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The history of the monument to pilot Bogdan Iliev in the Montana city garden is glorious.
“The height of human flight is infinite. Life is looking forward and upward. Fighting for your life and your dreams. Dreams elevate man above the earth and there is like flying! …
Not everyone can really fly, but everyone should wear this dream while breathing. The sky gives you the freedom to spread your arms like the wings of a bird! These are the words of the pilot Bogdan Iliev, defender of Sofia during the bombing.
Bogdan Iliev was born on August 16, 1916 in the town of Kamena Riksa near Montana. He is the ninth child in the family of the priest archpriest Yordan Iliev of the city of Ferdinand, now Montana, and his wife Ivana. He graduated with honors from Third Sofia Boys’ High School and later as a cadet at His Majesty’s Military School. In the summer of 1938, he was sent with three other classmates to the Vernoyhen Fighter School in Germany.
Later, in Schleisheim, at the German school for aerobatics and blind flight, the Bulgarians put on the uniform of an aviator officer. Fireworks envelop and enchant them in the Munich sky.
The Heinkel 51 flew through the dead of night and ripped its wings out of Schleisheim Airport and carried its young master on its first night flight. Dreamer at this memorable moment, Lieutenant Bogdan Iliev even forgot to tilt his head and look down to remember where he would land in half an hour. At the end of the 30-minute flight, he stuck the compass needle in the opposite direction, but a creeping fog obscured the airport lights. Circle over it, looking for it. There are 20 minutes left and the gas will run out. Go down as low as possible, throw your hat and glasses. Ten more minutes and the red light will come on … And at that moment he sees another plane in front of him. He “grabs” it and … it lands.
For outstanding achievements in combat shooting training in the field near Beledie Khan he was received and awarded by the king.
On March 30, 1944, 500 bombers under cover of 300 combatants attacked Sofia. Huge armadas of four-engined flying fortresses pour their deadly cargo on Sofia. Far fewer, but brave, Bulgarian fighters rushed against them and launched into an uneven air battle, surprising the world with their heroism. The entire school of fighters was built against them. One of the pilots did not show up and Bogdan Iliev took his place. He flew out of order with the idea that the Bulgarian capital should defend itself from attack.
Sofia’s defender survived the unequal battle with Anglo-American planes during the bombing. Without an order, Bogdan Iliev took off during the bombing of Sofia. He then fought alone against eight enemy combatants.
The pilot managed to shoot down one of them over the Plachkovica mountain in Macedonia and land at the Bozhurishte airport with more than twenty holes in the plane. The battle with the Overseas Lightnings is uneven. His Devoatin aircraft turned out to be more agile at higher altitudes, said the knight of the Orders of Courage and Alexander Nevsky during his lifetime.
On the Plachkovica mountain in Macedonia, Sofia’s defender faces an opponent ten times his own.
“I was saddened, angered, angered especially when I saw our capital engulfed in flames and smoke.
I surveyed the battlefield. The enemy bombers withdrew in groups to the west. And to them from 7-8 thousand meters their fighters descended. I took an altitude of 8000 meters and from the sun I started to get closer to the enemy planes. Below me and above me flew a group of Lightning fighters, more than 20 planes, probably a whole eagle.
The native air ace made 2-3 demonstrative descents without losing his height advantage over them. He also wanted to save his projectiles and fire from a stop below a hundred meters with a certain probability of hits. This pursuit took place on the Plana mountain and on the Kyustendil plain, at an altitude of 6000 meters. He stalked a quartet that broke away from the others and fired at the last plane. His shots were very good. He got up and started again, the carousel spinning beneath him, making the steepest turns and gradually retreating in the direction of the sun.
Bogdan Iliev’s Eagle plane at higher altitude turned out to be more maneuverable than the Thunderbolt and the tighter circles. Seeing the glowing tracks and hearing several knocks on his plane, Bogdan Iliev kicked the wheel roughly and reluctantly entered the drill. He cut off the engine, waiting for a fire to break out, then with a heavy dive, he retreated south again. He started the engine and saw that it was working. There were large projectile holes in the right wing, but they had no effect on the flight or control of the aircraft. Then he started to get up again and even watched another of our planes.
When he attacked, almost everyone shot in different directions to embarrass him. After the shooting, he didn’t have time to see what was happening, because only if he looked away from the stalking planes, he wouldn’t be alive.
The chase continued over Plachkovitsa Mountain. He hit them again on Vardar and fired his last cartridges there. Later he deceived the enemy and turned away from the fight. This trick helped him, because after they took the plane out of the drill close to the ground, no one was chasing it, it seems they considered it shot down. It only has 64 liters of gasoline left, flying at a height of 200 meters, and black smoke came out of the left engine block. The intrepid pilot managed to land at Bozhurishte airport.
Burned in two dizzying air battles, Bogdan Iliev did without a witness what he would have done in front of the entire wedding party.
And just as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry could not remain on the ground while France was at war, Lieutenant Bogdan Iliev could not remain on the ground while Bulgaria was at war with the United States and England.
After the bombing of Sofia subsided, he began training pilots in the Lower Metropolis. He reaches the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Later, in 1946, he was fired as a royal officer.
After Bulgaria became an ally of Russia after the war change, Bogdan Iliev remained as commander of the combat school and as such organized a bridge for the emergency fuel supply from Lower Metropolis to the aircraft of Soviet assault based in Gabrovnitsa.
30 years of landing followed: he was sentenced to unattractive jobs at DAP, Mihaylovgrad, five years of underground work at the Martinovo Mining and Processing Plant, and 17 years of construction of the “Ogosta” dam. Bogdan Iliev never asked for compensation for suffering and the interrupted flight of the soul. He never expressed disappointment, remained optimistic, did his best to be useful to others. She is dedicated to the care of her son Nikolai, her daughter Ivana.
On March 30, 1994, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Plachkovitsa, 48 years later, Bogdan Iliev boarded a plane again. He flew over Montana and his hometown of Kamena Riksa. He died two years later at the age of 80.
According to the psychologist of the Air Force General Staff, Colonel Yordan Kostadinov, who read his article, “The Pilot’s Curve” is a guide for every pilot-instructor to this day. Every Bulgarian pilot should carry it around like a bible and each day of flight should begin by reading an excerpt from it. In it, Bogdan Iliev confesses his truth: “Do you want to have the long curve of the eagle? Then remember that dying as a pilot is easy, but living as a real pilot is very, very difficult!”
A bust of his sculpture, the work of the sculptor Alexander Haitov, is being erected in the central garden of the city of Montana on the occasion of the centenary of his birth. The initiative belongs to his family and was implemented with the help of the Municipality of Montana, the Aviator Club, the Bulgarian Aviation Association and the Bulgarian Air Force and with the support of the municipal councilors.
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