...
, JKRV units began to deploy to their wartime airfields. The overthrow of the pro-German government in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
on March 27 brought an end to hopes of a settlement with Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. On April 6, 1941, Luftwaffe units in Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
attacked Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
in what was known as the Bombing of Belgrade
Bombing of Belgrade in World War II
The city of Belgrade was bombed during two campaigns in World War II, the first undertaken by the Luftwaffe in 1941, and the latter by Allied air forces in 1944.- German bombing :...
. Equipped with a combination of obsolete equipment and new aircraft still being introduced into service, the JKRV was forced to defend the country's long borders against multiple attacks from many directions. The dubious loyalty of some military personnel did not help matters. Yugoslav
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
fighter aircraft and anti-aircraft artillery brought down about 90-100 enemy aircraft, but defending forces were unable to make any significant impact on the enemy advance. During the attack German aircrafts on Niš
Niš
Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...
Airport Medoševac, 6 April around 08:00, the fire from the ground shot down plane of German fighter ace Herbert Ihlefeld
Herbert Ihlefeld
Herbert Ihlefeld was a German World War II fighter ace who served in the Luftwaffe from 1936 until the very end of World War II in May 1945. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...
. Captain Ilefeld, who was credited with over forty air victories, was shot down by Corporal Vlasta Belić, firing a machine gun Darne, caliber 7.69 mm taken down from a Yugoslav Breguet 19
Breguet 19
The Breguet 19 was a light bomber and reconnaissance plane, also used for long-distance flights, designed by the French Breguet company and produced from 1924.-Development:...
. Having received a shot in the nose of oil cooler, Me -109 engine stopped and the pilot was forced to leave the plane. He rescue himself with parachute about 35 miles southeast of Nis. German ace was captured by Serbian peasants who handed him over to the gendarmesOn April 17, 1941 the Yugoslav government surrendered. Several JKRV aircraft escaped to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
via the Kingdom of Greece
Kingdom of Greece
The Kingdom of Greece was a state established in 1832 in the Convention of London by the Great Powers...
, and the crews then served with the British Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
(RAF).
By the outbreak of the Second World War, Yugoslavia had a substantial air force with their own aircraft, aircraft from Allied countries like Britain and aircraft from Axis countries like Germany and Italy. In 1940, Britain attempted to bring Yugoslavia to the Allied side by supplying military aide to the Yugoslav Royal Air Force, including new Hawker Hurricane
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force...
fighter aircraft. However Germany sold a large number of Messerschmitt Bf 109
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...
fighters to Yugoslavia and in early 1941, and German dismay towards a Balkans campaign convinced Yugoslavia to join the Axis forces.
Although Yugoslavia joined the Axis powers, Fascist Italy demanded that their ally Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
invade Yugoslavia in order to reach Greece and help their disastrous campaign there and in the process break up Yugoslavia since Italians were laying claim on certain territories (mostly Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
). The German Luftwaffe then began to mass at the borders of Yugoslavia from allied Axis nations. The JKRV was forced to stretch out to defend Yugoslavia from an apparent invasion and imminent air war. http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/waf/yugo/jkrv/yugo-af1-home.htm
Following the Belgrade Coup on March 25, 1941, the Yugoslav armed forces were put on alert, although the army was not fully mobilized for fear of provoking Hitler – to no avail. The JKRV command decided to disperse its forces away from their main bases to a system of auxiliary airfields that had previously been prepared. However many of these airfields lacked facilities and had inadequate drainage which prevented the continued operation of all but the very lightest aircraft in the adverse weather conditions encountered in April 1941.
Despite having aircraft superior to that owned by some of the previously German-occupied eastern European nations like Poland or Czechoslovakia, the Yugoslav Royal Air Force could not match the numbers of the German Luftwaffe and could not defend all of Yugoslavia resulting in the devastating Luftwaffe bombings of Belgrade. Yugoslavia capitulated eleven days after the Axis invasion.
Yugoslavia immediately fell apart and the Royal Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland (Kraljevska Jugoslovenska Vojska u Otadzbini), the first anti-fascist resistance movement in Europe, and the Axis forces, including the Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
, would continue a struggle over that territory that lasted until the middle of May 1945. Tito's communist Partisans only joined in in June, Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
The bomber eskadrilla (the equivalent of 22 squadrons) and maritime air force hit targets in Italy, Germany (Austria), Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece, as well as attacking German, Italian and Hungarian troops. Meanwhile the fighter eskadrilla (the equivalent of 19 squadrons) inflicted not insignificant losses on escorted Luftwaffe bomber raids on Belgrade and Serbia, as well as upon Regia Aeronautica raids on Dalmatia and Herzegovina, whilst also providing air support to the hard pressed Yugoslav Army by strafing attacking troop columns in Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Serbia (sometimes taking off and strafing the troops attacking the very base being evacuated).
