You need to serve the one for whom strength and wealth. This somehow does not fit with the ideals of the knight of the sky. However, pilots have their own antiheroes.
Representatives of every profession like to attribute to their work some kind of soul-ennobling effect. Aviation has always been covered with legends, and it is customary to represent the pilots as a person without fear and reproach. However, a completely immoral type can also learn to operate a winged machine.
Childhood
Stoyan's family lived in the village of Galata near Varna. The head of the family, Elijah, served in the army, his salary was quite enough to provide for his wife and children well. With the latter, everything was fine with the spouses - in March 1913 a boy was born, who was given the name Stoyan. This was the fifth heir to the gallant soldier. The father could not see the newborn - Bulgaria began another campaign against the Turks, and he died a couple of months before the birth of the heir.
The hero's son received the right to study at a school for military orphans in Varna. He did not remember his parent, but the teachers told a lot about the exploits of the Bulgarian fighters. Behind the scenes of beautiful patriotic propaganda, the boy watched the joyless existence of his closest people. His mother, brothers and sisters were starving, he himself helped them by selling newspapers on the streets of the city.
Youth
The diligent student was noted by the teachers. In 1930 Stoyan was sent to continue his education at the Sofia Seminary. The teenager was not happy with the profession they chose. The army seemed much more attractive than the church. After 4 years, the mistake of adults was corrected. After receiving a diploma, our hero entered the Higher Army School for Officers.
After graduating from this educational institution, Stoyan began serving in the cavalry. A beautiful uniform and participation in festive processions in the capital for many of his peers was the ultimate dream, but this was not enough for this ambitious young man. He wanted to make a dizzying career and get rich. Aviation was then considered the most elite branch of the troops, so Stoyanov continued his studies at the Military Aviation Academy, which he graduated in 1938.
Temptations
The young pilot was selected among the officers who were sent by the Bulgarian government for training in Germany. Lieutenant Stoyanov and six other Bulgarian pilots arrived in Verneuchen to study at the local aviation school. The technique they saw there shocked them.
There was a lot to see here, besides the new cars. Stoyan compared industrial Germany to his homeland and found the latter squalid. He liked the famous German discipline, he liked the idea of the existence of a breed of supermen, who are allowed everything. The guy, of course, considered himself to be the one who would decide the fate of unwanted peoples, flying over them on a plane provided by civilized Germans.
At home
In 1939 the trip ended. The aviator was forced to return to the unsightly Bulgarian reality. He received a position as an instructor at the school of fighter pilots, which was stationed near the town of Karlovo. The only thing that pleased me was that the habits and things brought from abroad made it possible to qualitatively differ from the local rabble and make an indelible impression on the weaker sex.
During one of his walks around the city, Stoyanov met the beautiful Mina. She was only 18 years old, but she already understood that her personal life needs to be built, guided by pragmatic interests. A well-to-do military man was the best option from the variety of suitors the province could provide. In 1940, the wedding took place. What ideas her husband professed, Mina was much less interested in what his salary was.
War
Stoyanov was enthusiastic about the union of Bulgaria and Nazi Germany in March 1941. He himself became a Luftwaffe pilot and was proud of it. Stoyan Iliev was not opposed to making his contribution to the victory of the Third Reich over states inhabited by subhumans, but the command was in no hurry to send him to the front. Until 1943, the lieutenant traveled around the airfields of his homeland, not participating in real battles.
The pilot received his first combat mission when he was appointed commander of the 682nd squadron of the 6th fighter regiment, which defended the sky over the oil fields of Romania. Stoyanov did his job properly - he managed to shoot down 5 enemy bombers, giving the Nazis the opportunity to uninterruptedly supply their tanks with fuel, ironing the lands near Kursk. True, the Red Army neutralized all the efforts of the unfortunate Stoyan.
Crawling
In August 1944, the situation at the front was such that the official Sofia declared its neutrality. She soon joined the anti-Hitler coalition altogether. Stoyanov was recently praised as the most productive Bulgarian pilot in the Luftwaffe. He could remember creativity in the sky above Ploiesti. Local authorities undertook to protect this character - Stoyanov turned into a captain of the Bulgarian army, and by 1945 he had risen to the rank of major.
The new owners also had good planes and high salaries for pilots, but they did not trust Stoyanov. In 1956, a flight school instructor with a dubious reputation was dismissed. The rise of the former Luftwaffe ace fell on 1992. The biography of the servant of the two gentlemen attracted the anti-Soviets in the government offices. He was made Major General of Aviation and began to be glorified. He spent the last year of his life in Karlovo, where he died in 1997.
