RAF/Commonwealth operations over Romania, recce, night bombings, targets, losses

I start here, with the great help of Cantacuzino (Dan) a topic on RAF/Commonwealth missions over Romania. There were recce, bombing and the less known mining the Danube missions.

Any help and information shared will be appreciated. If there are confusions or erroneous sources it's a good place to clear them.

I begin with the structure of RAF 205 Group based in Italy around Foggia, the only British air group in WWII operating under foreign command (15th USAAF) and the only (?) RAF bombing force to be dispatched over Romania.


The 205 Group Royal Air Force as in July 1944

231 Wing ("Wellington X"), Italy
- 37 Squadron, Tortorella, Italy
- 70 Squadron, Foggia, Italy

236 Wing ("Wellington X"), Italy
- 40 Squadron, Foggia, Italy
- 104 Squadron, Foggia, Italy

240 Wing, Italy
- 178 Squadron ("Liberator VI"), Amendola, Italy
- 614 Squadron ("Halifax BII"), Amendola, Italy

330 Wing ("Wellington X"), Italy
- 142 Squadron, Regina, Italy
- 150 Squadron, Regina, Italy

2 (SAAF) Wing ("Liberator VI"), Italy
- 31 (SAAF) Squadron, Celone, Italy
- 34 (SAAF) Squadron, Celone, Italy

(Source: http://www.airpower.at)

Those units were involved in 16 bomb missions over Romania and I hope we will get into every mission to find out the targets they had, the losses, the defense against them and so on.

But the first RAF/Commonwealth missions over Romania were of reconnaissance. Dozens of such missions were flown with Mosquitos for example, in '43-'44. I hope we will also get into that too.

Below you'll find a map with the targets of 150 Squadron of RAF 205 Group, including Romania (source: http://www.perth.igs.net/~long/maxrange.htm)

You will find Bucharest, Ploiesti, Campina, Giurgiu, Craiova, Turnu Severin and Timisoara on the map.

The RAF 205 Group lost 34 Wellington X bombers, 4 Halifax and 10 Liberators in those 16 missions over Romania (source: an article published by Aeronautica Magazine - shared to me by Dan Melinte - which I will translate in fragments in future posts).

Cheers,

Barbosu

This post has been edited by Barbosu on February 23, 2005 02:16 am

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Wellington of 150 SQ (205 group) recovered years ago from Comana Lake

Cantacuzino posted on other topic (Ploiesti, Bucharest ...) some photos of pieces recovered from the wreck of a Wellington crashed into the lake Comana, some 30 km from Bucharest.
(Admins, please consider the opportunity to move RAF related posts into this topic. Thanks)

I translated an article dedicated to this Wellington from Comana (published in Aeronautica magazine and kindly shared to me by Dan Melinte).

The article "The bomber in the Comana lake", written in Aeronautica (magazine) by col. eng. Constantin Orasanu, is dedicated to a Wellington crashed in the night of the 6th to 7th of May 1944.

The number of the plane is IA 525 Q (the article also name the plane IA 5250) and was part of 150 Squadron (330 Wing, RAF 205 Group, based in Foggia, Italy)


Here is the translation (there are a few notes marked with TN - translator's note. the titles are from the original article)


THE BOMBER FROM COMANA LAKE
by col. eng. Constantin Orasanu


"PROBABLY THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED

It was the night of 6 to 7th of May 1944. A clear sky night, an advantage for the British bombers of the 205 Group in mission over Bucharest. They'd come a 1000 km long way from Foggia, Italy, to drop the deadly cargoes over the Capital of Romania. The navigators of the Wellingtons MC X announced some 30 km to the target.

The bombers were regrouping in attack formation when the inevitable happened.

The fighters defending the Capital engage the British bombers. A fierce battle of life or death begins. The IA 5250 is hit by a salvo and the right engine gets on fire immediately. The crew commander, pilot S. Clarke realize they were lost. With both engines working would be easy to climb then drop the bombs and with the bomber lighter he could get back to base. But with only one engine and the other one in flames, continuing the mission would be impossible, virtually a suicide.

He takes a right turning looking for a place to land. He must try the impossible and God seems to be on his side. Right in front of him was an open field. With the landing gear down he take the approach. In seconds the bomber will touch the land, but fatality: the landing gear collapses and the plane roll over on it's back. S. Clarke understood in those last moments that the "open field" was in fact a lake.

