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Fighter Pilot
Born: 8 November 1921, Pausesti-Maglasi, Valcea
Units:
Combat missions: N/A
Victories: 7 + 1 probable
Decorations:
War episode:
On 23 September 1944, adj. av. Dumitru Chera was part of an IAR-81C patrulă (Schwarm), under the command of lt. av. Dumitru Baciu, which was directed to cover the airspace around Turda. Another patrulă was already there and had engaged some Luftwaffe fighters. Lt. av. Baciu ordered the attack, but they were also jumped by Bf-109Gs (from JG 52) and two of the four IAR-81s were shot down. The remaining Romanian celulă (Rotte), Baciu and Chera, turned and attacked the Bf-109s and each claimed one German. But the battle was not finished and they were engaged by four German fighters, which managed to split them up. Adj. av. Chera ended up with three of them on his tail. He decided to descend to low altitude, where his aircraft performed better, and headed for Turda. One of the Germans abandoned the chase, but the other two were hanging on. Adj. Chera was exhausted. One of the Germans gained some altitude and attacked. The Romanian pilot turned to avoid the bursts and came head on with the other one. Since he saw no other way out he decided not to give in. The German pilot did and Chera sent him a burst from the two 20 mm cannons and saw him going down near Vâlcele. The other one disappeared and he finally was able to safely land on the Turda airfield, after a mission he would never forget.
Died: 25 November 2004, Bucharest
@ 2002-2004