Dobran Ion

[D13-th_Mytzu]

On February the 5th it was mister Dobrans 86th birthday, so me and some squad mates decided to make a present for him:




I met today Mr. Dobran, it was a fascinating visit.. I wrote a little about this visit on a romanian forum, for those of you who understand romanian please read it here: http://ram.rdsnet.ro/forum/index.php?act=S...81&t=3752&st=30

[C-2]

Did you had that feeling Mytzu?
Every time I'm leaving Dobran's house,I'ts like a dream.A pleasant one...

[D13-th_Mytzu]

Indeed I had it C2, it was unique !

[D13-th_Mytzu]

Here is some kind of english version to what I wrote in the romanian forum (not exact translation - not even close lol):

Today I had the privillege and honor of meeting romanian ww2 veteran and fighter ace Dobran Ion.On February the 5th it was mr. Dobrans 86th birthday, so me and some other squadron mates decided to make him a gift, we made a poster with mr Dobran escorting romanian Ju88's on the eastern front, actually for doing so we used info from his book (he published his war diary after the comunsim fell in december '89, untill then it was forbidden to do so, most of the romanian pilots who served on the eastern front actually ended up in prisons or forced labour camps just for taking part in the war against USSR) and the info we got from a book written by a romanian Ju88 pilot - Dan Stoian, the two graduated in same year 1941 and knew eachother, actually they both mention about a mission in their books where mr. Dobran escorted Dan Stoian's Ju88 (on 26th september 1943).We wanted to make a poster with him escorting romanian bombers and not shooting down soviet or us fighters for a simple reason: most missions that romanian fighter pilots had were escort missions for romanian or german bombers, only few ... very few... missions were free hunt (that would also explain the low number of aerial victories) however the romanian motto was "Let all escort fall, but let no escorted plane go down !"

So, today I called mr. Dobran when I was at work and established a meeting for 17:00.Fortunatelly I managed to find the adress just in time, so at 17:00 sharp I was infront of his house and he was waiting for me outside.He invited me in and I stpped in his "little private museum" a collection of ww2 pictures, books and memories.He started to show me the books he had regarding Romanain Airforce during ww2 - a very nice and complete collection I may add - and my attention was focused on a certain magazine that contained funny drawings made by a ww2 pilot named Scripcaru Vasile (he died during the war), ofcourse we started to look at all drawings and it was quite amuzing.Afterwards he showed me some articles he wrote in some magazines - one of them being about a fight that happened betwen him and a P51 on D-Day but above Romania - it is quite interesting because he never knew what happened to the stang he shot but late after the war that pilot also published his diary and someone made the connection betwen the two pilots' stories After that he showed me his ww2 photo-album and ofcourse each pic had its own story I told him that for us all of them are heroes, but he tried to tell me many times that they are no heroes, that they only did what any other generation in their place would have done and that it is not their merrit but it was the history who threw them into that war, I told him that the way they faced those events is their own merit and none can deny it ! We talked for about 2.5 hours when I decided to leave - mr. Dobran's health is not that good and I noticed he felt tired.I am very sorry I wasn't able to record our conversation, it was something absolutely wonderful !


This is the poster we made for him:

up it says: "Let all escorts fall, but let no escorted plane go down !"

Down it says: "For mr. Ion Dobran's 86th aniversary"


This is a picture I took in his house today:




Here is a picture of me, mr Dobran and a very good friend of mine:
(his grandfather was also a fighter pilot in the elite 7th FG, he fell at Stalingrad)





And here are some pictures of Mr. Dobran during ww2:

he is the one in the right (with glasses and hair in the wind):



I guess he is the one in the top



He is second from left ro right (the one holding his hands infront):



In his 109-G cockpi:








Here are some linsk for more info about him: http://www.worldwar2.ro/arr/p003.htm

http://www.worldwar2.ro/arr/dobran.htm

This post has been edited by D13-th_Mytzu on March 03, 2005 10:11 pm

[Dénes]

I fully agree. Mr. Dobran is a true gentleman.
La multi ani!

Dénes

[alexkdl]

I guess insotire reffers to INSOZIRE ( escort) was the painter not Rumanian or I cant see the T (Z) too well ? also why Serbanescu wore his ARR Mihai pilot wings badge in such a exotic way ? I saw this on other Serbanescu uniform photos

Thanks
Alex

This post has been edited by alexkdl on March 04, 2005 05:38 pm

[D13-th_Mytzu]

Alex I really don't know when I am going to see Mr. Dobran again - this was the second time in my life when I saw him, so I cannot promise anything regarding those pics you made.

Denes I saw your book about Hungarian Airforce at mr Dobran's place but I didn't see the 2 books about Romanian Airforce.

[C-2]

Alex,I see Mr Dobran often,I'll give him the photos.

[Fratello]

Happy Birthday to Mr. Ion Dobran ! (I know is later because his birthday was one month ago but...)
Great pilot and Great man.

[D13-th_Mytzu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVAF4GoOktM

[C-2]

Like our friend from Brasil Julio say P a wast without eng subtitels.