Ivan Orlov (aviator)

Ivan Alexandrovich Orlov
Ivan Alexandrovich Orlov
	Gold Sword for Bravery,; French Croix de Guerre with palm

Aéronautique Militaire, he wrote the first Russian text on aerial combat, Ways to Conduct an Air Combat. He was killed in action

after scoring five confirmed aerial victories.

Early life

Ivan Aleksandrovich Orlov was born into Russian nobility in

Petrograd University.^[1]^[2]

World War I

When World War I began, Orlov joined Russian military aviation as a

Farman F.22 biplanes. The detachment was shipped off to serve in the Battle of Tannenberg under General Alexander Samsonov on 9 August. On 20 August 1914, Orlov flew a reconnaissance mission over Stalupepen, the first of 18 military sorties he would fly that month.^[2] His dash and courage flying these hazardous scouting missions in Voisins soon earned him both promotion and honors.^[1] After being decorated on 2 September, Orlov was promoted to Efreitor on 14 September.^[2] On 3 October, he was promoted again, to Feldwebel.^[3] Orlov moved to staff duty with the 5th Air Corps Detachment; on 21 November 1914, he was decorated for organizing communications with 2nd Army. He had not ceased flying however; on 18 November 1914, he was decorated for bombing a railroad.^[2] On 19 December, he was sent for advanced training on Voisins.^[3]

On 4 February 1915, he was

Praporschik for military merit. Having left a training stint at Petrograd Flying School, he was assigned to the First Army Aviation Detachment in February. He actually left Warsaw on 13 April in a Voisin to join the unit near Snyadovo. To his prior assignments of scouting and bombing, he now added aerial combat. He staked his first aerial victory claim on 26 May 1915, but it was unconfirmed.^[2]

On both 11 and 28 August 1915, Orlov flew hazardous reconnaissance under intense ground fire; he won medals for valor for both sorties.[3] In September 1915, he was entrusted with picking up new aircraft from the factories in Petrograd and Moscow. He would not return to front line duty until October. On 30 November, he suffered an inflight concussion from an antiaircraft shell. Four days later,^[2] he was forwarded to the 7th Fighter Detachment in Galicia.^[1] On 4 December 1915, he was promoted to Podporuchik;^[3] on 10 December 1915, he moved to Odessa Flying School to undergo fighter conversion training there on Nieuports.^[1]

Orlov graduated from Nieuport training on 10 January 1916.

Nieuport 9 and Nieuport 10 two-seater fighters arrived during April, as did Moska-Bystritsky MBbis serial number 2. Orlov made the new unit's first operational flight on 28 April.^[2]

Orlov scored his first two confirmed aerial victories in June 1916. On the 8th, he closed to 35 meters before shooting the enemy observer in the chest and downing the

Austro-Hungarian craft. On the 25th, on his tenth sortie for the day, Orlov and Vasili Yanchenko wounded the aircrew with close-range fire and drove them and their aircraft down into captivity. The rest of the summer passed without results for Orlov.^[3]

On 16 September 1916, he led his unit to a new base near Vychulki Farm. From there, he scored another in October (sometimes reported as a victory on the

Spad VII with Escadrille 3, Orlov drove down an enemy aircraft north of Fresnoy for his fourth victory. He exited the dogfight by purposely spinning his aircraft to escape two enemy Halberstadt fighters.^[2]

At the end of January, Orlov was one of a party of six Russian pilots who returned home. He reached Petrograd on 20 March 1917. He checked in with his Air Fleet headquarters, submitted a report, and had a nine-page brochure on air tactics published by the Aviation and Aeronautics Field Department Bureau. Ways of Conducting an Air Combat principally encapsulated from tactical advice received from Guynemer and Heurteaux, and enumerated 16 main points. A key recommendation was the use of an induced spin to escape a losing situation, as he had done at Fresnoy.[2]

Orlov returned to take up his duties with the 7th AOI in the wake of the

Nieuport 23, serial no. N2788. After combat maneuvering, the lower right wing of his Nieuport ripped loose, and Orlov fell 3,000 meters to his death in the Russian front line trenches near Kozova.^[1]^[2]

An aerial observer who had often flown with him, Ivan's brother Alexei Orlov, escorted his remains to burial in Tsarskoye Selo outside Petrograd.^[2]

List of aerial victories

Confirmed victories are numbered and listed chronologically.

