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Royal Yugoslav Air Force in the April 1941 War

The AF was activated as early as March 12^th 1941 in a covert mobilization. It was positioned on 50 war airfields, as stipulated in the War Plan R-41, designed by the Chief headquarters of the Yugoslav armed forces.

By the Order of the Air force Command (dated March 22^nd 1941) all units were put in the state of alert under arms. They were ready to take off, in 20 minutes time for fighters and 30 minutes for bombers, for war goals set by a highly confidential instruction No.1, issued by the Air Force Chief of Staff.

The political situation, existing after the state-military Putsch of March 27^th 1941, when by the action of freedom-liking officers the Government was thrown (the one that signed the Three-Axis pact on March 25^th with Nazi Germany and Italy), requested to put AF as a first shield of defense, because the Yugoslav Army was not yet mobilized nor prepared for the war.

On the first day of war, April 6^th 1941, the AF possessed 487 planes ready for operation, among them 144 fighter aircraft (104 of modern types) and 147 modern bombers and Naval aviation had around 70 hydroplanes, with only 37 combat capable planes. It was staffed with 50000 men. The attacking forces, engaged in the April War (6^th to 17^th of April) were 2373 aircraft strong, including  from Germany 1212 aircraft, Italy 647 and Hungary 287 aircraft. Thus the ratio, in the beginning of operations was  5:1 in favor of the enemy, and if we count only modern Yugoslav aircraft the ratio climbs to 7:1 in favor of the Axis powers.

In spite of huge logistic difficulties and acts of treason (proclamation of so-called "Independent State of Croatia" on April 10^th 1941) the Royal Yugoslav Air Force has fulfilled its duties with honor. Yugoslav airmen fought with incomparable courage against an enemy superior both technically and numerically. They fought to the last airfield and to the last airplane.

During the war operations (6^th to 15^th April) a total of 1416 take-0ffs was made, 993 of which were performed by fighters and 423 by bombers. Almost 50% of planned flights were cancelled due to bad weather.

During this short war 135 flight crew members and 576 ground personnel lost bravely their lives.

Organization

The Royal Yugoslav Air Force consited of:

• Vazduhoplovstvo Vojske - Army AF, it was a branch in the ground forces and consited of:
  1. Operativno Vazduhoplovstvo - Operational AF which controled fighters, bombers, reconnaisance, transport aircraft
  2. Armijsko Vazduhoplovstvo - Army AF with tasked with direct support of ground forces using liason and utility aircraft
  3. Pozadinsko Vazduhoplovstvo - logistic support and training aircraft

• Pomorsko Vazduhoplovstvo - Naval Aviation (subordinated to the Navy, not a part of the Air Force)

Commander: Brigadni-djeneral Borivoje Mirkovic

Service types

I made this summary based on 4 excelent publication:

• April 1941 - Vasdusne borbe nad Jugoslavijom, AERO magazin special edition, 1991
• Italijanska Avijacija u Jugoslaviji 1941-1943, Vojislav V. Mikic, Vojno istorijski institut VJ-TARGET, Beograd, 1998
• Nemacka Avijacija u Jugoslaviji 1941-1945, Vojislav V. Mikic, Vojno istorijski institut VJ-TARGET, Beograd, 1998
• Nase Nebo - April 1941, Petar B. Bosnic, Udruzenje za negovanje vazduhoplovnih tradicija i brigu o imovini vazduhoplovnih organizacija, Beograd, 1997

Last Modified: 20.02.03 12:31

© Copyright: Dragan Kostadinov