Suffix for replacement ARR airplanes

I read in a book (luftwaffe colours volume 4 section 3 by bergstrom/berg) that the a prefix was used for replacement planes. why? why not a new number?

Good question. Letters as suffix (not prefix) were used on German-origin combat aircraft - on loan from the Luftwaffe - probably in order not to mix the total (highest) number of a certain type of aircraft received by ARR with the aircraft received as replacement (as all combat losses were supposed to be replaced by the Germans). Of course, there were exceptions, but I believe that was the reason behind this odd practice (which, by the way, greatly hinders the historians' efforts to find out the actual number of a certain type of aircraft employed by ARR).

Gen. Dénes

P.S. Please quote the source of the photo you posted.

This post has been edited by Dénes on May 15, 2006 06:44 pm

Impressive picture, Java, thanks for sharing with us.

Iama

qoute" Gen. Dénes

P.S. Please quote the source of the photo you posted.

end qoute"

i wrote in first post "(luftwaffe colours volume 4 section 3 by bergstrom/berg)"

isnt that enough? what else should i write?

kind regards

JaVA

It wasn't clear if the photo came from the same source as well, or only the note you read.

Gen. Dénes

ahh ok. the pic is from mentioned book.

Thanks for the comment on the "a" Was this done for all axis or only for romanians?
Must say it the first time i have seen such a thing.

is it known who flew it? and possible nr 1 aswell? further info is that this pix was taken in '44

note that wheel fairings are missing

bit ot but it would make something to model this scene

'Yellow 1' in the background could be Cpt. av. Alexandru Serbanescu's personal mount.
As for who flew 'White 43a', it depends on the exact date the photo was taken.
Finally, I really have no clue whatsoever who flew the Me 323 Gigant in the background.

Gen. Dénes

I confirm that "yellow 1" from this particular picture is Cpt. Serbanescu mount in spring-summer '44.

For more details (color profiles, pictures ) try this links

http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=2750

http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?showtopic=2086&st=15

Now a silly question: what happened if such a a suffix plane i.g. shot down. What suffix did it get then?

If the plane shot down had suffix "a" the next will be with suffix "b"

thought so

probably know but here a web page with Alexandru Şerbănescu in it.

again the yellow 1 from this site http://www.elknet.pl/acestory


There are some diferent colours in the profile in above site and the one that was presented in a thread in this forum ( see above link and the link in this thread)

wich one would be most authentic?

another question

it's said that with the introduction of the me 109 g6 20 romanian plots went to jg3 ( March '43) This to get to know the plane and to take benefit from the expierence of jg 3 pilots.

What about the ground crews? Were they sent with them? Seems logical but i cant find confirmation.

AFAIK, only the pilots went to fight within JG 3. Everything else was supplied by the Germans.
The 20 Rumanian vânători deployed to Dnepropetrovsk-South a/f on 11 March 1943.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on May 17, 2006 07:35 pm

The one from this forum is a G-6 flown by Serbanescu in '44.
The one from the "WWII Aces Stories" is a G-2 flown by Serbanescu in '43 but the color profile is wrong (it should be "white1" not "yellow 1")

Title updated by Dénes