Who aare the men in this picture?

A friend of mine on another forum asked me if I could ID any of the pilots in this picture, says he found it on another forum. I'm trying to get any more info on it at the moment.

Looks to me like at least two of the men in the pic (the middle of the three with their backs to the camera, and the one in the dark sunglasses) are Germans. I recognise a few of the faces (or at least I think I do), but I'm terrible with names. He says the picture was supposedly taken in 1942, though he doesn't know the exact location or unit, if that helps any.

Anybody?? 



This post has been edited by Cantacuzino on January 23, 2009 06:59 pm

The picture could be from Mamaia airfield in 1942 (or an airfield close to the Black Sea)

I know there are some pictures with IAR 80 and german Bf 109 taking of from this airfield.

The airman with heavy flying suit is from a bomber group ( He-111 ?)

This post has been edited by Cantacuzino on January 23, 2009 06:59 pm

Just looking at the IAR80, it appears to be armed with 20mm cannons.
Were the IARs armed as such in 42? According to Dan Antoniu, the 20mm cannon was introduced in 1943 after the US attack on the oilfields on 1 August 1943 revealed that the machine guns did not yield enough "punch".
Radu

This post has been edited by Radub on January 24, 2009 11:20 am

It could be the 13,2 machine gun ? The barells of Mauser 20 are much longer

Actually the 4th Fighter Group was armed with IAR-80Cs at the time of Tidal Wave and several of its pilots claimed B-24s shot down. It was the comparison between the results obtained by the 4th Fighter Group equipped with IAR-80Cs with 20 mm cannons and the results obtained by the 6th Fighter Group equipped with IAR-80Bs with 13.2 mm HMGs.

Yes, it is a machine gun. After looking at it more carefully, I can actually see the cooling jacket.
Radu