No.	Date/time	Aircraft	Foe	Result	Location	Notes
u/c	26 May 1915	Voisin	Lloyd C.II	Shot down with machine gun	Near Novgorod	Victims from Flieger Abteilung 15; pilot Rosenbaum aerial observer Wittke WIA^[2]
1	8 June 1916^[1]	Moska-Bystritsky MBis serial no. 7	Lloyd C.II	Wounded pilot and observer; plane crashed behind Austro-Hungarian lines^[2]	Petlikovze	Victim from Austro-Hungarian Fliegerkompanie 9
2	25 June 1916^[1]	Nieuport 10 serial no. N205	Aviatik B.III serial no. 33.30	Forced landing, with pilot and observer wounded and captured^[2]	Pidhaitsi	Victim from Austro-Hungarian Fliegerkompanie 27; victory shared with Vasili Yanchenko
3	4 October 1916	Nieuport 21 serial no. N1514	Enemy aircraft	Set afire; fell behind enemy lines trailing heavy black smoke	Zlota-Lipca^[1]	Victory claim shared with Vasili Yanchenko^[4]
4	24 January 1917	Spad VII	Enemy aircraft	Forced down	Fresnoy, France	Scored while flying with French^[2]
5	21 May 1917	Nieuport 11 serial no. N1679	Albatros two-seater	Forced landing	Hill 829, south of Yasen	Victim from German Flieger-Abteilung (Artillerie) 242; air crew captured^[1]^[2]

Honors and awards

Cross of St. George, Fourth Class: Awarded prior to 3 October 1914
Cross of St. George, Third Class: Awarded prior to 3 October 1914
Cross of St. George, Second Class: Awarded prior to 3 October 1914
Order of Saint Anne
, Fourth Class: Awarded 4 April 1915
Order of Saint Anne, Third Class
Order of Saint George
Fourth Class: Awarded 28 August 1915
Order of Saint Stanislas
Third Class with Crossed Swords and Bow: Awarded 30 August 1915
Order of Saint Vladimir Fourth Class with Crossed Swords and Bow: 2 November 1915
Gold Sword for Bravery
French Croix de Guerre with palm^[3]

References

Allen Durkota; Thomas Darcy; Victor Kulikov. The Imperial Russian Air Service: Famous Pilots and Aircraft and World War I. Flying Machines Press, 1995.
ISBN 0963711024
, 9780963711021.

Norman Franks; Russell Guest; Gregory Alegi. Above the War Fronts: The British Two-seater Bomber Pilot and Observer Aces, the British Two-seater Fighter Observer Aces, and the Belgian, Italian, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Fighter Aces, 1914–1918: Volume 4 of Fighting Airmen of WWI Series: Volume 4 of Air Aces of WWI. Grub Street, 1997.
ISBN 978-1-898697-56-5
.

Victor Kulikov. Russian Aces of World War 1: Aircraft of the Aces. Osprey Publishing, 2013.
ISBN 1780960611
, 9781780960616.

Sources of information

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Franks et al 1997, p. 211.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t Kulikov 2013, pp. 63-70.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Durkota et al 1995, pp. 90-94.
^ Kulikov 2013, p. 53.

[fronts211-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Franks et al 1997, p. 211.

[aces63-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t Kulikov 2013, pp. 63-70.

[iras90-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Durkota et al 1995, pp. 90-94.

[4] Kulikov 2013, p. 53.

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