Petar Marinovich

=Lt. Petar Marinovich aka Pierre Marinovich=

Pilot, World War I, Armée de l'Air, Escadrille SPAD 94, N.38 Badge N.4910

Chevalier de la Legion of Honor, Croix de Guerre with ten palms

Pierre Marinovich was born August 1st, 1898 in Paris France of Serbia extraction, he volunteered for the duration of the war on February 12th, 1916 and was immediately assigned to the 27th Regiment de Dragons. On July 14th he transferred to aviation as a student pilot, and received a Military Pilots Brevet N.4910 on November 15th, 1916. After further training he was sent his GDE and on March 19th 1917 he was assigned to Escadrille N.38. Unfortunately, before he was able to see action he fell seriously ill and was sent with little hope of recovery to the hospital for several months. He proved the experts and doctors wrong and recovered well enough to return to duty. He was reassigned to Escadrille N.94, which was being forms near Châlons-en-Champagne. They were know as to all who flew as "The Grim Reaper" and adopted the "The Grim Reaper" as their logo and painted it prominently on the entire side of each of the Squadron planes. He was promoted almost immediately to Marechal-des-logis on July 26th 1917, and in recognition of his 3rd victory he received the Medaille Militaire on January 10th 1918 (Order N.6239). Then on February 20th, 1917 hey was again promoted to Adjutant. On July 26th 1918, he was made Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur citing his 13th victory. Followed very quickly by a temporary promotion to Sous Lieutenant that came on Oct 20th 1918. When the war ended Marinovich had earned 22 verified victories over enemy aircraft and was awarded France’s Croix de Guerre with ten palms.

Lt. Petar (Pierre) Marinovich was Austen Crehore's flying partner and best friend Austen Crehore who he often credited with saving his life early in his career with Escadrille No.94. As Marinovich told the story a German Plane was hot on his tail tearing it to shreds with machine gun fire. Austen Crehore barrel rolled in behind the German and took him out in one long machine gun burst. Marinovich often said publicly that he felt that he shared his victories with his friend that had saved him at the beginning of his career. Pierre Marinovich and Austen Crehore were the best of friends and Austen was present when he tragically witness his close friends death. In 1919 after the war was over Pierre Marinovich died in a senseless plane crash performing complicated aviation stunts to entertain the King and Queen of Belgium at Evere Airfield, Brussels, Belgium.

RELATED WW1 AVIATION LINKS:

[http://www.neam.org/lafescweb/honorroll.html] [http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.neam.org/lafescweb/images/lffcert_lg.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.neam.org/lafescweb/le_roster.html&h=510&w=628&sz=71&hl=en&start=6&um=1&tbnid=7b50FKnbs5qA6M:&tbnh=111&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dausten%2Bcrehore%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN] [http://www.100megspop3.com/bark/LafayeteEscadrilleMemorial.html] [http://docsouth.unc.edu/wwi/mcconnell/mcconnell.html] [http://www.century-of-flight.freeola.com/Aviation%20history/photo_albums/timeline/ww1_france.htm] [http://perso.orange.fr/rdisa/html/Pages/List%20of%20Pilots%20Fr.pdf] [http://www.stratisc.org/Arogers_6.htm] [http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/Nieuport-17/npt17_info/image3.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/Nieuport-17/npt17_info/nprt17_info.htm&h=283&w=585&sz=30&hl=en&start=6&um=1&tbnid=2k1HaCOt6xdWnM:&tbnh=65&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3DwwI%2Bfrench%2Bair%2Bcorps%2Bgrim%2Breaper%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DG] [http://afhra.maxwell.af.mil/avc/avc_intro_wwi.html] [http://www.ww1-propaganda-cards.com/dogfights.html] [http://www.corpusetampois.com/che-20-19170919etatsuniens.html] [http://perso.orange.fr/rdisa/html/Pages/MonumentEN.html]