He was born to a poor peasant family, but through courage and good fortune managed to become an officer in the Imperial Russian Air Service.

After surviving extremely dangerous infantry combat, he trained as a pilot, and was subsequently credited with 11 aerial victories during World War I.

He served short spells in the Royal Air Force, the Volunteer Army of Anton Denikin, Handley Page and SNETA.

The Russian emigrant subsequently piloted for KLM for the next 25 years, pioneering air routes to the Dutch East Indies in the process.

After a short spell of training, the unit went into ferocious combat in the Battle of Łódź; the barely-trained regiment suffered severe casualties both from its well-schooled German foe and from the foul weather.

Concerning this period, Smirnov later remarked, "We were thrown in as mere gun fodder...." He also noted that his contingent of 90 soldiers was rapidly reduced to 19 by casualties.

[2] Smirnov trained for 18 days at Petrograd, progressing to flying 3.5 hours dual instruction with an instructor on a Caudron trainer.

On 10 September 1916, Efreitor Smirnov qualified as a military pilot, on a Morane-Saulnier L.[2] He was then assigned to the elite 19th Korpusnoi Aviatsionniy Otrad (19th Corps Aviation Detachment) at Lutsk.

Differing railway gauges and incompetent staff logistic work delayed the fighter unit's arrival at its new base until 6 April 1917.

As a result, Smirnov did not fly combat again until 18 April, when he closed within 50 meters firing range of an enemy plane, but failed to down it.

Intermixed with these successes, Smirnov flew escort missions for the huge Sikorsky Ilya Muromets bombers on both 2 and 12 September, but encountered no opposition.

[1][3][2] The political turmoil of the October Revolution now affected the unit, with the local Revolutionary Military Committee usurping command in December 1917.

Their journey took them through the ports of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Saigon, and Singapore; they had to escape confinement in a prisoner of war camp in the latter.

Through the intercession of Air Vice-Marshal Sefton Brancker, they were retrained at the Central Flying School at Upavon on Bristol F.2 Fighters, Avro 504Ks, and Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5as.

[1] He carried passengers in SPADs and Airco DH.9s until in September 1921 a hangar fire consumed his assigned aircraft, leaving him jobless.

Engine failure brought them down on the Goodwin Sands of the English Channel, necessitating a rescue by the collier Primo before incoming tides submerged the aircraft.

[2] In September 1928, Smirnov pioneered the postal route from Amsterdam to Batavia, Dutch East Indies for KLM, an 18,000 mile round trip.

van Beukering) set a record time of 100 hours and 35 minutes on this route, flying a Fokker F.XVIII dubbed Pelikaan ("Pelican").

[2] At the time of the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, Smirnov and his wife lived in Napels, which since the outbreak of World War II had functioned as the terminal of the KLM route to the East Indies.

Though returned to military flying as a (reserve) captain in the army aviation corps, he remained also active as a civilian pilot.

Although wounded five times in the arm, the ex-fighter pilot threw his transport into a diving spiral away from the attacking fighters to make his escape.

[2] His Second World War exploits brought him the Dutch Distinguished Flying Cross, the French Croix de Guerre, and installation as Knight of the Order of Orange Nassau from the Netherlands.

The plane in which they flew would be a travelling stockroom, loaded with colour films, scale models, give-away samples and literature in many languages.

The Sky Merchant, a Douglas DC4, was to travel a route of 80.000 kilometres, crossing the equator six times, visiting all five continents, twenty-eight countries and forty-five principal cities.

[citation needed] Postwar, Smirnov was eventually grounded for medical reasons after 30,000+ flying hours, but remained with KLM as a senior advisor until his retirement in August 1949.

After Margot's death from cancer in July 1947 he married the American heiress Mina (Niki) Redwood in September 1948 in New York.