Little wonder then that after a combination of air combat losses, losses on the ground to enemy air attack on bases and the overrunning of airfields by enemy troops that after 11 days the JKRV almost ceased to exist. It must, however, be noted that between 6 and 17 April 1941 the JKRV received an additional 8 Hawker Hurricane
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force...
Is, 6 Dornier Do-17Ks, 4 Bristol Blenheim
Bristol Blenheim
The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
Is, 2 Ikarus IK 2
Ikarus IK 2
-Bibliography:* Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War, Volume Four: Fighters. London: MacDonald & Co. Ltd., 1961 . ISBN 0-356-01448-7....
s, 1 Rogozarski IK-3
Rogozarski IK-3
-References:NotesBibliography* Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War, Volume Four: Fighters. London: MacDonald & Co. Ltd., 1961 . ISBN 0-356-01448-7....
and 1 Messerschmitt Bf 109
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...
from the aircraft factories and work-shops.
Some 70 or so operational and training aircraft succeeded in escaping to Greece and 4 to Russia (8 Do-17Ks
Dornier Do 17
The Dornier Do 17, sometimes referred to as the Fliegender Bleistift , was a World War II German light bomber produced by Claudius Dornier's company, Dornier Flugzeugwerke...
and SM-79Ks
Savoia-Marchetti SM.79
The Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero was a three-engined Italian medium bomber with a wood and metal structure. Originally designed as a fast passenger aircraft, this low-wing monoplane, in the years 1937–39, set 26 world records that qualified it for some time as the fastest medium bomber in the...
set out, but half were lost due to poor weather conditions, mountainous terrain and/or overloading). But further tragedy was to befall even these escapees with some 44 destroyed on the ground at the airfield of Paramitia in Greece by marauding German and Italian fighters. In the end only 3 Lockheed 10s
Lockheed Electra
Lockheed Electra refers to two distinct aircraft designs:* Lockheed Model 10 Electra, a ten-passenger piston engine aircraft of the 1930s, which had two immediate variants:...
, 2 Do-17Ks
Dornier Do 17
The Dornier Do 17, sometimes referred to as the Fliegender Bleistift , was a World War II German light bomber produced by Claudius Dornier's company, Dornier Flugzeugwerke...
, 4 SM-79Ks
Savoia-Marchetti SM.79
The Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero was a three-engined Italian medium bomber with a wood and metal structure. Originally designed as a fast passenger aircraft, this low-wing monoplane, in the years 1937–39, set 26 world records that qualified it for some time as the fastest medium bomber in the...
, 8 Do-22K
Dornier Do 22
|-See also:-References:*Donald, David The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. Leicester,UK:Blitz Editions. ISBN 1-85605-375-X.*Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War: Volume Six Floatplanes. London:Macdonald, 1962....
floatplanes and 1 SIM XIVH
Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H
The Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H was a 1930s Yugoslav coastal reconnaissance floatplane and light bomber, twin-engined, with three crew members. It was designed and built at the Rogožarski factory in Belgrade.-Design and development:...
floatplane reached the Allied base of Egypt in May 1941.
The Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia
Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia
The Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia, the Zrakoplovstvo Nezavisne Države Hrvatske was the national air force of the Independent State of Croatia during World War II, founded under German authority in April 1941...
came into existence in July 1941 with over 200 captured aircraft. Yugoslav Partisans were themselves able to form an air force in 1943 from captured aircraft from the Croatian Air Force.
Aircraft - April 1941
! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|Aircraft! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|Quantity
! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|Role
! style="text-align: left; background: #aacccc;"|Origin
|-----
|Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3a||61||Fighter||
Nazi Germany|-----
|Hawker Hurricane Mk.I
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force...
||44||Fighter||
|-----
|Hawker Fury Mk.II
Hawker Fury
The Hawker Fury was a British biplane fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force in the 1930s. It was originally named the Hornet and was the counterpart to the Hawker Hart light bomber.-Design and development:...
||30||Fighter||
|-----
|Avia BH-33
Avia BH-33
|-See also:-References:* Belcarz, Bartłomiej . Avia BH-33 , PWS-10, PZL P.7a, Polskie Skrzydła #3. Sandomierz: Wydawnictwo Stratus, ISBN 83-89450-36-4 .* Němeček, Vaclav . Československá letadla. Praha: Naše Vojsko.*...
||5||Fighter trainer||
|-----
|Ikarus IK-2||10||Fighter||
Kingdom of Yugoslavia|-----
|Rogozarski IK-3
Rogozarski IK-3
-References:NotesBibliography* Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War, Volume Four: Fighters. London: MacDonald & Co. Ltd., 1961 . ISBN 0-356-01448-7....
