page_title: Pavel Argeyev
section_title: Return to France
hierarchical_section_title: Pavel Argeyev / Return to France
context_page_description: Capitaine Pavel Vladimirovich Argeyev, also known as Paul d'Argueev and The Eagle of Crimea, was a Russian-born flying ace of World War I, serving the French Armée de l'Air and Imperial Russian Air Service. Initially a high-ranking officer in the Imperial Russian Army, he transferred to France, where he became an aviator. He received a variety of decorations, both French and Russian, before dying in a flying accident in 1922.
context_section_description: In May 1918, as the Russian Revolution raged on, Argeyev returned to France due to the hostile attitudes of the Bolsheviks towards the Tsar's officer corps. Enlisting once more in the Armée de l'Air, he was assigned to Escadrille SPA.124, where he would spend the rest of the war.
  His first victory came only days after joining the squadron, when he downed an LVG C.II on June 1, 1918. Now flying a SPAD XIII, within the few months he spent in the French air force, he considerably expanded his victory score.
  Now sporting seven credited and one uncredited victory, he added two more on June 14 and 15 when he downed, respectively, a Rumpler C.I and another two-seater aircraft on successive days. He scored his tenth victory on June 26, another two-seater.
  Despite downing no aircraft in July or August, in September 1918 he scored three victories, bringing his total to 13. Firstly, a Fokker D.VII north of Cerny on September 27, followed by two kills the day after, two two-seater aircraft near Séchault at 10:10 am and 3:20 pm. He again scored a double victory on October 5, albeit one of them uncredited - another two-seater north-east of Autry at 11:25 am. However, he scored a credited victory in downing a Pfalz D.III at Orfeuil at 6:25 pm.
  His final victory of the war came on October 30, 1918, only 12 days before the end of the war. He scored a victory against a two-seater aircraft at 3:40 pm near Quatre-Champs. By the end of hostilities, he had scored fifteen credited victories and two uncredited victories, making him Russia's third highest-scoring flying ace after Alexander Kazakov and Vasili Yanchenko.
caption: A SPAD XIII as flown by Argeyev in France in 1918.
exif: {}