Hello everyone,
First, a further story about our hero.
On April 21, 1917, Makijonek and the commander of the 7th IAO Ivan Orlov, near the village of Kołodzinovki, encounter an enemy plane. Ivan Orlov in a quick attack positioned himself in the right position and opened fire from a short distance, killing or wounding the observer, unfortunately at the same time the surprised Russian was himself attacked by another enemy plane, which was not spotted in time. Makijonek immediately rushed at the enemy, trying to save the commander. A fight ensued, in which Makijonek forced the enemy plane to descend to a lower altitude in the area of the Majdany settlement. A moment later, the Russian team (Makijonek and Orlov) were attacked by another plane, the third in a row, which unexpectedly joined the fight. Orlov and Makijonek, having run out of ammunition, withdrew from the fight. The clash was unresolved.
Donat Makijonek
On April 27, 1917, another fight takes place, but this time it was successful. Makijonek caught up with and forced an enemy plane to land near the village of Kozjarki. However, this victory was not approved for him, because it was not confirmed. In some studies, there is still a record of the fight and victory on April 29, 1917.
It was June 1917. Unit 7 IAO was reinforced with new Nieuport 17 aircraft, which significantly increased the efficiency of the pilots. At that time, Makijonek was making the last flights on his well-deserved, but already much worn Nieuport 21 with serial number 2453.
On June 26, north-west of Brzezany, a Pole attacks the observation balloon, forcing it to lower, unfortunately, due to the lack of incendiary rounds, it cannot be destroyed definitively. However, only a few days later, on June 29, there is a fight with an enemy plane, which is forced to land in the vicinity of the Marcenkowka farm. Unfortunately, at the same moment Makijonk is attacked by two enemy Fokkers and seriously damages his Nieuport 21 (2453). With the last of his strength and skills, he manages to escape and get to his own airport in a shot plane.
Commander of the 7th IAO Ivan Orlov - 7 victories
The intensity of combat flights and the flying skills of our hero are amazing. In April 1917, he made 22 sorties. In May, out of 105 sorties made by five pilots of the unit, 30 were Makijonka. On some days he made 2-3 sorties. The second lieutenant did not shy away from tasks unusual for fighters: he conducted reconnaissance and photographed enemy positions. In June 1917, Makijonek made 39 out of 146 sorties of the unit.
In the same month, in a dogfight with two (according to another version, four) enemy fighters, the detachment commander, Lieutenant Ivan Orlov, was killed. The new commander was Yuri Gilsher, an exceptional pilot and with four victories. After the accident, his left foot was amputated, but not only did he not retire, but he continued to fly with a prosthetic and shoot down enemy planes.
Nieuport 17 by Vasily Janchenko, which he flew from mid-summer 1917.
On July 6, a fight takes place near Brzezany. There is not much information on this subject, except that Makijonk and Janchenko's goal was to photograph enemy positions. There is an encounter with the enemy in the air and in the fight both pilots shoot down the attacker. A similar situation occurs on July 11, 1917. Again, together with Janczenka, Makijonek shoots down an enemy plane near Brzezany.
Yuri Gilsher, after Orlov's death, he becomes the commander of the 7th IAO. When he died in July 1917, he had five victories under his belt.
On July 20, Yuri V. Gilsher (new commander) and Vasily I. Janchenko and Donat Makijonek (on the new Nieuport 17 machine) flew out to intercept a formation of 16 enemy planes that were attacking Ternopil. In the process of capturing the formation, Makijonk is attacked by three enemy planes and binds him in combat. The remaining two Russians continue their missions and try to reach the bomber planes, they manage to intercept the expedition over the city, but at the moment eight enemy machines fall on them. Although the enemy has multiple advantages, the Russians decide to attack, and Gilsher shoots down his fifth plane rather quickly. As they approached the second attack, one of the enemy planes strafed Glisher, the commander's machine crashes, and he himself dies, he was 22 years old.
Vasily Yanchenko, in a letter to Glisher's father, described the commander's last fight as follows:
“The description of the last battle of Gilscher is described in detail in a letter to Yuri's father by ensign Yanchenko, a participant in the battle: “Dear Vladimir Ivanovich. I, as a participant in this fight and an eyewitness of your son's heroic death, undertake to describe this glorious battle in which your son, through the death of brave people, left his mark on a heroic life. ... a squadron of 16 aircraft surrounded us, it would be disgraceful to avoid battle, Ternopil would be destroyed by bombs, and we took the battle. ... I saw the enemy open fire, and smoke trails, clearly visible through me, lay along your son's plane. At that time, attacked from above by the rest of the enemy planes, and looking up, I saw about 10 planes above me, while Gilscher's cornet engine broke free from the frame and flew forward, the wings of his plane folded and fell like a stone. The device is already partly fragmented in the air. ...the corpse was extracted from the rubble and sent to Tarnopol, from there to our division, where it was sealed in a coffin and solemnly buried in the town of Bugach in Galicia. It was impossible to send the body to Russia, because during the panic of our troops there was no way to get the wagons. Aviation will not forget about its great fighters.”
Gilsher's death
Thus, on July 20, 1917, after Gilsher's death, Makijonek temporarily assumed command of the 7th IAO. He held this position until August 1917, when another Pole, Tadeusz Grochowalski, took his place. Soon after taking command, Makijonek, overloaded with duties, a lot of flights and difficult conditions, fell ill with tuberculosis. His condition became more and more serious and the situation in the country worse and worse. The February Revolution and the established Provisional Government could not cope with the mood of the society, communist factions began to gain power. It should be noted here that despite the illness and the general internal situation in Russia, the unit under Makijonk's command maintained combat efficiency and successfully fought the enemy.
Makijonk's last victory in the Russian Air Force took place on August 5, 1917. Again with the irreplaceable Janchenka, Makijonek destroys an unknown machine near Brzezany. All flights and victories since July 1917 were performed on Nieuport 17.
In August 1917 Makijonek, due to his terrible health, is sent to the rear. He is sent to the Eupatory Aviation School in Sevastopol to learn how to use new machine guns and shooting techniques. Later he found himself in a hospital in Sevastopol, where he was treated for the effects of tuberculosis. That's where the news of his promotion found him. In November 1917, Makijonek returned to the unit. At that time, Russia was in turmoil, another revolution put the Bolsheviks in power. Makijonek was elected a member of the Military-Revolutionary Committee of the 7th IAO. However, the unit itself ceased operations and the equipment was stolen, the pilots had to think about their further fate. It was then that many of them remembered their origins and the new opportunity that had arisen. Ukrainians talked about independent Ukraine, Georgians about independent Georgia, Latvians, Estonians and others formed their national units. Makijonek turned his gaze towards Poland, which he had never forgotten.
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Workshop news:
Work is underway to place the Tsar's bows on the wings. I decided to paint the above-mentioned markings, because the difference in my opinion between decals and painted markings is significant. The design of the masks was helped by the irreplaceable Tomek. Oramask foil and cutting at a specialist point. The whole thing is already shaded. It remains to fine-tune the details of the wings and you can apply oils. I also shaded the horizontal stabilizer and turned off the contrast of the decal, here he did not paint, the owl is a custom-made decal.
Regards
Lukasz
