Romanian aces of WWI

[Carol I]

I am looking for information about the Romanian aces of WWI. I have read somewhere that Romania only had one ace in WWI, but unfortunately no name was given. As the same source mentioned only 4 Romanian aces for WWII I suspect the real number for WWI was larger. Do you have some further information on this topic? What was the real number of Romanian aces in WWI? Were there any balloon busters as well?

I remember that many years ago the Romanian magazine Modelism had published a series of articles about the Romanian Air Force in WWI, but given the profile of the magazine their focus was more on the planes and less on the pilots. Dates of victories and names of pilots were sometimes mentioned, but the information was not centralised in a list of aces.

Carol I

[Victor]

There was only one ace: lt. Dumitru Badulescu, with five aircraft and one baloon shot down. Interestingly, he was an observer on a Farman 40 and not a pilot. There was an article on him written by prof. Valeriu Avram (the no.1 Romanian aviation specialist on WWI) in Top Gun no. 5 (in 2000).

[Carol I]

Thanks Victor for the information. It seems that the source was right after all. Do you know anything about the awards Lt. Badulescu received?

Carol I

[Victor]

Steaua Romaniei Knight class
Coroana Romaniei Knight class
Crucea comemorativa 1916-1919
Virtutea Aeronautica Gold Cross class
and the Czechoslovak White Lion

Unfortunately he did not receive the Mihai Viteazul Order, although he was proposed several times by his superiors.

The article was in Top Gun no.2/1999

[Carol I]

Thanks Victor. Unfortunately I do not have access to the Top Gun magazine.

Carol I

[Florin]

QUOTE

......I have read somewhere that Romania only had one ace in WWI, but unfortunately no name was given. As the same source mentioned only 4 Romanian aces for WWII I suspect the real number for WWI was larger.........

Hi,

I have to admit my ignorance in this matter.
What was requirement to consider a pilot as an "ace" during WWI, and what was the requirement to hail an "ace" in WWII?

The records were 80 planes shut-down by von Richtoffen in WWI and 352 planes shut-down by Hartman in WWII.

Florin

[Victor]

During WWI the number of kills was five, because apparently this is how many Rolland Garros scored (hence the "ace" name).
In WWII, thenumber remained the same. I think the Germans raised it to 10 kills, because of the numerous Luftwaffe Jagdflieger that surpassed the 5 kills limit.

[Carol I]

As far as I know, the term "ace" was introduced during WWI by the French newspapers who praised Roland Garros as "the ace among pilots". As he had only five victories when he was captured in 1915, the word "ace" acquired the new meaning of "a pilot who shot down five planes". Both the word and the count of victories were then used by the other Allies (Belgium, Italy, Russia etc.). In contrast, the Germans used the word "kanone" for the pilots with ten victories. Probably the confusion comes from the fact that all German pilots with 5 to 9 victories qualified as "aces" for the Allies, but not as "kanone" for the Germans.

As a matter of fact, this was not the only thing the Germans did differently in WWI. They also had the rule that a flight school graduate could receive the pilot badge only after acquiring some flight time over the enemy. In this respect the German pilot badges were more like awards than badges. This rule was introduced during WWI, but there were instances when some fliers received the badge for long time service.

[Dénes]

The Germans did not use the term 'ace'. In W.W. 2, the Luftwaffe pilot who scored at least 10 'kills' was called 'Experte'.

[Carol I]

Interesting information Dénes. Do you happen to know why did the Germans change the word for their distinguished pilots from "kanone" in WWI to "experte" in WWII? It could not have been the number of victories as both in WWI and WWII their threshold was set to 10 victories.

[Bernard Miclescu]

Some years ago I read the book about Vasile Craiu written by Titus Axente. I was quite amazed that in the ww1 (at least for the Romanians) a victory was the plane shot down and crashed in the friend territory. It seems that Craiu shot down one or two planes (Idon't remeber exactly) that weren't homologated because they crashed in the enemy lines. Please tell us more about it.

Yours,
BM

[Dénes]

The problem of a downed enemy airplane crashing in enemy territory was also present in W.W. 2: how do you confirm the 'kill' independently? I am sure if the winner would have had a chance to photograph the wreck, or there were at least two independent witnesses in air or on the ground, the victory would had eventually been confirmed, both in W.W. 1 and W.W. 2.

[Bernard Miclescu]

QUOTE

The problem of a downed enemy airplane crashing in enemy territory was also present in W.W. 2: how do you confirm the 'kill' independently? I am sure if the winner would have had a chance to photograph the wreck, or there were at least two independent witnesses in air or on the ground, the victory would had eventually been confirmed, both in W.W. 1 and W.W. 2.

It seems that at least one victory of V Craiu wasn't confirmed , because the plane crashed between the lines or in the enemy lines. That's why I was surprised, even with ground and air witnesses (see the episode of his first kill when he defend a Farman) the kill was not confirmed.
Cf. "Vasile Craiu" by Titus Axente.

[dragos]

During the summer and fall of 1917, Romanian pilots scored 42 victories. Between 20 July - 29 October, the French pilots on Moldavian front scored 11 victories. Between 27 July - 28 October, Romanian AA artillery scored, according to Austrian archives, 11 victories.

Some victories:

On 7 August 1917, plutonier pilot t.r. Marin Popescu, of the N.11 Squadron, attacked together with the French pilot James Texier a German Fokker, which crashed in flames. In the afternoon, the same Marin Popescu shot down a German "Draken" (balloon). He was decorated with Virtutea Militara de razboi, cls a II-a, on 12 January 1918.

On 9 August 1917, the plane of plutonier pilot Nae Cicei and sublocotenent Gheorghe Stalpeanu (F.6 Squadron) was attacked by four enemy fighters Hansa Brandemburg. The Romanian crew managed to damage one plane and shot down another.

On 13 September 1917, a dogfight took place between the plane of sergent pilot Nicolae Manescu, of the N.1 Squadron, and an Austrian Hansa Brandemburg (no. 6730). The Austrian plane was shot down at Campulung Moldovenesc. It was the plane of Captain Otto Jindra, an ace with 9 victories. Otto Jindra was severly wounded and unable to fly.

On 26 September 1917, sublocotenent Marcel Dragusanu scored two victories.

On 7 November 1917, plutonier pilot Ioan Muntenescu scored three victories.

[Carol I]

Thanks Dragos for this interesting information. Please post more data if/when you have it. Maybe we will thus be able to extract a WWI rank list for the Romanian pilots according to their victories.