Raid on Vienna in WW1?

[dragos03]

I found a mention about this in a book. In August 1917, a Romanian pilot (Dragusianu) made an offer to the Romanian government: he wanted to fly from Moldova to Paris, dropping some bombs on Vienna on the way. The government refused. Was such a raid technically possible in 1917?

In the same book (the memoirs of G. Marzescu), the author claims that the Czech prisoners in Russian camps asked (also in August 1917) to be commanded by Romanian generals and fight against the Central Powers on the Romanian front. The offer was rejected, probably because of the difficult supply situation.

[Victor]

Romania had many problems extracting from Russian camps KuK POWs of Romanian ethnicity. Extracting Czech ethnics would have been even harder.

[agblume]

i am aware of Sublocotenent Marcel Dragusanu a pilot who served in ESC.N.10, N.11 and N.3. he scored a victory with N.3 on 26.09.1917 (n.s.). i was not aware of his proposal to fly to Paris while bombing Vienna along the way. i doubt, with fuel and bomb load, he could have made it. it was certainly not possible on a Nieuport 11. as for Czechoslovak soldiers who were in Russian POW camps, they were allowed to form the Czechoslovak Druzhina, which later became an Army Corps within the Russian Army. eventually they were allowed to command their own own units. much of their early story can be found in the warchron chronology. cheers, august

This post has been edited by agblume on January 25, 2006 09:05 pm

[sid guttridge]

Hi Dragos03

There were probably no heavier-than-air craft in WWI capable of flying a bombing mission between the Eastern and Western Fronts at any time. Romania did receive some of its aircraft from the British, who flew them over Bulgaria from the Aegean, but even this was considered a great achievement at the time. A Moldova-France bombing mission was probably beyond even the technical capabilities of German Gotha or British Handley-Page heavy bombers at the time.

Cheers,

Sid.

[agblume]

at least one attempt was made to fly from the Allied Western Front to the Russian Front, i will have to search for the date and other details. it failed to reach the Russian lines and the aircraft and drew were captured.

on 11 June 1917 Russian military pilot Shtabs Kapitan M.F. Smolianinov of the 1st Turkestan KAO flew a captured German L.V.G. from Bolgrad across Bulgaria to join the Allies on the Macedonian Front. In September he safely flew back to Russia. perhaps this may be of interest to someone. cheers, august

[agblume]

on 20 June 1916 French pilot S/Lt. Marchal took off from Nancy (in France) on a specially equipped aircraft (type unknown) that carried 750 liters of fuel (with no observer). he passed over Germany and on 21 June was forced to land near Cholm still 100 km from Russian lines. He was captured by Austro-Hungarians and sent to the POW camp at Salzerburg. he must have been out of fuel and maybe
had strong head winds. cheers, august

[dragos03]

In the mentioned book, it is said that Dragusianu "is the one that flew from Salonic to Belgrade".

[Michal]

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, head of Czechoslovakian Resistance during WW1 and later first Czechoslovakian president seriously thought about possibility that Czechoslovakian Forces created in Russia from former Austro-Hangarian Prisoners (Česká družina) could fight on Rumanian Front. He had been ready to do it, but armistice between between Germany and Rumanian came earlier. The second possibility was to transfer Czechoslovakian Froces to France which could succesful did do only small part. Rest were blocked after Bolsheviks revolution at the Territory of Ukraine and later was able to fight way through Siberia and around all world to Czechoslovakia.