A few days after the crash, the people from the near village pulled out the crew members and buried them in the Comana cemetery. After 1945 they were moved to British Heroes Cemetery in Tancabesti, near Snagov and Bucharest. (...)

LOOKING FOR A B24 AND YOU FIND A WELLINGTON (...)

48 years passed. In 1992, three people from Giugiu rent some gear and go to Comana lake to escavate a B24 Liberator and to sell to the scrapyard the tones of metal they imagined to find on the bottom of the lake.

The lake drained in that place and it was easy for them to rise the camp and start the work.

So Vili Mosor and his friends escavate pieces of the wreck, aluminum and cloth. They find an engine and they try to dismantle it with the hammers. Things could go like this till the total destruction of the wreck if they wouldn't have found a bomb. With some spoons they dug around it and, ignoring the death danger they drag it out with cables.

The local police is called and then the Military Air Command and the Museum of Aviation. The press came in SOTI TV, World Service (BBC? - T.N.) and others.
Everybody waits the American bomber to be dug out.

The operation conducted by the Military Air Command and The Museum of Aviation started on August 26 and ended on September 10. On the engine already pulled out they discovered a metal plate indicating it's type Hercules. Shock! The engine was British made! This and other discoveries determined the archaeologists to call the British Embassy in Bucharest. And the Embassy promptly provided all details available.

That's how the archaeologists found out that they were working on a two engine Wellington MK X from the RAF 205 Group, 330 Wing, 150 Squadron, crashed in one the missions flown over Romania from the base in Foggia, Italy.

In the night of 6to 7th of May 1944 the plane was intercepted on its way to Bucharest, over Comana village. It was shot in the right engine, got fire and, flying at a low altitude, the crew did not have the necessary time to drop the bombs and save with the parachutes. After a tour around Comana, the pilot try to land and in contact with the lake surface, he lost control and the plane rolled over, trapping the entire crew.

Because of the fire and the explosion danger, the villagers could not save the survivors if there were any.

For the archaeologists were very important the informations on the bomb load of the plane. So they found that the bomb compartment was under the cell, specially made of two metal beams with three sections of 6 holders each.

In the case of 250 lb bombs (113 kg) there could be loaded 18 pieces. The plane was loaded according to the mission and the distance to be flown.

In the operation book of 150 Squadron it is written that the IA 525 Q bomber crashed at Comana carried three 500 lb bombs (226 kg) and 2 or 3 250 lb (113 kg) bombs.

There were found and destroyed the three 500 lb bombs and two 250 lb bombs. Because the operation book states "2 or 3 250 lb bombs" it is uncertain if a third bomb - never found on the crash zone - was on the plane or not.

THE PLANE'S WRECK

The plane was buried 0,5 to 1,5 meters in the mud (...) After the firsts layers there were found elements of the bombs section and the structure of the fuselage.

The bombs were found 1,2 to 1,4 meters deep in the mud spread on a 20 sq m wide area. They found also rounds of 0,303 inch, 70 in the front guns and 69 empty cartridges, that prove the air fight.

The second engine was recovered from the backyard of Gheorghe Bocanete, in Comana village. (...)

(T.N. - here the article mentions the wreck pieces found at Comana, like broken elements of the board, electrical wires, interior inscriptions, the oil radiators of the engines, an oxygen recipient for the rescue boat and so on).

There were never found the metal elements of the wings, rear part of the fuselage, the pilot cabin, the front and rear turrets and their machine guns nor the ammunition (...), the landing gear, elements of the cabins of navigator, bombaimer or gunners.

Probably all those parts were taken during the 48 years by people from the near villages (...).

The wreck was transported to Otopeni at the Museum of Aviation. The engines are to be renovated at Turbomecanica factory (T.N. - at the day when the article was written). As for the third bomb if there was one, the local Police established a restricted zone and announced the people.


WHAT THE VILLAGERS SAY?

The elders from Comana are divided into two sides regarding the crash in the lake.

Some say the plane crashed at dawn, May 7 1944 and that it was a four engine plane, with tin body (they remember how they cut the rivets to rip off the tin). Others say the plane crashed at night, in the 6 to 7th of May.

One could wonder if they are talking of two different planes, both crashed in Comana lake. In that case it's possible there was also an American four engine B-24 bomber. "

(source: Aeronautica, romanian magazine)

This is the only photo ilustrating the article, showing the engine from the backyard of Bocanete.

