First Bf-109 in Romania

I got a dilema! The only source (available to me right now) that places Bf-109 being sold to Romania as early as 1939 is Axworthy! Is it correct?

The Aeronautica Regala Romana placed an order for 50 Bf 109E with Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in December 1939. The first 11 arrived during the spring of 1940, the remaining 39 a year later.

Thanks, Antoni! Could you be a little more specific? And, also, name your source?

The best source is the book "Avioanele Me-109 E in Romania" by Vasile Tudor, Editura Tiparg 2008.
According to the book an order for 50 planes was placed on 2 December 1939. The first 10 were supposed to be delivered no later than 17 March 1940 but due to snow in Germany the first 11 arrived in May by train. These planes joined the newly-formed Grupul 7 vanatoare led by Lt.Cdr.Av. Al. Popisteanu on 1 June 1940.

The book is excellent with only one irritating exception. The book constantly refers to the plane as "Me-109 E", which is not entirely right. The official designation of the plane (as written in all official documents and all technical documentation) was "Bf 109 E" and was always written as three separate items with spaces between them, respectively "Bf space 109 space E", no hyphen. The only place where there was a hyphen was in the designation of what kind of "sub-version" it was, respectively "Bf 109 E-3".

Hope this helps,
Radu

Thanks, Radub, it does help! Although the „snow” story is a little peculiar, from March to May I mean...

Yeah, "snow" may have been an excuse. The truth may be that they did not have any spare pilots to ferry the planes to Romania as Germany was mobilising for the launch of their campaigns in France and the Low Countires.
Radu

I’ve finally found out something more precise about that, after two years or so of (continually) asking…

But does anybody know why there were 11 planes in the first delivery, and the rest arrived only a year later? The number seems odd (as a figure of speech) for a squadron (wasn’t it suppose to have 12 aircraft, at least in theory?). For example, as far as I know the He 112 fleet was divided in two squadrons of 15 planes each, the same with the PZL P 24 E's. On the other hand, why were the rest received only in the first half of 1941? No later than the beginning of September 1940 Romania firmly changed its foreign policy allegiances, and the German military mission (Luftwaffe included) arrived in the country shortly after that.

The most obvious explanation is that Germany needed the Bf 109 for its own war. Around the time when the first Bf 109 were delivered to Romania, Germany was moving into Norway, France and the Low countries. A couple of months later the Battle of Britain started, and the Bf 109 E featured heavily in it. By the time the rest of the Bf 109s were delivered to Romania, they were "surplus to requirements" in Germany as they were being replaced by the Bf 109 F (or were in the process of being converted into F-types).
Radu

Thank you for the answer, Radub!

This post has been edited by Agarici on September 13, 2013 07:05 pm

I am sincerely puzzled that Germany accepted in December 1939 the contract to sell these airplanes.
1. It was only 3 months after Romania allowed the passing of the remains of the Polish Army and its equipment, that otherwise would be captured by the Germans (or by the Red Army). Romania also allowed the travel of the Polish gold toward West.
2. I think (but I am not sure) that Romania was still linked with France by some alliance treaties.
3. Everybody knew that the Germans would try an offensive in the West "next year" (i.e. 1940).
So Germany would need every plane they could get, and being in war is an excellent excuse to declare that you don't have available equipment.

Thinking of this, I would say that:
1. The king was still the same, but maybe the Romanian government following the assassination of Armand Calinescu was perceived in Germany as prone to better relations with the Reich. It is possible that even from December 1939 the German leadership was optimistic that one day Romania would be her satellite.
2. Great Britain already accepted to sell Hurricanes to Romania. Maybe the German leadership was aware that a refusal of delivering Me-109 would prompt Romania to order more airplanes from France or G.B. , and that could lead to closer relations Romania – Western Allies. Germany of course was planning her offensive, but the outcome was uncertain in December 1939, and a long term war "WWI style" was still assumed as possible.
3. The most interesting part is that being very well aware of the offensive to come (where they would need every plane they got), Germany accepted the deal. So they were confident in their strength, but they also were aware that in this kind of deals the buying part has to pay from the beginning (at least a big part of lump sum), while the selling part can delay the delivery (exactly what happened).

This post has been edited by Florin on September 16, 2013 01:40 am

Bayerische Flugzeugwerke -BFW, (renamed Messerschmitt AG in 1938), was a privately-owned share-holding company. Many influential politicians owned shares in the company. Any increase in sales is an increase in dividends. They could and would do business with whoever paid. Business was business, war was war. (Think of how, for example, Oerlikon supplied guns to both Axis and Allies). Anyway, Romania was neutral and quite loud in proclaiming that. In actual fact, when the He 112 were assembled in Romania by German personnel, they did so right next to the hangar where British personnel were assembling the Hurricanes - they got along without incidents even though Germany and Britain were at war.
Furthermore, Messerschmitt had very close ties with Romania. At the beginning of his careerer Willy Messerschmitt had a very difficult relationship with the RLM (Erhard Milch disliked him) and was unable to get many contracts. Faced with bankruptcy, he found support in Romania where his Messerschmitt M36 was buit as ICAR M 36. That was enough to tie him over until he produced the Bf 109 and win the RLM contract that made the 109 the "main" single-engine fighter and establish his position as chairman of BFW.
The RLM would only have a problem with such a sale contract to Romania if it affected deliveries of planes for RLM's requirements. And that is what happened: when the RLM needed the 109s, that caused the above-mentioned delay in the delivery of the 109s to Romania.
Radu

I remember that the story was about Bf 109E assembled by germans near Hurricanes ( assembled by british).
He 112 (ready assembled in factory) were transported ( by air) with romanian pilots .

You are absolutely correct, of course. Maybe the 112 was on my mind because I was talking about the contest for the "main" single-engine fighter in which the 112 was an also-ran.
I meant to say Bf 109 instead. The Bf 109 came by train and were assembled by German personnel alongside the British personnel working on the Hurricanes while their respective nations were fighting each other.
Radu

Starting with version V7 (He 112 V7) and ending with He 112 B, the airplane had a very smooth aerodynamic shape. It is unfortunate that it was not allowed to be mass manufactured alongside with Me 109, at least for the first years of war.
That would imply of course to replace that 600 HP engine with the one of 1050 HP used by Me 109 in 1939 - 1940.

This post has been edited by Florin on September 16, 2013 07:33 pm

The He 112 was a very complicated airframe and took too long to build. By comparison, the Bf 109 was simplified and easy to build, a very good example of efficient design and stremlined manufacture.
Radu