Hellenic Air Force History

Balcan Wars

Lieutenant P. Notaras on his way back to Bizani
on a Maurice Farman MF.7 (26 January 1913)

Lieutenant P. Notaras in a Henry Ferman aircraft
and Balkan Wars Campaign Medals.

The activities of the Army Air Service during the Balkan Wars marked out the use of the aircraft as a pioneering war asset. On October 5, 1912 the first war air reconnaissance mission took place on the Thessalia front. Other missions followed with drops of improvised bombs on the Bizani strongholds as well as provisions and newspapers to the Ioannina inhabitants under siege.

On January 24, 1913 the first world wide war naval co-operation mission took place above the Dardanelles, which marked the history of naval operations.

1st lieutenat Michael Moutoussis and Ensign Aristedes Moraitines, on board the Maurice Farman hydroplane, drew up a diagram of the positions of the Turkish fleet, against which they dropped four bombs. This event was widely commented upon in the Press, both Greek and international.

On April 4, 1913, 2nd Lieutenant aviator Emmanuel Argyropoulos was killed due to the fall of his Bleriot XI aircraft, thus becoming the first civilian dead of the Hellenic Aviation and marking the end of air activities in the Balkan wars of 1912-1913.