Photos: Rajlich, Lalak, Stojczew "Sojusznicy Luftwaffe",part 1, Books International
Stoyan Stoyanov (in uniform) in front of his Messerschmitt 109E. Please note the unusual yellow decoration on fuselage (see profile bottom).
As son of the late general (ret.) Stoyan Stoyanov, who is known today as the Bulgarian fighter pilot ace No 1 in the WWII, with 15 air victories, I would like to write to you some story about his life.
As an ally of Germany in the WWII, Bulgaria (very unfortunately) was obliged to fight against the other side's air-forces: --the US-British bombers(B-17, B-24) and fighter planes flying over our country to Rumania to bomb the fuel factories in Ploest and than again over our territory back to Italy. During 1943-44 there were many air battles in our sky with this enemy who outnumbered our airforces 10 to 20 times. Almost half of all Bulgarian fighter pilots, defending our towns from bombing lost their lives in this uneven fight.
My father, was trained in Germany for flying on a "Messerschmidt- 109 " plane. During that training he surprised the German trainers with his skill to fly on this new type fighter plane. He has had a great luck and survived the terrible air war over Sofia and also became the top scoring fighter pilot. Later in September, December of 1944, when our country and army joined politically the Allies, he and other Bulgarian fighter pilots fought over Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo against the German ground forces which were withdrawing back to Berlin however with fierce resistance. Some more brave pilots lost their lives in that battles.
Being a hero in 1943-44 my father remained in the Air Force of PR Bulgaria for a couple of years but he was not trusted by the new authorities and later totally ignored by them. It couldn't be else for a "Royal officer who even had the German Iron Crest! He was fired from the airforce when the Hungarian Uprising in 1956 took place and scared all communist regimes in East Europe. After his firing, he had worked for a small salary for more than 30 years and mostly in the Monastery-of Rila-national museum, far and deep in the Rila mountains, while his family lived in Sofia. His work there was to be a guide for visitors of the monastery's museum, sometimes foreigners too. Among the visitors occasionally were some WWII air-force veterans, who came just as tourists to see this beautiful site. When some of them met with him there and heard from him that he is also a veteran like them and even an ace of the WW2, they were usually very much surprised. This way he met with some famous pilots too: Franz J. Strauss - the Bavarian Politician, A. Pokrishkin - the top Soviet fighter pilot, V. Tereshkova - the Russ. astrounavt and some others. I remember also well a case when an Austrian tourist a journalist after making friendly talk with my father has later (back in Austria) published an critical article in a popular Austrian newspaper about the Bulgarian " war hero - he met living "as a monk "in a monastery. My father was of course called by our State Security agents and asked to give his explanations about the article, used as "anticommunist propaganda by the west". Now I could feel only pity imagining my father ,being interrogated by this terrifying office. It was just after communist regime finished in Bulgaria in 1989 when my father was mentioned in some newspapers as the ace No 1 of the Bulgarian air force in WWII. He was raised to the rank ret. General-mayor by the first non-communist government in 1992. Some years later he passed away quietly. He left to the history a book (WE DEFENDED YOU, SOFIA) where he describes air battles in 1943-44, written by him during the communist regime and published with a lot of censoring cuts. At that time of course the communist Government did not wanted to mention to public any war heroes who served in the Bulgarian Royal army or fought for the enemies of Soviet Russia. So heroes like D. Spissarevsky (the Bulgarian LIVE TORPEDO ), who destroyed two "flying fortresses" crashing intentional with one of them and died in the sky over Sofia -were only scarcely mentioned in the book. Following you may read a small part from the book about fighting the "flying fortresses". Please excuse my translation, which is not a very skilled one.
Somewhere up in the sky not far from Sofia (Bulgaria's capital city), I saw a group of big planes moving in the air like big fat birds, their flight direction - was the southwest. It was clear that they were returning to the base they came from, after completion of their mission. I thought: "OK, let them have a nice way back. But what if they carry some unused load and meeting no resistance here, they choose to turn their flight to the south, where Sofia city lays and to get rid of their loads?" All these questions have rapidly stroke my mind and have push away my current decision to stay in a secure watch position." Who will later forgive me for this my passive hanging in the air over the returning enemy planes and wasting some fatal seconds?" So my decision came at once and firmly: " I will immediately go in an direct attack."
I moved towards the tail of the group, deciding to start an attack from the backside to one of the rear planes from the last squadron. The distance between us has rapidly decreased. By design our Messerschmidt-109 planes' speed was better and overcome that of enemy bombers with approximately 150 mph. In this moment however I had the feeling that time is passing too slow so my nerves were tensioned up to their maximum.
"Now is the time to prepare myself for firing my guns." I set more convenient behind the aiming point and started to choose my shot target.
In this moment however I sow with surprise that contrary to our preliminary information, the big planes in front of me were not the 2 engine bombers as we knew till now but they were with 4 engines and divided tails. Undoubtedly I was facing the "Consolidated Liberator" B-24 bombers, known also as "Flying Fortresses".
