The Forgotten Ace

On the 80^th anniversary of Aeroput, Jat Airways has launched an initiative to name a Belgrade street after Tadija R. Sondermajer, a man whose name stands tall in Serbian and Yugoslav aviation.

By Jovo Simišić
Photo Courtesy of Museum of Aviation in Belgrade

He is also known for a rare feat: he flew a Potez-25 plane from Paris to Bombay, India, and back to Belgrade, beginning on April 20-May 2, 1927.

From the opening of the Aeroklub premises on January 20, 1935

He received the highest, Serbian, Yugoslav and French decorations: the Karadjordje Star with Swords, the Golden and Silver Medals for Courage, the Commemorative Medal for the 1915 retreat across Albania (Albanska Spomenica), the French Cross of War and Legion of Honor, the Decoration of Officers’ Order and numerous peacetime decorations of merit for the development of Yugoslav aviation…. Apart from aviation circles, however, his name remains mostly unknown to broader public.

Tadija Sondermajer was born in Belgarde on February 19, 1892. He graduated in 1910 from the Second Belgrade Gymnasium and then studied at the Technical Sciences Faculty of Architecture in Germany. At the outbreak of the First Balkan War, he joined the Serbian Army as a volunteer. He enlisted in the Air Force in April 1916 and in August completed a course in reconnaissance in Sedes, near Thessaloniki. He was then transferred to the squadron based at Vertekop where he remained through November 1917. In addition to reconnaissance, he also practiced flying and soon became a military pilot. In late November 1917, Sondermajer came down with malaria and was sent to France for medical treatment for three months. Instead of the planned three, however, he spent only one month in hospital and then joined the Pau Flying School.

Tadija Sondermajer on   the battlefront in France   posing under the Spad   fighter airplane on which   he flew in Stork squadron

As a pilot student, he was the best shot in his group. After flying school, he completed the Aerial Gunnery School at Cazeau and then requested to join a fighter plane group on the French front to improve his skills before moving to the Salonika Front. In early March 1918, he was transferred to Storks, the best fighter plane group, which was commanded by celebrated French ace Georges Guynemer, and after Guynemer’s death, by an even greater ace – the legendary Rene Fonck. This group of 60 fighter planes flew combat missions in the toughest battlefront sections on the Western Front. In just 13 weeks of Sondermajer’s service with this squadron (from March 1 to May 21), they changed seven airfields.

During one combat mission, as he was returning to base after firing all the ammunition in his machinegun, Sondermajer was attacked over enemy lines by three German fighter planes. He saved himself by carrying out aerobatic moves throughout the encounter.

From April 15 to May 21, his group’s opponent was the squadron of renowned German ace Manfred von Richthofeng, better known as "The Red Baron". In just five weeks, the group shot down 265 airplanes, including two by Sondermajer, one of which could not be confirmed because it went down farther than he had cited in his report. Sondermajer went on patrols and participated in many fights, and on May 15 he became a patrol leader himself.

While returning from his second flight on the afternoon of May 21, after downing a German airplane earlier that morning, Sondermajer’s plane caught fire. Although he succeeded in landing safely, he was seriously injured. His hair and flight suit were burnt, his head and body sustained light burns, but his legs sustained more serious burns. Following surgery, he spent four months in hospital. He followed the famous September breakthrough on the Salonika Front and the subsequent rapid advance of the Serbian Army from his hospital bed.

After demobilization he completed the National Higher School of Air and Space Engineering in Paris, where he received a diploma as an aeronautics engineer. Having completed this internationally recognised aviation school, he returned to Belgrade and began to promote aeronautical ideas and work towards founding and developing civil aviation.

Nakon demobilizacije završio je Višu aeronautičku školu (Ecole aéronautique supérieure) u Parizu i stekao diplomu aeroplanskog inženjera. Po završetku ove svetski priznate vazduhoplovne škole, kao vazduhoplovni inženjer vratio se u Beograd i odmah se angažovao na širenju aeronautičkih ideja i osnivanju i razvoju civilne avijacije.

It is no exaggeration to say that Tadija Sondermajer was the man behind all the activities and successes of the Aero Club. Nevertheless, his main task was to work towards creating an aviation industry and founding a civil aviation society.

At the initiative of the Aero Club, a conference was held on February 6, 1926 where principles were laid down for founding a Civil Aviation Society that was supposed to be funded through the sale of shares. The public sale of shares, however, was less than spectacular, to put it kindly. In an effort to turn things around, Sondermajer hatched an idea with pilot Leonid Bajdak to fly in several stages from Paris to Bombay; the idea was a promotional stunt to prove the skill of local pilots, and more importantly, to help boost the sales of Aeroput stock. Following brief preparations, Sondermajer and Bajdak took off for Paris on April 20, 1927, a month before Charles Lindbergh’s famous flight from New York to Paris. Finally, after covering 14,800 kilometers on 14 legs over 11 days of flying, the men landed in Belgrade on May 2, 1927. They were accorded a magnificent welcome. Over 30,000 Belgraders welcomed the heroes at the airport at the foot of Bežanijska Kosa. The stunt was an enormous success and the sale of Aeroput shares skyrocketed.

Sondermajer and Leonid   Bajdak in front of the   Potez 25 airplane they   made their Paris-    Bombay trip on

More than 30,000 shares were sold in three months, enabling the new company to overcome its initial crisis. The Society for Air Traffic Aeroput was registered with the Belgrade Commercial Court and became a legal entity.

In April 1967, on Aeroput’s 40th anniversary and on the 20th anniversary of Yugoslav Airlines, the national company’s management rewarded Tadija Sondermajer, the first director of Aeroput, with a monetary award as a token of esteem and gratitude for his services in developing Serbian and Yugoslav civil aviation. This was the first and only official recognition Sondermajer received after World War II; a delegation from Jugoslav Airlines - JAT and the Aviation Museum gave Sondermajer a bouquet of 40 roses and a sum amounting to several wages. He died in Belgrade several months later, on October 10, 1967.

Tadija Sondermajer’s father, Dr Roman Sondermajer, a Pole born in Czernowicz in 1861, came to Serbia in 1886 from a position of lecturer for surgery at Krakow University. He was medical colonel and the first surgeon of the Serbian Army. His mother Stanislava, born Djurić, was the daughter of General Dimitrije Djurić, two-time defense minister and long-standing teacher and director of the Military Academy and a member of the Academy of Serbian Arts and Sciences, was a respected member of many humanitarian and charity organizations. Their four children – three sons and a daughter – were baptized as Serbs in the Orthodox faith.