Cheers,

Barbosu

This post has been edited by Barbosu on February 23, 2005 03:28 am

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The four engine plane was probably one of the B-24's ( 15th Air Force) lost on 7th may and crashed near Budeni village boarding lake Comana. ( was not in the lake and local people could cut the rivetts and take souvenirs)

Dan.

This post has been edited by Cantacuzino on February 23, 2005 07:21 am

Below it's British Heroes Cemetery Tancabesti picture. Courtesy Dan Melinte.

This post has been edited by Cantacuzino on February 23, 2005 07:25 am

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And below the burrial stones of 3 crew members of the Wellington crashed in Comana Lake. ( courtesy Dan Melinte)

1.Warant Officer S. Clarke - pilot ( 27 years old)
2.Sergent L.W. Cox - navigator
3. Sergent R.P. Scott - radio ( 20 years old)

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Great thread, by the way i wanna make plans for a trip to Corbii Mari, resting place of a Landacster. I know somme people there and they said to me that they prepared information for when i get there. Is not verry far from Bucharest.

This post has been edited by cipiamon on February 23, 2005 12:31 pm

Are you sure it's a Lancaster. (four engines like B-24) ? You find that info from a book ?

Dan.

This post has been edited by Cantacuzino on February 23, 2005 12:57 pm

Yes, sorry i forgot to mention, i found the information in the book "La chaisse du nouit"... i don't know if i spelled right.

Corect spelling " La chasse de nuit ..." as my old knowledge in french from elementary school help sometimes

Dan.

Dan

From "Bomber Harris" memoires I have got the two photo bellow of the the Wellington crews...the first two airmen bellow are listed as KIA in Rumania as of May 1944

Alex

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Dan

Also from the same memoires of "Bomber Harris" also this RNZAF crew flying for RAF from Italy is listed as MIA over Roumania

Alex

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Some years ago i read an article in Aeronautica magazine about Wellington and RAF and Commonwealth night bombing raids. There i saw this picture with that enigne from that lake, and some drawings. Some alluminium sheets were take by local peoples.

Iama

Here is the situation of R.A.F. losses over Romania in April-August 1944


DATA BOMBARDAMENT. Bombardier mediu Bombardier greu
TOTAL AVIOANE
WELLINGTON HALIFAX LIBERATOR
14 aprilie - - 2 2
15/16 aprilie 3 - - 3
3/4 mai 1 - - 1
5/6 mai 3 - - 3
6/7 mai 3 - 1 4
7/8 mai 4 1 1 6
8/9 mai 1 - - 1
2/3iunie 1 - - 1
16/17 iunie 1 - - 1
18/19iunie 1 1 3 5
2/3 iulie 2 - 1 3
23/24 iulie 1 _ - 1
26/27 iulie - - 1 1
27/28 iulie 1 - - 1
9/10 august 9 2 1 12
17/18 august 3 - - 3
TOTAL 34 4 10 48

(from Mark Axworthy, R.A.F. deasupra Romaniei, in "Aeronautica", nr. 5/1993, p.35)

Sorry for the first post. I think this one is more clear

The R.A.F. losses over Romania in April-August 1944


DATA BOMBARDAMENT./WELLINGTON /HALIFAX/LIBERATOR/TOTAL AVIOANE

14 aprilie -/ -/ 2/ 2
15/16 aprilie 3/ -/ -/ 3
3/4 mai 1/ -/ -/ 1
5/6 mai 3/ -/ -/ 3
6/7 mai 3/ -/ 1/ 4
7/8 mai 4/ 1/ 1/ 6
8/9 mai 1/ -/ -/ 1
2/3iunie 1/ -/ -/ 1
16/17 iunie 1/ -/ -/ 1
18/19iunie 1/ 1/ 3/ 5
2/3 iulie 2/ -/ 1/ 3
23/24 iulie 1/ _/ -/ 1
26/27 iulie -/ -/ 1/ 1
27/28 iulie 1/ -/ -/ 1
9/10 august 9/ 2/ 1/ 12
17/18 august 3/ -/ -/ 3
TOTAL 34/ 4/ 10/ 48/

(from Mark Axworthy, R.A.F. deasupra Romaniei, in "Aeronautica", nr. 5/1993, p.35)