P-39 Airacobras over Roumania and Captures, Info on Airacobras

I would like to know if any P-39 Airacobra were captured till 1944 by ARR , and howmany were shot down by ARR pilots, a family of a veteran who trained Russian pilots on P-39 and who ferried them to Vladivostock asked me for your help. I think inspite his limitations was a wonderful airplane and rather futuristically desigend for air to air , despite all this the Russians pilots except Koshedub and a few others couldnt properly master it ,unfortunately Hartmann , Rall, Krupinski , Backhorn brought many of them down , I also think Cantacuzino had a kill of it too.

Alex

This post has been edited by Victor on April 14, 2005 04:21 pm

From my sources it say Bochow who was an air ace himself , was shot down in vicinity of Stalingrad by a roumanian pilot

This post has been edited by Victor on April 14, 2005 04:23 pm

Here is the photo of Fadeev who was a an air ace himself was shot down by either a German or Roumanian pilot in 1943 somewhere sometime.



This post has been edited by Victor on April 14, 2005 04:24 pm

An other Russian Ace on P-39 , Glinka ( 30 air kills) he was was on the Ukranian and Basarabian fronts too

Alex

I belive we already talked about the P-39 before...
oan Mariciu,found himself once with a 39 at 12 o'clock.He fired bouth cannon and mg's,but he had him in the sight for only a fraction of a second,since bouth speed was hight.
He never knew what hapened to the 39,but he felt a burn at his left leg;a projectil passed thrue the engine,schrached his leg(I saw the scar) and went out by the tail.
Ju 88 pilot Dan Stoian,met a lot of 39's but wasn't impresed,and was much scared from the Yaks and Migs.

Also a IAR-80 fighter pilot Sgt Stana Vasile was credited with one P-39 shot down on 8 august '44 near Iasy.

Actually, that was on the 10th of August, according to the Combat Diary.
Incidentally, it was Adj. av. Stana's sole victory (that I know of).

Gen. Dénes

Iamandi, if you want to discuss with alexkdl do it via PM. If you want to moderate the forum wait until we need extra moderators and you qualify for it. Until then I expect you to dicuss the subjects on the forum and not comment on their usefullness, as you are in no position to do so. Do you actually want to think it over during a suspention?

Not the same can be said about cpt. av. Eusebie Popovici

On 21 September 1943, cpt. av. Popovici took off together with another 4 Ju-88A4s from the squadron he commanded (the 79th) to bomb a target near Balshoy-Tokmak. They knew that the objective was heavily defended both by AAA and fighters and the fact that they hadn't been provided with escorts didn't make them very optimistic. On the way to the Balshoy-Tokmak they were intercepted by 12 Soviet fighters. After their first pass the Ju-88A4 no. 115A on the extreme left simply exploded. Soon they entered in Soviet AAA barrage as they were preparing to bomb. The P-39s disengaged, but reappeared after the Romanian bombers had dropped their cargo and were returning home. Again, the airplane on the extreme left of the formation was hit and forced to crash-land (in friendly lines). They descended to tree-top level in order to reduce the fighters' room for maneuver. But still the lead airplane was hit, burst into flames and hit the ground. There were only two Ju-88As remaining. Cpt. av. Popovici's bomber was hit by several bullets. But the machine-gunners managed to shoot down one of the attackers, which disengaged after this. But their troubles weren't over yet. As cpt. av. Popovici was landing, the undercarriage leg which had been damaged during combat broke and the aircraft belly-landed. This was one of the most terrible days of the elite 5th Bomber Group.

Hello Victor, this message is extermly useful and resourceful , where was the base of this squadron when the Russian target was attacked ...do you have any photos of Popovic squadron from that time . Do you know about Popovic faith after the war.....was the P-39 confimed for his gunner ?

Many thanks
Alex

This post has been edited by alexkdl on December 23, 2004 04:05 pm

Follow the link (click on Popovici's name) and all your questions will be answered.

hello Victor, I looked into my squadron memorries book I got 20 years ago from the Kampfgeschwader Edelweis KG/51 which operated JU-88 series aircrafts at a ceremony at Memingen Air Base in Germany and I found something very interesting which I would like to post on here. Photos were included on the Sqd records by Hauptmann Hahn Kommodore KG/51 who was shot down at Tirsapol on February 1942 on his JU-88 and perished with the entire. Crew the photos are related to an unknown Roumanian Bombing Grp of JU-88 bombarding a Soviet airfield and road to the airfield with splitter bombs ....I would wonder if these photos were taken by the 5th Roumanian bombing Grp . Yes I red about Popovic in the past , I couldnt find any photos or additional details.

Al

This post has been edited by alexkdl on December 23, 2004 06:00 pm

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The attachments are working now.

Thanks Dragos, on the same topic about the Roumanian JU88 based in Russia , I am posting an additional photo from the EDELWEISS KG Albums...is a JU88 Luftwaffe who flew in formation with ARR planes in Basarabia rammed ( method called by the Soviets pilots in WWII , Taran ) by a Soviet fighter. The the right elevetor is gone and the vertical stabilizer is severly bended ..the crew bailed out over Basarabia ....It doesnt say on that book if is a Roumanian of Lufwaffe crew who shot that spectacular photo. The photo on the top are 5th ARR Bomb Grp bomb hits on a railway in Basarabia

Al

This post has been edited by alexkdl on December 23, 2004 06:10 pm

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What variant of '80 had fly this pilot when he obtained this victory? P-39 was pretty heavy armoured, and certainly was hard to shot down him with 6 mg's, even with 2 of them with 13,2 m.m. cal. 120 Kilos of armour? Or i have some "bad sectors" in my memory? I remember right about Cobra King - 58 kilos... Good enough for an airplane with air to ground majoritary use (russian service).
A thing was too bad for russians: USA not send armour piercing projectile for 37 m.m. guns.

Iama