Romanian vs American pilots

[johnny_bi]

Which wah the most succesful action of the Romanian pilots against the US bombers and then the US fighters ?

[Victor]

Without a doubt the greatest ARR success against USAAF fighters is 10 June 1944, when the 6th and 7th Fighter Groupd clashed with the P-38s of the 1st and 82nd Fighter Groups.

Second comes the 9th Fighter Group with 26 July 1944, but which was a lso a really sad day for us.

[johnny_bi]

Which was the score ?

[Victor]

http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/romania.htm

Here you will find a very interesting on the raid (Last glory day ofthe 6th FG).

The IAR-80 pilots claimed 23 P-38s, but in fact only 14 were shot down. On the whole, the Axis claimed 51 fills that day, but the Americans lost only 23 aircraft. The USAAF claimed 33, but only shot down 14 (mostly unarmed training aicraft).

On 26 July the 9th FG claimed 11 P-38s, but lost 7 aircraft and 6 pilots.

[misko]

What happened with remaining 9 P-38s (out of 23)? Damaged or not?

[Victor]

They were brought down by Luftwaffe or Romanian Bf-109Gs.

[misko]

Dear Victor,
I probably expressed my self wrong.
As I was reading there was 23 (some sources even mentioned 24!) killz over P-38s on that day by the IAR-80 pilots. You've menioned that only 14 was in fact shot down - so Im wondering if remaining 9 a/c were fake claims or maybe they were damaged but pilots of P-38s managed to land them on some other theritories under Allied control?
Hope Im more clear now?

[Dénes]

QUOTE

The IAR-80 pilots claimed 23 P-38s, but in fact only 14 were shot down.

The 71st F.S. of the 1st F.G. - the I.A.R. 81Cs of Gr. 6 vân. clashed with over Popesti-Leordeni airfield - reported seven Lightnings lost over Rumania and an 8th one over Bulgaria.

QUOTE

On the whole, the Axis claimed 51 fills that day, but the Americans lost only 23 aircraft.

Eventually, the Rumanian authorities reduced the total number of enemy aircraft confirmed as destroyed on June 10, 1944 to 18 downed by all Axis fighters, and seven by Flak defenses, the destruction of three more airplanes being shared between fighters and flak. That's almost half of the initial Axis claims. Even so, the discrepancy between reported USAAF losses and confirmed Axis 'kills' is five airplanes (the USAAF actually lost 24 Lightnings, one being shot down over Bulgaria).

Dénes

[PanzerKing]

That's pretty sad when 14 kills ranks in as your greatest day...

I didn't mean that in a negative way, it just shows that the Axis were taking a beating. Am I wrong?

[misko]

Thanks Dénes!
I was afraid that I had some wrong data and I just wanted to clear this out since in the small text Im writing this story makes an introduction so I wouldnt like to make a mistake on the begining... hope you know what do I mean...