Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

80 years ago today: Hero fighter pilot saves Sofia

Dimitar Spisarevski crashed his own plane into an American bomber during the Second World War.

The gravestone of the World War II hero Dimitar Spisarevski.
Photo: Wikipedia

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the day when fighter pilot Dimitar Spisarevski saved the city of Sofia during the Second World War. He died defending the capital from American bombing. On 20 December 1943, during a night-time bombing raid, the 27-year-old pilot shot down two American bombers, but when he ran out of ammunition to shoot down the second plane, he used his own plane as a battering ram, losing his own life. 
He has since been dubbed "the human torpedo" and his actions are studied in many air combat textbooks, BTA recalls. Although there were 36 Bulgarian aircraft in the bombing raid and the enemy had about 200, the Bulgarian squadron entered the air battle, shot down three bombers and seven enemy fighters and managed to delay the air attack on Sofia. Officers Dimitar Spisarevski and Georgi Kyumurdzhiev were killed in action. Spisarevski was posthumously awarded the Order of Valour and promoted to the rank of Colonel.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Levski's notebook is a whole universe revealing many faces of the Apostle of Freedom

Vasil Levski is a Bulgarian revolutionary and national hero who fought for the Liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire. He is an ideologist, founder and organizer of the Internal Revolutionary Organization, for which grateful..

published on 2/18/25 10:20 AM

The Bulgarian church of Saint Ivan Rilski will open in London on February 22

Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil will celebrate the first liturgy in London for the consecration of the new church of the Bulgarian Orthodox community in the British capital - the church of Saint Ivan Rilski. T he church is part of the Bulgarian Embassy..

published on 2/17/25 11:21 AM

The Church of St. Haralambos in Bulgaria's Shabla keeps the faith of generations alive

Every year on February 10, the feast of St. Haralambos   , Bishop of Magnesia, is celebrated with special solemnity in a small Bulgarian town in the northernmost part of the country's Black Sea coast . For Shabla and its residents, this is the..

published on 2/10/25 6:05 AM