Gen. Stoyan Stoyanov's decorations

[ilieff]

Hi all,

Allow me to share with you some interesting information about General Stoyan Stoyanov - a WW2 Bulgarian ace, pilot instructor and later deputy-commander of the anti-aircraft system of Socialist Bulgaria.

Due to the limited involvement of Bulgaria during the initial stages of the war, the fighter pilots were the first to actually engage in combat with the Western allies. Stoyanov and his fellow fighter pilots were defending Bulgarian air space from the American and British planes which were bombing the oil refineries in Ploesti or simply bombing the capital Sofia.

On 1st August 1943 Stoyanov shoots down an American B-24 and another B-24 is damaged severely. Six days later, he is invited to the Royal palaca where King Bors III personally presents him with the 4th Class 2nd Grade of the Order "For Bravery". According to the mainstream sources, this is the first decoration of a Bulgarian officer with the Military order after the end of the Great war. Soon after that, he is also decorated with the Iron Cross 2nd Class by the German command (a scan of the actual document is available on Wikipedia). 

In the period between August 1943 and September 1944 Stoyanov scores 15 air victories which earns him the 4th Class 1st Grade of the Military order. Date of decoration not currently known.

After the Communist coup in September 1944, Stoyanov continues to be a pilot instructor for the new Bulgarian pilots. At this time, he already has the effigy of a living legend for the Bulgarian air force. In November 1944, gen Vladimir Stoychev takes part in the decoration of all surviving pilots near Sofia. Stoyanov is promoted to major and decorated with the 3rd Class 2nd Grade (again, the date of actual decoration is unknown), thus becoming the sole Bulgarian officer to receive three orders "For Bravery" during the Second World war.

He has a very interesting and dynamic life. If you are interested I can share some info.

In 1972 he manages to publish memoirs which have been greatly censored by the communist censorship. His book has been re-published several times since but is still very rare to find (I haven't been able to read the book yet).

In 1992 he is officially promoted to general by president Zhelev.

On 13th Match 1997 Major-General Stoyanov passes away. He is honoured with a military funeral with the whole General staff of the Air Force attending it.

 

On the photographs:

- Stoyanov shortly after being decorated with the Iron Cross

- Stoyanov's decorations on display during his funeral (understandably, his German decorations are not on display)

[922F]

Thank you for this informative post!!  Did he earn decorations from the communist government?  

[new world]

Very interesting!

There's a book 'Slovakian and Bulgarian Aces of World War 2', which goes into details about Stoyanov's service during WW2.

Parts of the book are available here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=okfDCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT144&lpg=PT144&dq=General+Stoyan+Stoyanov&source=bl&ots=3p9srlHBl2&sig=0nTs3zpWiSo8d7wZ7Cl8ey1rD3I&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjU_8HExJ_UAhVL2IMKHfiMDzoQ6AEISTAI#v=onepage&q=General Stoyan Stoyanov&f=false

 

[ilieff]

13 hours ago, 922F said:

Thank you for this informative post!!  Did he earn decorations from the communist government?  

I can't really say with certainty but I suppose that he did not.

Actually, Stoyanov (major back then) was sacked from the Air Force (without the right of a pension) following the aftermath of the Hungarian revolution in 1956. Priot to that, the State security agency was following him constantly as they suspected him of being 'not too loyal to the communist cause'. Even the code name of his file was named 'Fritz', as a hint for his good relation with the Germans during the war years.

After 1956 the war hero has to work as a construction worker, then at the local thetre. Eventually, he was employed as a tourist guide (due to his good language skills) in the Rila Monastery where he actually wrote his memoirs.

@new world Thank you for the link.

 

More interesting things about his decorations. The media in Bulgarian inaccurately portraits him as having earned all classes of the Military order. He has been given the Order of Military merit V class but for some reason this decoration was not displayed at his funeral. I assume that Stoyanov has tried to remove all the 'unsuitable' royal awards back in the day, as we can't see crowns on either of them. This is the case with the 3rd class, which clearly has been given to him with crown (once). 

And if you wonder why he wore the commemorative medal for the Balkan wars with black stripe in the middle - that's because of his father who died 5 months prior to Stoyanov's birth.

Edited June 2, 2017 by ilieff

[new world]

16 minutes ago, ilieff said:

I can't really say with certainty but I suppose that he did not.

Actually, Stoyanov (major back then) was sacked from the Air Force (without the right of a pension) following the aftermath of the Hungarian revolution in 1956. Priot to that, the State security agency was following him constantly as they suspected him of being 'not too loyal to the communist cause'. Even the code name of his file was named 'Fritz', as a hint for his good relation with the Germans during the war years.

After 1956 the war hero has to work as a construction worker, then at the local thetre. Eventually, he was employed as a tourist guide (due to his good language skills) in the Rila Monastery where he actually wrote his memoirs.

If he did not have any socialist period decorations - how do we explain two pilot badges on his funeral pillow?

[ilieff]

44 minutes ago, new world said:

If he did not have any socialist period decorations - how do we explain two pilot badges on his funeral pillow?

I assume 992F meant any other decorations, beside the ones shown.

[922F]

Thank you, ilieff, for the additional information.

[ruiz]

I really enjoyed reading about this good fighter pilot. Thanks for the info.