Bulgarian
top Ace: STOYAN STOYANOV
Stoyan
Stoyanov was Bulgarian ace fighter pilot No1 in WWII with 15 victories.
Bulgaria was then unfortunately on the side of Germany and was obliged to
fight against the US and British bombers and fighter planes that flew over
Bulgarian their way to Romania to bomb the fuel storage facilities in Ploesti
and again during the return trip to Italy. Bulgarian pilots fought against odds
at times outnumbered at 20:1 against. Close to half of the Bulgarian pilots lost
their life in these uneven fights while defending towns from the bombings.
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Me-109 E-7 BAF 1942 |
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Me 109 G and 109E |
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stoyanov standing in front of his 109 |
Stoyanov who
trained in Germany on Me-109s used to surprise everyone in his skill and talent
at flying right from his early training days. Among the type of aircraft that he
shot down during the war are P-38 Lightning and Liberator Bomber aircraft.
Stoyanov got his first recognition of his fighter skill as ace No1 of the
Bulgarian AF during WWII after the communist regime finished in Bulgaria in 1989
and he was then finally raised to the rank of retired General- Major by the
first non-communist government in 1992. Some years later he passed away quietly.
There were
other heroes like D.Spissarevsky who was also nicknamed in Bulgaria as, ’Live
Torpedo’ who is known to have destroyed B-17 Flying Fortresses by ramming his
aircraft into two of them and died in the sky over Sofia.
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Me-109G undersurfaces
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Stoyanov
was trained that theoretically 4-engined bombers like the B-24 and B-17 can only
be attacked from the rear by at least a group of planes. Attacking with 1 or 2
fighters would be suicidal, as all the bombers in box formations would direct
all fire on them. On one particular occasion there were 18 bombers that were on
a raid over the city of Sofia. So he overtook the formation at a speed of 150mph
faster than them and at one point from a higher level of 3,000 ft and when ahead
of the formation he made a ‘u’ turn and attacked the leading bomber of the
formation from front and coming from the sun side so that the bombers could not
see him. Stoyanov opened fire on the bomber bearing in mind that if he succeeds
his strike this would deter any desire for them to attack the city. He pressed
the trigger and watched how the gunshots making tracers and hit the glass nose
of the heavy bomber. The B-24 returned fire, which came close to the attacking
109 but did not hit and at one point he flew just 15 feet from the bomber.
Stoyanov understood clearly that flying so close and at speed also puzzled the
defensive gunners on the bombers in case they return fire for fear that they hit
their own bomber tail. The flagman B-24 sank down and disappeared from sight.
The 109 drew fire from all sides of the accompanying bomber formations and
turned his plane towards the safety of cloud cover as he squeezed himself and
the plane through the flying bomber group with directing fire from them.
Following that he took again some breath and cooled down for a while and landed
back at Vrazhdebna airfield.
Carmel
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Bulgarian AF insignia in WWII |
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stoyanov E7 White4 the one he flew in 1943 |
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stoyanov 's Me-109G6R3
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Nota
Bene. Incidentally at one time my father did mention that during the
Ploesti raids a crippled B-17 and a B-24 did manage to reach Hal- Luqa
airfield, Malta, returning from raids over Romania and everyone on the
island was fully aware that important raids on Ploesti oil fields were
under way and the airfields on the island were fully alerted for any
incoming crippled bomber returning from the raids. Malta was in close
proximity to the operational area and in fact closer than the bomber
airbase in Italy. The fate of the bombers that landed here remained
unknown but very likely these were in such bad shapes that were probably
scrapped.
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