Tadija R. Sondermajer (; 19 February 1892 – 10 October 1967) was a Serbian aviator, aeronautical engineer and a pioneer of Yugoslav aviation.
During World War I Sondermajer was the only fighter plane pilot from the Kingdom of Serbia to get selected to join Les Cigognes (The Storks), the elite French Air Force unit, fighting on the Western Front, most notably against the German squadron of the Red Baron. After the war he completed a record Paris-Bombay-Paris intercontinental flight, less than a month before Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris. In 1927 Sondermajer founded Aeroput the first civil aviation company in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Between the wars he was promoted to colonel in the Royal Yugoslav Air Force Reserve.
Sondermajer received the highest Serbian, Yugoslav and French decorations for his war service and numerous peacetime decorations such as the Order of Karađorđe, the Gold Medal for Courage, and the French Legion of Honour.
Early life
Tadija Sondermajer was born on 19 February 1892 in Belgrade; his father, Colonel Dr Roman Sondermajer was of German-Polish origin originally from Kraków, he was the director of the Belgrade Military Hospital and of the Serbian Military Medical Service, Roman Sondermajer is considered the founder of Serbian war surgery; Sondermajer's mother Stanislava Đurić Sondermajer was the daughter of General Dimitrije Đurić and granddaughter of Minister of Education Dimitrije Matić, she was vice president of the Circle of Serbian Sisters. Sondermajer had three siblings: Vladimir, Stanislav "Staško" and sister Jadviga. Although their father remained a Catholic, all the children were baptised Orthodox.Prof. Radmila Tonković (2010). Tadija Sondemajer. Belgrade: "Aeromagazin" doo.
Sondermajer was educated at a local school before going to Gymnasium (secondary school) where he proved to be a good student; He graduated from the Second Belgrade High School in 1910. He had planned to pursue a professional career in architecture and after graduation left the country for the Faculty of Technology in Heidelberg.
World War I
Lieutenant of Cavalry In October 1912 when the First Balkan War broke out and Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria raised against the Ottoman Empire, twenty years old Sondermajer left his studies in Germany and immediately rushed back home enlisting in the Serbian cavalry as a volunteer. After participating in the second Balkan Wars against Bulgaria in 1913, he was awarded the Silver medal for courage and promoted to Second Lieutenant of Cavalry.
In the Summer of 1914, Austro-Hungarian troops invaded the Kingdom of Serbia, Sondermajer joined the 4th Cavalry Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Petar Zivkovič, despite heavy loss on both sides, the Serbian army managed to repulse three successive Austro-Hungarian attempted invasions of the country;For the victory in the battle of Cer, General Stepa Stepanović was upgraded into Field Marshal (vojvoda). Still valuable account in: Crawfurd Price, Serbia's Part in the War, vol. I, Rampart against Pan-Germanism, London 1918, 85-114 When Belgrade was liberated after twelve days of occupation on 15 December 1914, Sondermajer led a cavalry patrol that first entered the city escorting King Peter to church. In 1915 Sondermajer is promoted Lieutenant and decorated with the gold medal for courage.
After two humiliating defeats suffered by Austro-Hungarian troops, Germany took over command of the campaign against Serbia. On 7 October 1915, German forces attacked from the north towards the Morava river, Austro-Hungarian attacked across the Drina from the west and Bulgaria, who had secretly joined the Central Powers, entered the Vardar valley from the east, cutting off a vital southward route of retreat for Serbian troops. The Serbian government and armed forces still refused to surrender. The Sondermajer brothers crossed the snowy Albanian mountains in the arduous winter retreat with the rest of the Serbian army and a substantial number of civilians; they settled on the Greek island of Corfu in early 1916.M. Larcher, La Grande Guerre dans les Balkans. Direction de la guerre (Paris: Payot, 1929),119–120; P. Opačić, Le front de Salonique (Belgrade: Republički zavod za zaštitu spomenikakulture, 1979), 46–47
On Corfu, Tadija and Vladimir entered the air force as an observer on scouting missions over the Eastern Front, completing after several months course a reconnaissance course in Salonika on 22 June 1916. Sondermajer is then assigned to MF 82 squadron based at the airfield base of Vertekop on 6 August 1916 to support the Allied offensive. Reconnaissance scouts were used to undertaking long-range reconnaissance operations to track enemy troop movements; tactical support via observation was enhanced by the development of the clock code system of directing artillery fire, which mapped and corrected the fall of shot.
Fighter pilot During the summer of 1917 Sondermajer entered and completed pilot training at the 403th Aviation Park and Training Centre of Sedes Air Base near Salonika. On one occasion he succeeded in forcing a superior enemy aircraft to escape, for which he received praise from Field Marshal Stepa Stepanović. In November 1917, Sondermajer, ill from malaria, is sent to hospital in France. Instead of the planned three months, Sondermajer spent only one in the hospital and joined the advanced flying school in Pau to learn acrobatics and aviation-sharpshooting, his brother Vladimir joined him a few months later. Sondermajer finished best in class following with training at the Aerial Gunnery School in Cazaux before being recruited to join a French fighting squadron on the western front while his brother headed back to the Salonika front.Tonkovic, Radmila (2010), Tadija Sondermajer. Belgrade: AI. ISBN.
