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:
“Because humans are not alone in exhibiting such behavior—bees stockpile royal jelly, birds feather their nests, mice shred paper—it’s possible that a pregnant woman who scrubs her house from floor to ceiling [just before her baby is born] is responding to a biological imperative . . . . Of course there are those who believe that . . . the burst of energy that propels a pregnant woman to clean her house is a perfectly natural response to their mother’s impending visit.”
—Mary Arrigo (20th century)
“The air of one’s native country is the most healthy air.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful moulder of human destiny; how can such an all-compelling force be synonymous with that poor little State and Church-begotten weed, marriage?”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)