Bomber Pilot

Born: 24 November 1912, Iasi

Units:

• 3 August - 16 October 1941: 6th Bomber Group
• Operations Bureau of the Air Force Command
• ? Air Region
• Air General Staff

Combat missions: 42

Victories: -

Decorations:

• Virtutea Aeronautica Order Knight class

War episode:

On 5 August 1941, the newly formed 6th Bomber Group flew its first mission. The P.23 no. 12, flown by cpt. av. Deica, the CO of the 73rd Bomber Squadron, joined a formation of IAR-37s from the 18th Squadron in a raid on a village where concentrations of Soviet troops had been spotted. The objective of the mission was, however, to establish how well could cooperate the two types of aircraft of the 6th Bomber Group. They took off at 13:40. When they reached the river Dniester, the weather worsened and the visibility dropped. The formation was disorganized. Cpt. av. Deica and his crew remained alone. Still they found the objective and bombed it. Several fires were observed in the village and the AAA retaliated, but the Romanian bomber returned safely to the airfield. Following this mission the P.23s and IAR-37s did not execute any more joint raids.

Died: 15 June 2002, Bucharest