“ We took two bombs on the plane for testing... These bombs were used en masse by our committees in Macedonia, they were also used here, near Edirne, that's why they were called “Edirne bombs“. The weather was magnificent, sunny... I took off at 9.30 – towards Edirne... I flew in a wide circle over the city and we reached the Karaagach station, where we dropped the bombs.“ – Lieutenant Radul Milkov
On October 29, 1912, during the First Balkan War, the first aerial bombardment by Bulgarian aviation over the infrastructure of the Ottoman Empire was carried out. Karaagach station near the city of Edirne is one of the first in history to be subjected to aerial bombardment and aerial reconnaissance with a strategic purpose.
This is recalled by the website InfoSpravka.com.
This happened on October 29 at 10 am, at the beginning of the siege of the Edirne fortress by the Bulgarian army. There is a report about the flight, which created the military standard for mandatory reporting of the circumstances and results of combat flights carried out by all warring parties in further history.
The "Albatross F-3" aircraft, manufactured in Germany, was piloted by Lieutenant Radul Mikov with observer and bombardier Prodan Tarakchiev. The flight began at 9:30 am from the airport near Mustafa Pasha (now Svilengrad) – the first military airport in history, created for a strategic purpose and lasting 1 hour and 20 minutes at an altitude of 500 m.
Two test bombs were taken into the plane and tied in an improvised way in baskets attached to the side so that they could be used from the air. The weather was “magnificent, sunny“. According to the reconnaissance task, the plane first headed for Edirne and flew “in a wide circle over the city“, as a result of which the location of the hidden Turkish units in another settlement was discovered.
After completing the main task, the pilots proceeded to the bombing. They headed for the Edirne railway station in the nearby village of Karaagach, where the bombing could cause the most significant material and moral damage to the enemy. Prodan Tarakchiev drops the bombs.
With four holes in the plane's fuselage, the pilots land safely in Svilengrad.