black sea

transferred to a French unit and the command of
the 534 Squadron was assigned to the Lieutenant
Petros Oikonomakos by order of the “Middle East”
and the “Danube” Air Commands. The Squadron
was ordered to abandon its material and to depart
by steamship for Galatsi, Romania 8 .
There, the staff of the 534 Squadron was
accommodated in the roughly arranged stables of
a Romanian cavalry unit’s camp, near the airport.
The squadron was supplied with money and goods
for its everyday operational needs from the Galatsi
base. For the transfer and the transportation of
the Squadron’s officers, a personnel automobile
had been disposed (to the Squadron).
Under these circumstances, the activities of
the 534 Squadron were reduced to the submission
of the regular reports to the Air Command and the
watch of the test-flights of the planes that were
delivered from France at a very slow pace. Also
the lower rank staff went through everyday
����� Review of Military History �����
training and the attendance of schools that, among
other things served to reinforce the discipline. 9
Near the end of April 1919, the French Air
Force suffered a fatal accident. In the course of a
test-flight, a fighter plane crashed, due to the
engine fault. The plane’s pilot was killed in the
crash. That was a great casualty for the “Danube
Air Force”. After the religious ceremony in the
Galatsi Catholic Church, the Commander of the
534 Squadron, Lieutenant P. Oikonomakos decorated
the dead pilot with the Hellenic “War Cross”.
Following a petition by P. Oikonomakos, 10 the “War
Cross” was awarded by the Army Corps I that was
stationing in the city under the command of the
Lieutenant General Nider.
That act was appreciated by the French officers
and served to improve the relations between Greek
and French officers that had been disaffected after
the appointment of the Lieutenant P. Oikonomakos
as the sole commander of the 534 Squadron.
• The Cover page (left) and the first pages of the 534 Squadron’s «Öýëëïí
Ïøùíßïõ», or Payroll Book. The foreground page is signed by the 534 Squadron’s
commander Lieutenant Petros Oikonomakos. The background pages show the
entries in the 534 Squadron’s Payroll Book recording the monthly salary
(«×ñçìáôéêÝò Áðïäï÷Ýò») and the ’bread allowance’ of each member of the 534
Squadron during its stay in Gala]i (The document is from the archives of the
HAFHM)
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