Romanian aces of WWI

And another question :
Why french pilots flown with french markings on their planes in romanian units air force ( 1916-1917) and were not forced by rom. authority to change it( overpaint)?. Two kinds of color marks could made problems to AA gunners at the first sight. Or maybe this was one of the answer for our issue. It is or not a problem to use both marks ? Or maybe was a waist time to overpaint the plane used by romanian anf french who took the imported planes via "Remiza Iasi" in 1917 without knowing before who could be the owner ( french or a romanian) to overpaint it or not.
I think what is a big problem for us today ( to be or not to be french marks?) it was a very simple issue on that trouble war days- doesn't matter as long as both sides( french and romanian) were agree about this !!!

Cheers,
Dan.

Below the Sgt.Texier Ni-11 in romanian sky ( with french marks).
Sgt.Texier ( 2 victories) lost his life defending Romania ( another motif to not overpaint french plane as long as they help us with the price of their life).
Picture coll.Valeriu Avram


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And another picture of a rom. Ni-11 on Garbovanul airfield ( french marks)
( coll.Muzeul de Istorie al Aviatiei )


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And another picture with romanian Major Rujinski near Ni-11 with french marks.
( coll.Valeriu Avram.)


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I am not sure that all the planes that were coming from France ( via Rusia) were allready payed . And how about the ones flown by french pilots were romanian or french property. If they were romanian property why not painted the same with rom.national color.

Cheers
Dan.

I am not a "specialist" in paint or colour, but the contrary - see my previous post related to colour airplane profiles and their reliability, or lack of, as historical tools.

By contrast, it is you, who appears to be much more versed in the issue of colours. I prefer to stick to documents and photos as much as possible, completed by educated guess.

As for the pigments needed for yellow paint, the answer is readily available on the internet. My Google search returned 92,000 hits for the following query: "yellow +paint +pigment".

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on January 24, 2005 05:07 pm

It has to do with a political decision and national pride and possibly the laws of war.
The French pilots' personal mounts wore French cockades because... their pilots were French, who are known to be rather proud people. The same can apply to Rumanian pilots, too.
Remember Dobran's story of how the Rumanian fighter pilots refused to fly German-marked '109Gs in the Ukraine in the Spring of 1943, even if they were subordinated to a main German fighter unit, JG3?

The difference between French and Rumanian cockades was much smaller than between Rumanian (or French) and Russian cockades - airplanes that were also active on the Rumanian front.
I think for the AA gunners it was enough to see if the airplane carries roundels or crosses - if they could see the markings at all.

Gen. Dénes

Denes, as you can see i found more and more pictures with french markings used by romanians so i will not give up and say it's only a "rarity" issue like you said.
The pictures never lie if you know to read them.
Cheers Dan.

P.S.: Thanks for the tip with yellow paint ( i will used on my next model projekt- the invisible plane )

How about this. A Sopwith Strutter in romanian air force with french marks.
Courtesy Razvan Bujor.



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I did not claim there were no W.W. 1-era Rumanian warplanes sporting French roundels. Based on the photos I reviewed, there obviously were. However, my initial point was also based on the photos I have seen, which demonstrate to me that it was rather the exception than the rule.

As for this '1-1/2 Strutter', it could very well be that it was taken right after its arrival to Rumania. It's normal, as the type represented a novelty and many people wanted to be photographed in front of it. It's just like you see a nice Ferrari (with Italian licence plates) on the streets of Bucharest and you want your picture to be taken in front of it...

Gen. Dénes

Further to the debate of the actual colours Rumanian airplane wore in W.W. 1, here is a quote from an official ARR document related to 1917:

Gen. Dénes

Locotenet observator Bădulescu and plutonier Iliescu Teodor Leu near a Breguet-14

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Lt. Gafencu was Grigore Gafencu, the later Romanian foreign ministry. During WWI he was an observer on a Farman 40 and it was said also an expert machinegunner with the Hotchkiss MG.

Romanian airmen that were awarded the Mihai Viteazul Order 3rd class during WW1:
1. lt. Ioan Penes (pilot), awarded by Royal Decree No. 385/29 April 1917, had taken part in 12 air combats by that date and in several bombing missions. On 24 March 1917 he was wounded, but he carried on his long range recon mission.
2. lt. Petre Ioanin (pilot), awarded by Royal Decree No. 570/12 June 1917, on 9 May 1917, while on a recon mission, he was attacked by an enemy Brandenburg airplane with two MGs, which he shot down in the Romanian lines at Cotofenesti.
3. slt. Dumitru Darian (observer), awarded by Royal Decree No. 570/12 June 1917, he was attacked by an enemy Brandenburg airplane with two MGs, which he shot down in the Romanian lines at Cotofenesti.
4. slt. Ermil Gheorghiu, awarded by Royal Decree No. 570/12 June 1917, on 30 April 1917, during a photo recon mission, he was gravely wounded after splinters hit him in the liver, but he carried on his mission. (he is the gen. Ermil Gheorghiu that commanded the 1st Air Corps during WW2 and was awarded the RK)
5. lt. av. Vasile Craiu (pilot), awarded by Royal Decree No. 626/23 June 1917, on 15 June 1917 he protected a Romanian airplane that was directing the artillery fire from the attack of three enemy aircraft. He was wounded, but managed to bring his aircraft back to the Romanian lines.
6. slt. Egon Nasta (pilot), awarded by Royal Decree No. 16/2 January 1918, had taken part in 30 air combats and in many recon missions. On 17 November 1917 he shot down an enemy aircraft at Racoasa.
7. slt. av. Gheorghe Stalpeanu (pilot), awarded by Royal Decree No. 677/23 March 1918, had distinguished himself on 13 August 1917 when, during a recon mission, was attacked by 3 enemy aircraft and he shot down one of them and the other two retreated quickly.
8. cpt. obs. Grigore Gafencu (obsever), awarded by Royal Decree No. 830/9 April 1918, executed several recon missions at Namoloasa and Marasesti, where between 3 and 6 August 1917 he distinguished himself. He engaged an enemy aircraft and shot it down. (he occupied important offices in the Foreign Affairs Ministry during the inter-war era)
9. slt. Marcel Dragusanu (pilot), awarded by Royal Decree No. 830/9 April 1918, on 13 September 1917 he shot down an enemy aircraft and on 5 October he attacked another enemy airplane and forced it to retreat back to its lines.
10. slt. Paul Mogaldea (pilot), awarded by Royal Decree No. 830/9 April 1918, distinguished himself on 25 october 1917, when over Marasti he engaged three enemy aircraft and shot down one of them.

Victor, following N. Petrescu-Comnen, G. Gafencu became the Romanian foreign ministry in 1939 (or late 1938). I think this was THE most important office in the Foreign Affairs Ministry

I recently received information about one of Gafencu's victories.
On 18 november 1917 Teodor Dumitrescu (Pilot) / Grigore Gafencu (Observer) in a Farman 40 of ESC.F7 shot down a balloon over Radautz.
Another Farman 40 of ESC.F7, crewed by Andrei Sisu (Pilot) / Vladimir Saulus (Russian Observer) shot down a balloon over Volovets, also on the 18th.