18 Aug. 1944.The day Serbanescu died...

Reshuffling an old topic, but also connected with my recent topic on Romanian Messerschmitt Bf 109 Gs, and with the needed grain of salt, without which we would be playing with a person's reputation: was that true, was it possible?

I think the reality of the Romanian fighter groups those days, confronted with swarms of attackers and seeing their comrades shut down was a horrific one, and no one has the right today to judge the behavior in such situations, but... wasn't that the case for a Court Martial trial, especially when the action was repeated?

Could it be caused by sheer terror? How come then he was sent to an elite fighter group, and not, say, to a fighter school, auxiliary unit, etc, especially under those circumstances? Were there other such instances, with some other pilots involved? What happened with Lt. Constantin Bendaș afterwards?

This post has been edited by Agarici on June 25, 2016 10:13 pm

I know the issue raised above is complicated, but... no idea about that?

C-2, Denes, Radub, no suggestion?

This post has been edited by Agarici on July 27, 2016 08:23 pm

Hi Guys

Regarding the photo with Ludwig Neubock, he was apparently severely injured on 6th April 1944 when on a transfer flight from Odessa to Tecuci, he was struck by a "storch" which sliced 90cm of his wing, his aircraft then plummeted 100 metres into the ground. Neubock first went to the Tucuci hospital, then transferred to Germany, he did not return to combat until August 1944 when he became Staffelkapitan of 11./JG52, seemed he made one claim whilst with 9th Romanian fighter group on 22nd February 1944 when he claimed(his 23rd) a Jak at 1215 hrs. So the photo should be prior to 6th April 1944.

Stengl made many claims during this period, but most were never confirmed:-

22nd February 1944 Jak- 1217 hrs Nr.2
30th May 1944 P-39 15km NW Lasi 0940 hrs Nr.3
31st May 1944 Il-2 20km NE Lasi 1140 hrs Nr.4
1st June 1944 P-39 15km NW Tudora 1125 hrs Nr.5
?? June 1944 P-38 Forcani area(without witness) u/c
11th June 1944 B-17 0955 hrs Nr.6
He then claims two further B-17's in July/August 1944, but they were not confirmed.
Regarding the P-38 he claimed, Stengl himself states that it was July1944, but I believe June 1944, he states that he was with three Romanain pilots and saw four P-38's below, he said "four against four, let's attack", so he dove down and shot down one of the four P-38's, but the Romanians did not follow him, so he was very angry because he lost the claim due to lack of a witness.

Can any body please tell me the dates the US had aircraft over Romania, and we might be able to establish a date for Stengl's P-38.


Kind Regards


Johannes

The US bombed Romania in 1944 almost exclusively with B-24s, and these were often escorted by P-38 and/or P-51
In June 1944 the US bombed on
6 June Ploiesti, Brasov, Galati
10 June Bucuresti, Ploiesti (P-38 only, raid at low level)
11 June Giurgiu, Constanta, Focsani
23 June Ploiesti, Giurgiu
24 June Ploiesti, Craiova, Piatra Olt
28 June Bucharest