On 1 March 1918, Sondermajer is transferred to the French elite fighter squadron (GC 12) 'Les Cigognes' ('The Storks') the best fighter plane group in France, it was commanded by celebrated French ace Georges Guynemer, and after Guynemer's death, by an even greater ace – the legendary Rene Fonck; as one of the 60 top fighter pilots, Sondermajer was selected to join the group in charge of the hardest combat missions on the Western front during the battle of the Marne."Wings of Serbia". From April 15 to May 21, his group had for enemy the "Flying Circus" composed up of Fokker fighters led by the famous German flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, better known as the Red Baron. During one mission above the enemy line, as he was returning to the base with an empty machine gun, Sondermajer was attacked by three German fighters. He saved himself by performing flying acrobatics, which made the enemy failed to shot down him. On his return from a second fight on May 21 his SPAD XIII caught fire after being shot, miraculously he was able to land in Flanders, Sondermajer survived the crash of his plane but was severely burned with a leg injury. After treatment and demobilisation, Sondermajer enrolled at the School of Aeronautics and Mechanical Construction in Paris () where he received a degree in airplane engineering in 1921.Oštrić, Šime (February 2003). Archive . "Serbian Pilots on the Western Front," Aeromagazin (YU-Belgrade: BB Soft) 45: p. 36 - 38. . In 1923 he left active service to become a reserve officer.
For his service France made him an Officer of the Legion of Honour and awarded him the Croix de Guerre (War Cross); at his return to Serbia Alexander I of Yugoslavia awarded him, Serbia's highest decoration, the Order of Karađorđe's Star and both Gold and Silver Medal for Bravery.
Inter-war period
Aero Club
As the first Yugoslavian aviation engineer, Sondermajer started immediately getting involved in the development of military, civilian and sports aviation. An Army Aviation Department was formed with Serbian personnel but also ex-Austro-Hungarian (Croatian and Slovenian). Sondermajer is asked to launch a major initiative to replace World War I era aircraft still in service with more modern ones.Krunic, Cedomir; (2010), Civil Aviation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, First Book, Belgrade, Author's Edition, .
In May 1922 along with demobilised Serbian aviators and veterans from the Salonika front, Sondermajer decided to form an Aero Club, the first non-profit flying sports club in the country. At the club's first regular assembly session (on 14 May 1922), the Aero Club was renamed the Aero Club of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Sondermajer was elected as the club's vice-president, and Prince Pavle became president.Mikic, Sava J. (1933). History of Yugoslav Aviation. Belgrade: Drag Printing House. Gregorić.
Crnjanski duel At a meeting of the Aero Club, in June 1926, Sondermajer and other members got into an argument with Miloš Crnjanski about the type of planes that the national airline should purchase. General Dušan Simović suggested that the planes were purchased from France since the principle agreement was to take planes from allies, but Crnjanski claimed that German planes were significantly better In order to bring the dispute to a conclusion Crnjanski slapped the officers in attendance across their faces with white gloves challenging them to a duel. Sondermajer was the only one who accepted the chance to defend his honour. The duel was scheduled to take place on 26 September 1926 in the vicinity of Vršac where, according to the old laws of Austria-Hungary, the duel was still considered a knightly act. The battle was fought gentlemanly, with minutes taken and in the presence of seconds (Crnjanski was represented by theatre director Branko Gavela and writer Dušan Matić), with trophy weapons borrowed especially for the occasion from the Dunđerski family. The first shot was fired by Crnjanski and missed the target. According to the recorded minutes, Sondermajer aimed at Crnjanski for a short time, then lowered his gun and said in French: "I give up, you are forgiven". At Crnjaski's passionate insistence that the duel continues, Sondermajer shot into the air and departed.
The construction of a new airport began in 1923. The growing interest of some German companies to fly through Belgrade prompted members of the Aero Club to ask the government to protect the domestic interest and to set up their own company to deal with civilian traffic. At a conference in Belgrade on 6 February 1926, a joint-stock company for air traffic was founded. The company pledged to launch the Belgrade-Zagreb line while the state promised to cover three-quarters of the cost per kilometre of flight in cash and in kind. However, the subscription of shares was below all expectations, so that by March 1927, only 10 percent of the required six million dinars that the state had initially prescribed was collected, this threatened to shut down the company, from the beginning, according to a law on joint-stock companies at that time.
Paris - Bombay - Belgrade Sondermajer proposed to conduct a promotional stage flight with Paris-Bombay-Belgrade with pilot Leonid Bajdak to show the value and capability of Serbian pilots and the safety of air travel helping to spark the public's interest in flight and hopefully bring new shareholders that could save the company from bankruptcy.
Sondermajer and Russian born Leonid Bajdak chose to fly Paris to Bombay to Belgrade aboard a French biplane Potez XXV aircraft with a Lorraine-450rich Dietrich engine, nobody had ever flown such a route before, flying over endless uninhabited ranges of the Middle East and southwest Asia.