Serbian Air Force badge
Serbian Air Force pilot badge.
The Serbian Air Force was established in 1912, and the country was one of the first 15 states in the world to have an air force. In the First World War, the Serbian Air Force operated in Serbia and, later, the Salonika Front, where they fought alongside their comrades in the French Air Force. Serbian Air Force pilots wore this French-made (by 'Bizu Fix'), pilot's badge over their left breast pocket. Official regulations did not cover the wearing of this badge, but there are various photographs of Serbian pilots wearing this badge, and pilots would even sometimes wear a mixture of clothing in their missions that weren't official, regulation wear. The Serbian Air Force performed the first medevac (medical evacuation) operations in aviation history in November 1915 when they took wounded soldiers from Serbia to Corfu by air for medical treatment. The Serbian Air Force flew several thousand air sorties at this time and, it wasn't just the air that enemy pilots would have to watch out for, as the first ever shooting-down of an airplane in history by ground-based anti-aircraft (AA) fire was performed by the Serbian Army on 30 September 1915, with a dedicated AA unit which was part of an artillery regiment, over Kragujevac, Serbia. Today, the event is commemorated by the Serbian Army as the Day of Air Defense Artillery Units.
CONTRIBUTOR
Špiro Vranješ
DATE
-
LANGUAGE
eng
ITEMS
3
INSTITUTION
Europeana 1914-1918
PROGRESS
METADATA
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