Finally, Štefánik wanted to return home to see his family. He decided to fly from Campoformido by Udine in Italy and to use an Italian military plane, a Caproni 450. On May 4, 1919 around 11am, his plane tried to land near Bratislava (which was a military conflict area between the First Republic of Czechoslovakia and the Hungarian Soviet Republic at that time), but crashed near Ivanka pri Dunaji. Štefánik died along with two Italian officers. The reason for the plane crash is disputed. The official explanation at that time was that the airplane crashed due to bad weather accidentally. "Just at that time Šrobár and all his government left Bratislava to Skalica to plant trees as a memorial of the founding of the new Czechoslovak Republic.[4] It is also unlikely that[clarification needed] his plane was shot down by Hungarian communists standing on the middle of the Franz Joseph bridge of Bratislava.[4] Another rumour at the time claimed that the Italian plane identification colours were mistaken for similar ID colours of Hungarian planes, and as such, the un-announced, unknown airplane was shot by the Czecho-slovak army. Štefánik’s sudden death, in combination with his preceding quarrels with Beneš, contributed to Slovak suspicion towards the Czechs during the First Republic of Czechoslovakia.[4] Štefánik's tomb was built in 1927-28 on the Bradlo hill in Brezová pod Bradlom. The monumental yet austere memorial was designed by Dušan Jurkovič.
93 years since the death of Gen. Milan Rastislav Štefánik
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Thank you for that interesting & moving story.
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