A new interview with a veteran pilot

Yes Denes, and the Bf109E number 9 is also on the list for the first victories.

Dan.

I knew all along that DiCesare's personal mount in 1941/1942 was No. 9

Gen. Dénes

Yes, you knew it also what kind of champagne Dicezare drink for his first victories and you will not tell us !!

I am not that fussy.

Gen. Dénes

Not much to tell,I did met the Savoia pilot,but hours before ,he heard the news about the death ao Sixtus Maxim,who was one of his best friends,and didn't wanted to talk about himself.
He did tell me something interesting about Sixtus Maxim:
To those who didn't red his short profile on the pilots section,SM was shoot down and taken prisoner.He was realese quite long time after the end of the war.
In the 60's he went to court against the Romanian socialist state-and wan!
He said that till the 23/08/44 he was a war prisoner,but after that he was a political prisoner.
He got all the rights of a political prisoner for him and for his comrads!
Quite a caracter!
After leaving the house of the pilot,he led me to my car,I was dressed in thick clouths but he was in a pullover.
I suggested thsat he must get back into the house,since outside there were 2c...
He looked at me and asked;Do you know how cold was in the skies of Stalingrad in a wooden plane with the bomb doors open??

Today I visited for a short time Dicezare.
This time I asked him about Papana.
He met him in 1936 at IAR airfield in Brasov.
He use to fly very early in the morning a Bucher.(He had one long before Bazu..)
He sent his plane with a zeppelin to the US,where he had organized air acrobatic meetings.
He was famous of a particular stunt;flying the airplane on his back,very close to the ground,and lifting a small object from the ground with the wing.
The sad part in Papana's life happened when his wife died giving birth to their dauther Dine.
Since then the wasn't the same.He started drinking.
He was found almost dead ,by his family ,on a cabin on the mountains and was saved in time.
Later he died comiting suicide in the US.
Sad story for maybee the most talented Romanian pilot...

Yesterday I visited veteran pilot Lucaci Mihai.
He was from Dobran's "generation".
He flew most of the time from Mamaia and later he served in the west.
I hope his interv. will be post soon on the ARR site.

Something interesting Mr Lucaci said;"From all ARR pilots,the bravest ones were those from the "asalt"(ground attack/schlahtgeswander).The HS129 pilots were brave ,but their missions were at low level flights.
The bravest of them all were the Stuka pilots.They atacked heavy defended targets,and use to dive on places where the AA fired like hell.We were counting them when getting out of the dive...."I would't do their job for nothing in that world..."

A "good one" from Dobran;when I called hin yesterday ,to ask what's up,after asking him how he is doing,I got a great answer:"Better then tomorrow"said Dobran..

Today General Ioan Dicesare ,got his "second General Star".(The max is 4 stars).
If I'll ever learn how to post a photo,You'll be able to see too...

Bomber pilot Dan Stoian,and fighter pilot Dragos Stinghe,became Generals.(With one star).

Congrat. for all three Generals. Wish them long life and good health.

Do we have a new General promoted on this forum ?

Tomorow 12 o'clock at Cotroceni palace ,many ww2vets will have a reception given by the president.
Many promotions will take place.

Today I finaly met veteran fighter pilot Goloiu Dumitru.
It took me a while,and a phone call from Gen.Dobran,that finaly convinced him to let me visit him.
I have already talked with him several times on the phone,and the fact that he suffered already two strokes,didn't came him easy,but the meeting was a plesure.
Mrs.Goloiu was extremly nice.
Mr goloiu have two victories ;a P 38 on the 22/6/44 and a Yak a day later(with Bazu as a wingman).
It was just a few weeks after coming back to the squad after suffering an accident on take off.(after a stall,the plane broke in pieces and the nose cannon fractured his lest leg and also his left arm was fractured as well).
The P 38 was going to soviet terit.to refuel and was at about 3000m.
Romanian 109's came from 4000,and Goloiu's victim was an easy pray.
The Yak wasa part of 8-10 that atacked their "partula".They didn't score and Goliu found himself with one in front of him.With Bazu giving indications on the radio,he send him to the ground.
I forgot to say that the house of Mr and Mrs Goloiu was one of the cleanest I ever visited!

Mr and Mrs Goloiu.Mai 2005