Obviously their crews have also noticed our planes and started to move the bombers in such way that they could diminish the distance between themselves, taking a" multi - floor" position .So they could easily observe and shoot on us. In a couple of seconds we sow some fire traces of enemy's bullets and shots, coming to us initially from several gun places and very soon-- from all the planes of the last squadron. For first time I could watch so many lighted fire traces passing very close to me.
One of this serial shots almost touched the right wing of
my plane. Instinctively I turned slightly the plane to the left.
Holding my breath , I looked around in order to find some gap in
this fire traces' rainfall . My mind worked franticly." What
should I do?" I am trained theoretically that 4 engine
bombers can be attacked from the rear side only by at least a
group of fighter planes and not by single or by two planes
only as it was in our case , because we could be disposed to the
shooting of all
the bombers, next to the attacked one and such an attack
could be really a suicide act for us.
Thinking rapidly of all this, I started to hesitate with my decision if I should start attacking or just withdraw to a side. I felt my heart starting to beat strongly, some cold sweat has appeared on my face My wish to attack was now becoming less eager, I felt that I had not sufficient strength inside me, I haven't overcame my mind's tension so finally I decided to exit from the position of starting an attack. I took my plane out from the killing fire by turning it to a side and upwards so that I could have some possibility for cooler deliberation of the situation and my next moves. I flew up some 3000 feet's away on the right side and higher from the enemy's group, following however their direction.
And now I thought that it would be a shame if I leave the battle with only an excuse that our two planes and we two will fight against 18 bombers or against 180 men. I knew that the only correct exit left for me in this moment was to go on immediate attack with target: the flagman plane -- leader of all bombers. So I speeded up and overtook the group. The clouds around us were now a lot more than before and this was of course better for our enemies as their planes could hide easier. I turned sharply with an U -turn and with attitude equal to that of the bombers I flew straight towards the leading unit. Coming from the sun's side against the bombers they most probably could not see my plane or will not expect any such unusual for a normal tactics front attack. I continued to flew undisturbed towards them. Very quickly I came to the moment when my target had to be selected and focused in my gun's target point. I aimed the leading "fortress" right in the middle of the big group ."If I could strike it successfully", I thought, "this could stop any wish of them to attack the city of Sofia." This thought made even firmer my decision for the attack.
Some seconds are remaining before my shooting starts! The nose of the big enemy plane fills the whole gunpoint target ring -it is like a bright circle in front of me. My fingers nervously touched the triggers of my guns and my hands started to sweat. I stopped breading. The tension burns me. My attention comes to a maximum.
I press triggers and watch how my gunshots are making fire traces and sink in the glass nose of the heavy bomber. From that end comes a reverse fire. This moment is like a wonderful play: I throw fire balls to the nose of the big plane which is approaching me and the same fire balls immediately come back on me. Some of them pass very close to my plane, but still do not touch it. This play lasted for few seconds only and in some more seconds the winner will be known! The tension of my nerves is extremely high now but still I can not see any obvious damages made.It is high time now to withdraw from the attack, but "to what direction?" It is most save for me if I fly very close above or under the attacked bomber which quickly comes like a big monster on me and will crash me frontally in just some seconds . If I am late to withdraw , the crash will be unavoidable. So I decided to flew some15 feet over the bomber . Enemy's shooting can not be possible this way neither from the attacked bomber nor from the other bombers so to avoid hitting with fire their own plane. In this very last moment the conclusion of our battle came. The flagman plane sharply turned down its nose .My last continuous shooting simply cot the long and heavy body of the bomber from its nose along to the tail .The giant plane sunk down in front of me and disappeared from my sight. I used the space which the flagman left empty between the other flying bombers and turning wings vertically to a side I flew dropping down and than to a side squeezing myself through the flying bomber's group, my plane followed by a heavy fire from all sides. Than I flew again vertically down for some more seconds, ready to use my parachute immediately if I got hit. At last I turned my plane upwards again to the nearest clouds where in their safe hug I finally took again some breath and cooled down for a while.
The changing of command - since 9 September 1944 Bulgaria joined Allieds. Soviet officer in 3. Orliaku of 6. Fighter Regimment. First from left Stoyan Stoyanov, in background his Bf 109 G-2.
Bf 109 E-7 "white 4" flown by Stoyan Stoyanov in 1943.
Profile: Rajlich, Lalak, Stojczew "Sojusznicy Luftwaffe",part 1, Books International
Bf 109 G-6/R-3 of Bulgarian 6th Fighter Squadron flown by Lt. Stoyan Stoyanov, Wrazhdebna airfield, spring 1944.
Janusz Ledwoch, Messerchmitt Bf 109 G/H, Militaria 1977.
2000.12.04, © WW II Ace Stories.