Draft:Battle of Valjevo (1999)
Review waiting, please be patient.
This may take 3 months or more, since drafts are reviewed in no specific order. There are 2,813 pending submissions waiting for review.
Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
Reviewer tools
|
The Battle of Valjevo took place on 4 May 1999 when a NATO bombing campaign started over the Jugoslav military ammunition factories of Valjevo and Pričević. The Air battle resulted in the retreat of most of the NATO aircraft, but also on the death of Milenko Pavlović[1].
Battle of Valjevo | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia | |||||||
Milenko Pavlović, aviator of the 204th Air Brigade | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
FR Yugoslavia | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Unknown | Milenko Pavlović † | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Koninklijke Luchtmacht | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
16 F-16CJs A few AIM-120s |
1 MiG-29 (№ 18109) | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Most of aircraft fled | Unknown |
Battle[edit]
The bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia found Milenko Pavlović on duty as the commander of the 204th fighter regiment, whose headquarters were moved to Stara Pazova. The flight equipment was extremely poorly maintained and unsafe. By May 4th, several planes had been lost due to various malfunctions that usually occurred immediately after takeoff. Most of the pilots managed to save themselves but Major Zoran Radosavljević himself couldn't escape his fate.
On May 4, 1999, around 12 o'clock, a larger group of NATO aircraft was observed operating in the direction of Valjevo, mainly on the "Krušik" ammunition factory, as well as on the military warehouses in the village of Pričević. The command to fly and stop these operations was given to one of the junior officers. However, Pavlović ordered the young pilot to stay, by allegedly saying that "he was not going to die"[2], and instead he flew to Valjevo with his MiG-29 aircraft, № 18109. He soon found himself over the sky of Valjevo, and after takeoff, his alternating current generator broke down so that was left without radar. Pavlović engaged in an unequal battle against around 16 NATO aircraft, mostly F-16CJs[3] and AIM-120s[4] and, still, managed to confuse them and even force them to flee with a poor performance[1]. However, around 12:45, he was hit by three missiles fired by Dutch pilots from an F-16 fighter jet. He died while still in the air. The remains of his plane fell in the village of Petnica.
Still to this day, streets in Novi Sad, Valjevo, Batajnica, Osečina and Gornje Crniljevo are named after him. On 26 June 2019, the Batajnica Air Base was renamed in his honor.
References[edit]
- ^ a b "Milenko Pavlovic: the Knight of the serbian sky". zlocininadsrbima.com (in Serbian). 2006-03-24. Retrieved 2024-05-11.
- ^ "The Belgrade "Batajnica" airport renamed "Colonel-Pilot Milenko Pavlović" | the Srpska Times". 27 June 2019.
- ^ Yugoslav & Serbian MiG-29s Archived February 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Airframe Details for F-16 #91-0353". f-16.net. Retrieved 11 May 2024.