caption serviceyears laterwork branch death_date death_place birth_place allegiance unit awards battles birth_date nickname rank image article_title name
ivan middle years . smirnov after his military service , in his 1914-1917 ; 1919 ; 1942-1945 25 ii years with klm ; service in world war imperial u.s. army air forces russian air service ; royal air force ; 28 october 1956 majorca near vladimir , russian empire russian empire ; netherlands 19th corps aviation detachment cross , order of st. anna , 4th and 3rd classes of , order of st. stanislaus , 3rd class with swords st. , gold sword for bravery , order of st. vladimir george , 4th class with swords , serbian order of the -lrb- white eagle , french croix de guerre , netherlands knight all of the order of orange-nassau four classes -rrb- world war i ; world war ii 30 january 1895 `` earl of the goodwins '' captain bundesarchiv cropped.jpg bild 102-07771 , holländische indienflieger smirnoff und ahler ivan vasilyevich smirnov
 ivan vasilyevich smirnov
ivan vasilyevich smirnov

ivan vasilyevich smirnov -lrb- ; january 30 , 1895 -- october 28 , 1956 -rrb- was a russian world war i flying ace .
he was born to a poor peasant family , but through courage and good fortune managed to become an officer in the imperial russian air service .
after surviving extremely dangerous infantry combat , he trained as a pilot , and was subsequently credited with 11 aerial victories during world war i .
when the october revolution ended his participation in the war , he deserted and became an itinerant pilot .
he would serve short spells in the royal air force , the volunteer army of anton denikin , handley page and sneta .
the russian emigre subsequently piloted for klm for the next 25 years , pioneering air routes to dutch east indies in the process .
in december 1941 , smirnov returned to military flying during the frenzied air evacuation of dutch nationals .
after the dutch west indies were overrun by the japanese , he joined the u.s. air transport command .
despite official attempts to ground the aged and oft wounded pilot , he served through war 's end .
he then returned to klm .
after the inevitable grounding -lrb- after 30,000 + flying hours -rrb- , he continued with the company as its chief advisor .
he died in palma , majorca on 28 october 1956 .
