Yugoslav Royal Air Force

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.

Read more about Yugoslav Royal Air Force:  Aircraft - April 1941, Markings, Gallery

Famous quotes containing the words royal, air and/or force:

    When other helpers fail and comforts flee, when the senses decay and the mind moves in a narrower and narrower circle, when the grasshopper is a burden and the postman brings no letters, and even the Royal Family is no longer quite what it was, an obituary column stands fast.
    Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893–1978)

    There sighs, lamentations and loud wailings resounded through the starless air, so that at first it made me weep; strange tongues, horrible language, words of pain, tones of anger, voices loud and hoarse, and with these the sound of hands, made a tumult which is whirling through that air forever dark, as sand eddies in a whirlwind.
    Dante Alighieri (1265–1321)

    Mediocrity would always win by force of numbers, but it would win only more mediocrity.
    Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)