VVS kills in August 1940 in Moldavia

[Victor]

I stumbled recently upon some fragments of memoirs of a Romanian bomber observer, which in the summer of 1940 was assigned to the 18th Squadron at Barlad.
From there each day an IAR-37 or two flew an observation mission on the western bank of the river Prut, right up to Husi.
In early August (he does not say the exact date) an IAR-37 on such a mission was attacked by an I-153, which followed it deep inside Romanian territory. Two members of the crew were wounded: the pilot adj. av. Constantin Macri and the observer lt. av. Ion Nelca Ionescu, but they managed to make a forced landing near Vaslui and get the hell out of the damaged biplane, as the Chaika made several passes over it, firing.
The next day, another IAR-37 left on a similar mission, but this time escorted by a whole squadron of PZL fighters (most likely P.11f). An I-153 surprised the last PZL in the formation, shot it down and fled quickly over the Prut, before the others realized what happened. The pilot, adj. stg. av. Carol Herca was killed in the crash.

My questions to anyone (hopefully someone from Russia) who heard of these incidents are:
1.What were the exact dates of the attacks?
2. To what IAP belonged the VVS fighters?
3. Who were the pilots, which claimed the kills and were they confirmed?

Thanks in advance.

[Csaba Becze]

:shock:

Very interesting and unknown events for me (and I think, most of the foreigners)
Victor, you mentioned, that the Rumanian Blenheims flew some recon missions over Soviet territory in this time, and between Rumania and the Sovietunion had several border incidents, clashes.
The Soviets also flew over Rumanian territory with recon planes? Did your pilots try to shoot the intruders down?

Csaba

[daveh]

I was certainly unaware of any clashes between the Romanians and the Soviets in August 1940.

Were there any clashes on land?

[C-2]

For Daveh :I heard not long ago,from ARR pilot Eusebie Hladiuc,that during the Romanian retreat from Basarabia and Bucovina,which was suposed to be peaceful the Russians had some claches with Romanian army.They didn't respected the timing and advanced too quickly.
For Csaba Becze: ARR Blenheim's made long reco flights over Soviet teritories especialy over Stalingrad.You can read about Nicolae Traian in pilots section and soon a full interv.

[Victor]

There were skirmishes along the new frontier, especially in August 1940, during the negotiations with Hungary. I remember seeing somewhere the numberof incidents reported, but I will have to do some digging and get back to you.

There were incidents also during the retreat in June 1940, with casualties on both sides, but, again, unfortunately I do not know too many details, except several pieces here and there.

As Claudiu said, during June 1940, the Romanian Blenheims made several recon flights to monitor the advance of the Red Army and came under attack by Soviet AAA. However, I do not know why he referred to Stalingrad and what relevance it has here.

[C-2]

Sorry ,you are right Victor ,I didn't notice that CB was refering to 1940...

[Victor]

Here are some incidents from Soviet sources:

On 29 June 1940, the Soviets were attacked while advacing from Chisinau to Prut River. The Soviets returned fire, killing twelve Romanian soldiers. The Soviets lost one killed and one wounded.

During the night of 1 July 1940 in the district of Ungheni, on the Romanian side of the border, when the Romanian soldiers attacked a truck column of the 321st Soviet Mechanized Regiment, killing six Soviet soldiers and wounding six more.

[Dénes]

QUOTE

I stumbled recently upon some fragments of memoirs of a Romanian bomber observer

I also have a photocopy of the unpublished memories of Lt. obs. Eugen Marinescu "Matra", where he describes the aforementioned incident. It's a very interesting material.

QUOTE

My questions to anyone (hopefully someone from Russia) who heard of these incidents are:   1.What were the exact dates of the attacks?   2. To what IAP belonged the VVS fighters?   3. Who were the pilots, which claimed the kills and were they confirmed?

I am also looking forward for our Russian/Ukrainian readers' contribution.

Dénes

[Victor]

I forgot to mention that both adj. av. Constantin Macri and lt. av. Ion Ionescu received the Virtutea Aeronautica Gold Cross class for this action.

[Cristian Craciunoiu]

After the Ribbentrop Molotov Pakt and the Vienna Diktat there were a lot of recognaissance flight over the lefted Romanian territory. Romanian ace lt.Nicolae Polizu was awarded for an aerial victories over spy planes, but there were also some mistakes for navigators. Please be more specific.

[Csaba Becze]

You have wrong info. Polizu didn't claimed a victory over a 'spy plane'. He attacked a Hungarian Ca-135 over Debrecen, over Hungarian territory (it was a lie, that the Caproni flew over Rumanian territory). Actually, the plane got slightly damages, and landed without any problems.
Hungarian He 70 recon planes and Ju 86 recon planes flew several sorties over Transsylvania. Sometimes the Rumanian He 112 fighters tried to catch this planes, but the He 112's performance was not enough.

Actually, do you have any info about Polizu's award after this incident? Dénes mentioned me, that Polizu was awarded next day in Cluj/Kolozsvár.

[Victor]

He probably received the Virtutea Aeronautica Oder, Gold Cross class. I will look into it Friday and get back to you to confirm it.

[Csaba Becze]

Ok, thx, Victor.

[Victor]

Sorry, the information about Polizu and the Virtutea Aeronautica Order seems to be incorrect. I will try to find out if he received maybe another (maybe higher) award.

I would like to add that the machine-gunner inthe IAR-37 was killed. His name was cap. Cristofor Zugravoiu.

[Florin]

[quote]
The Soviets also flew over Rumanian territory with recon planes? Did your pilots try to shoot the intruders down?
[/quote]

Hi,

In one "Aripi Romanesti" magazine, printed in 1943, it was said that pilot Agarici shut down a Soviet airplane in the summer of 1940. If I remember right, in the magazine was said that the Soviet plane was in the Romanian controlled teritory.
I saw that magazine as original print, like that "Curentul" mentioned in another post.

Florin