||11||Fighter||
Kingdom of Yugoslavia|-----
|Potez 63||2||Fighter||
|-----
|Dornier Do 17 K
Dornier Do 17
The Dornier Do 17, sometimes referred to as the Fliegender Bleistift , was a World War II German light bomber produced by Claudius Dornier's company, Dornier Flugzeugwerke...
||70||Bomber||
Nazi Germany|-----
|Bristol Blenheim Mk.I
Bristol Blenheim
The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
||47||Bomber||
|-----
|Bristol Blenheim Mk.I
Bristol Blenheim
The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
||11||Reconnaissance||
|-----
|Savoia Marchetti SM-79||40||Bomber||
Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|-----
|Caproni Ca.310
Caproni Ca.310
|-See also:-Bibliography:* Bishop, Chris. The Complete Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II. London: Brown Books, 1998. ISBN 1-897884-36-2....
||12||Trainer/Utility||
Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|-----
|Messerschmitt Bf 108
Messerschmitt Bf 108
-Popular culture:Bf 108s and postwar Nord 1000s, played the role of Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters in war movies, including The Longest Day, 633 Squadron, Von Ryan's Express and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.-See also:-References:Notes...
||13||Trainer/Utility||
Nazi Germany|-----
|Breguet 19
Breguet 19
The Breguet 19 was a light bomber and reconnaissance plane, also used for long-distance flights, designed by the French Breguet company and produced from 1924.-Development:...
||120||Reconnaissance/Utility||
|-----
|Potez 25
Potez 25
|-See also:*Aerial operations in the Chaco War-References:Heinonen, Timo Heinonen: Thulinista Hornetiin, Keski-Suomen ilmailumuseon julkaisuja 3, 1992. ISBN 951-95688-2-4.-External links:* *...
||120||Reconnaissance/Utility||
|-----
|Fieseler Fi 156
Fieseler Fi 156
The Fieseler Fi 156 Storch was a small German liaison aircraft built by Fieseler before and during World War II, and production continued in other countries into the 1950s for the private market...
||10||Utility||
Nazi Germany|-----
|Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann||60||Trainer||
Nazi Germany|-----
|Dornier Do 16 Wal seaplane||10||Maritime Reconnaissance/Decoy||
Nazi Germany|-----
|Dornier Do 22
Dornier Do 22
|-See also:-References:*Donald, David The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. Leicester,UK:Blitz Editions. ISBN 1-85605-375-X.*Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War: Volume Six Floatplanes. London:Macdonald, 1962....
float-plane||12||Maritime Reconnaissance/Bomber||
Nazi Germany|-----
|Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H
Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H
The Rogozarski SIM-XIV-H was a 1930s Yugoslav coastal reconnaissance floatplane and light bomber, twin-engined, with three crew members. It was designed and built at the Rogožarski factory in Belgrade.-Design and development:...
float-plane||15||Maritime Reconnaissance||
Kingdom of Yugoslavia|-----
|Rogozarski SIM-XII-H float-plane||12||Training||
Kingdom of Yugoslavia|-----
|Rogozarski SIM-Х
Rogozarski SIM-Х
The Rogozarski SIM-X was a 1936s Yugoslav Sports and tourist plane and the plane for the basic training of military pilots, one-engined, with two crew members. It was designed and built at the Rogožarski factory in Belgrade.-Design and development:...
||21||Training||
Kingdom of Yugoslavia|-----
|Rogozarski PVT
Rogozarski PVT
The Rogozarski PVT was a single-engined, two-seat parasol winged aircraft designed as an advanced and fighter trainer in Yugoslavia before World War II. Over 60 were built, serving with the Yugoslav Royal Air Force until the fall of Yugoslavia in 1941...
||64||Training||
Kingdom of Yugoslavia|-----
|Rogozarski R-100
Rogozarski R-100
The Rogozarski R-100 was a single-engined, single-seat parasol winged aircraft designed as an advanced and fighter trainer in Yugoslavia before World War II. Over 25 were built, serving with the Yugoslav Royal Air Force until the fall of Yugoslavia in 1941...
||25||Fighter Trainer||
Kingdom of Yugoslavia|-----
|Zmaj Fizir FN
Zmaj Fizir FN
The Fizir FN was a plane designed crates school primary training of pilots in Yugoslavia before World War II...
||20||Trainer||
Kingdom of Yugoslavia|-----
|Zmaj Fizir FP-2
Zmaj Fizir FP-2
Aircraft Zmaj Fizir FP-2 was a Yugoslav single-engine, two-seater biplane. It was designed by R. Fizir and D. Stankov built at the Factory "Zmaj" in Zemun in 1936.-Design and development:...
||23||Trainer/Utility||
Kingdom of Yugoslavia|-----
|Avia-Fokker AF.39 ||2||Transport/Utility||