Rudolf Rudi Cajevac is a partisan pilot who is considered as one of the pioneers of partisan aviation, together with Franjo Kluz.
He was born on 1st April 1911 in Kakanj.
After the capitulation of Yugoslavia, IN April 1941, he was in Banja Luka as a chief of the Office for colonization. He established a connection with the National liberation movement, found a way to deliver ammunition, medical supplies and information for a free territory.
At the Banja Luka Airport, he connected with the pilot Franjo Kluz and an aircraft mechanic Milutin Jazbec, with whom he was preparing a flyover to the free territory. They succeeded in May 1942, they landed to the Airport Urije near Prijedor with the plane “Brege 19“.
During the first combat flight on 4th July 1942, Rudi Cajevac threw leaflets above Banja Luka and attacked the airport “Zaluzani“. In the last attack above the airport, Rudi was wounded due to the activities of the enemy PMO and haven’t succeeded to reach a free territory due to a damage on the airplane, He was forced to land near the village Kadinjani. He committed a suicide because he didn’t want to fall in the hands of an enemy alive.
A flyover of Cajevac and Kluz was an inspiration for a war movie “Partisans’ squadron“, that was filmed in 1979.
In a memory of Rudi Cajevac, a street in Kakanj in which he was born was named after him, and his statue was placed in the Museum of Kakanj. One of the former leading factories in the field of electrical industry in the former Yugoslavia was also named after him.
In the time of Yugoslavia, a postage stamps with the image of Cajevac and Kluz were printed.
(Source: novovrijeme.ba)
