Alexander Kozakov was born in Kherson, Russia, on 15th January 1889. Educated at military school, Kozakov entered the Russian Army in 1908. After serving in the Russian cavalry, Kozakov transferred to the Russian Army Air Service in 1913. Flying a French Morane-Saulnier, Kozakov scored his first victory in the spring of 1915 by ramming his opponent. In August 1916 Kozakov was given command of the 1st Combat Air Group. In 1917 Kozakov was active over the skies of Rumania where he scored eight more victories. He was wounded on 27th June 1917 and was still out of action when Russian withdrew from the war. Kozakov's twenty victories made him the leading flying ace in the Russian Army Air Service. In June 1918 Kozakov joined the British Joint Military Forces at Murmansk. On 1st August 1919, Alexander Kozakov was killed while flying a loop. Depressed by the withdrawal of British forces from Russia, it is generally believed that Kozakov committed suicide. On the evening of August 1, 1919, ignoring an invitation to a farewell dinner for British pilots, he took off in a Sopwith only to crash to his death a few moments later. Having watched Kozakov pull a loop at low altitude and stall the plane,Ira Jones concluded the Russian Ace of Aces "brought about his own death and staged it in the most dramatic manner."
The classic book on Kozakov and his contemporaries is The Imperial Russian Air Service by Alan Durkota, Thomas Darcey and Victor Kulikov, ISBN 0 9637110 2 4. It's packed with information, including biographies, detailed victory lists, photographs, scale drawings and colour aircraft profiles. Gareth
I found this Gareth !! And then found this ...... http://books.google.com/books?id=B1...book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#PRA1-PA649,M1
I can't resist posting this photo of my model of Kazakov's Morane-Saulnier Type N, which I completed about eighteen years ago! Note the deflection plates on the propellor - the Russians took even longer to get interruptor gear than the rest of the Allies.
Adrian Thanks for the great photo. Things were grim for the Russian fliers. Their equipment was often poor (no one else was desperate enough to try using the SPAD A-2 in combat, with the gunner perched in a pulpit in front of the propeller) and the conditions on the Eastern Front were really horrible. I can't imagine what it would be like in an open cockpit aeroplane aloft over the Russian Front in winter! The command structure often left something to desired as well. On the other hand, the Sikorsky Il'ya Mourometz multi-engined bomber was a world-beater, and the DUKS-built Nieuports were pretty close to the French originals. Gareth
