RAF/Commonwealth operations over Romania, recce, night bombings, targets, losses

I received an email from Mr. Paul R. Long, son of one of the airmen from 150 Squadron flying over Romania. He is the host of a website dedicated to 150 Squadron (205 RAF Group) and he kindly answered to my invitation to participate in this topic.

I will fragment the letter on different subjects:


BOOK ON RAF OVER ROMANIA


"There is an excellent book on RAF night operations over Romania during WW 2. It lists all of the ops and losses on the various targets. I believe that it may be out of print now but here is the information:

Through Darkness To Light, Patrick MacDonald, 1994, Images Publishing
ISBN 1 897817 17 7

MacDonald was the British Air Attache in Bucharest during the 1980's and became interested in why there were so many RAF graves in the graveyard at Tincabesti
From that he worked backwards and was able to contact many of the surviving 205 Group aircrew - most of whom are now passed away.

He covers the mining of the Danube (one of 205's most daring ops), attacks on railcentres like Turnu Severin, Timisoara, and the oil ports such as Giurgiu as well as 4 nighttime attacks on the oil fields at Ploesti.
There were also three large raids on the Industrial Centre of Bucharest itself.

All were done flying Wellington X's out of the airfields at Foggia, Italy as well as Liberator Mk. VI and Halifax Mk II's acting as pathfinders. If you can get a copy of this book through an on line used book dealer it will be of tremedous help to you. An excellent account of the airwar in Romania!" (Paul R. Long)


As you can see, MacDonald in his book states that Halifax Mk II's were acting as pathfinders. The Halifax were flying ahead the group and launched magnezium flares to illuminate the targets.

Also, I was surprised finding out that RAF bombed Timisoara too. I saw Timisoara marked on the targets map but I thought they never came to bomb it.

Barbosu

This post has been edited by Barbosu on February 24, 2005 11:16 am

Here is the mentioned book front cover

Al

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Great! Do you actually have the book? Paul Long says it's probably the best book on this subject!

And here is the rest of Paul's email related to the Wellington found in Comana lake.

Paul R. Long:

"The aircraft you mention was Wellington X serial number JA 524 using fuselage codes JN-Q which was lost on the night of 6/7 of May 1944 - the crash site is given as Comana (15 Km. South of Bucharest)
The crew were all killed and buried at Tincabesti after the war:

W/O S. Clarke )pilot)
Sgt. L.W. Cox (Navigator)
Sgt. R.P. Scott (Bomb Aimer)
Sgt. C.G/ Walker (Wireless Op)
Sgt. G.S. Vaughan ( Rear Air Gunner)

The target that night was Bucharest.

The Group that night put up 6 Halifaxes, 3 Liberators and 52 Wellingtons. Defenses that night shot down 1 Liberator, 1 Halifax and 3 Wellingtons. MacDonald gives a very detailed look at this raid.

My late father flew as a Navigator/Bomb Aimer on targets at Giurgiu, Timisoara and Bucharest. He flew a total of 38 operations between November 1943 and July 1944 with 150 Squadron.

I hope that you might find this book as all of the research has been done on all of the raids over Romania by 205 Group RAF as well as a running commentary on raids by the 15th USAAF.

I will be pleased to be part of your web forum.

Good luck

Regards

Paul R. Long"


OBSERVATIONS

1. There is a discrepancy regarding the plane's number: Aeronautica gives a 525 Q and Paul, 524 Q, probably quoting Macdonald book. I'll ask him to check again.

2. That night were shot down 5 airplanes. Maybe the Liberator downed was the one mentioned by Cantacuzino crashed near Budeni.

It could be from 178 sq or one of the SAAF (South African Air Force) squadrons from the 205 RAF Gorup.

Barbosu

Hi Cipi,

Did any Lancasters flew over Romania?

Afcourse, many details about these operations are gonna be posted soon.

I'm probably wrong but I wasn't aware of any Lancs in operation out of Italy until mid-late 45. All my Operations Records that I have from 205 Group all flew Wimpy's, Libs and Halibags. I have ORBs for 178 Squadron, 614 Squadron, 31 Squadron SAAF, 34 Squadron SAAF, 40 Squadron, 70 Squadron, 37 Squadron. Not a single mention of Lancs being used in operations over Romania.
Unless they were Bomber Command Lancs Operating out of England?

Hello Barbosu I made it here feel free to quote me and I'll dig out some Orbs for you.

I am about to get the book and that may clarify some operational details into Rumania...I am not aware of Lancasters and Musquitos operated over Rumania by RAF and that emerges from "Bomber " Harris memoires too ..I would welcome any evidences from RAF or British or US books , most the Rumanian books on WWII as well older reports are not very accurate . I noticed repeatedly errors of these books about ARR, 15th AF , RAF and even Luftwaffe....

I recently also bought a non Rumanian book about WWII Soviet aces of Osprey....there are so many errors and pilot photos wrongly identified by the author..I wish that all these books would adopt Denes historical accuracy ( ARR Aces and ARR ij WWII)

Alex

Hi G. and welcome to this forum and I'll be looking foward to your posts.

Barbosu

PS. Check for a PM on your forum

This post has been edited by Barbosu on February 24, 2005 02:51 pm

Below some elements of the wreck found at the crashed place a year after the rom. authority clean the area. ( courtesy Dan Melinte )



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Recruiting poster for RAF bomber crews in WWII.


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Below the picture ( from Tancabesti) with the exact number of Commonwealth looses over Romania in WWII. ( courtesy Dan Melinte )


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A page from "La chasse de nuit Germano-Roumaine" (courthesy of Dan Melinte)
we can see details about the "recover" of the welington, there are no museums that present any pice from this plane.

This post has been edited by cipiamon on February 25, 2005 09:20 am

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