22 June 1941 marked the start of the biggest military invasion the world had ever seen: Operation "Barbarossa". In the early hours the Luftwaffe and her allies launched attacks against the Soviet airfields, caught the VVS by surprise. The ARR ("Aeronautica Regalã Românã") also took part in these actions.
The offensive power of the ARR was concentrated in the Combat Air Grouping (Gruparea Aerianã de Luptã). It was made up of four flotillas:
The Combat Air Grouping had in total 253 airplanes. It was subordinated to the Luftflotte IV.
The 3rd and 4th Army had their own recon and light bomber squadrons. The 4th Recon-Bomber (Bristol Blenheim Mk. I), 19th, 20th and 21st (IAR 39) Recon Squadron and 115th (Fleet 10 G) Liaison Squadron were assigned to the 3rd Army and the 3rd Recon-Bomber (Bristol Blenheim Mk. I), 17th and 22nd (IAR 39) Recon Squadron and 114th (Fleet 10 G) Liaison Squadron to the 4th Army. Also the 1st Armored Division had the 15th Recon Squadron (IAR 39).
Behind the front line, the territory of Romania was divided between the 2nd Air Region:
and the 3rd Air Region, which was covered by the 2nd Fighter Flotilla:
In Dobrogea were stationed the
There were in total 672 airplanes.
The Bombers
The basic bomber formation consisted in 3 airplanes flying in a V formation. The tactical doctrine was to fly below 300 m to avoid AA fire. These tactics were ill-conceived and caused heavy losses as we shall see.
The 1st Bomber Group was on the Pogoanele airfield. At 3:15, 6xS-79Bs from the 71st Squadron took off to attack the Soviet airbase at Bulgãrica. South of Bolgrad, a Soviet patrol intercepted them, but before they could get close, the machine-guns on the bombers scattered them. They attacked again and one was hit. After four minutes they reappeared, but this time in larger numbers. Two fighters managed to pass through the tracer barrage and fire on each bomber. One of them was hit and went down in flames. The crew of cpt. av. Constantin Stoenescu (on S-79B no. 5), which also had aboard lt. cmdr. Liviu Comºa (the group's commander), was made up of cpt. av. Adolf Schöbesch (observer), mstr. Nicolae Cristea (mechanic), adj. stg. av. Ani Aniºor (radio operator) and serg. Gheorghe Mitroi (gunner). They claimed 2 Soviet fighters shot down. Only four bombers reached the target and dropped their load. They claimed about 16 VVS airplanes destroyed on the ground. Here is what mstr. Nicolae Cristea recalls:
"On 22 June 1941, at 3:15 we went off in a mission to bomb an airfield near Bolgrad. I didn't see the first time we were attacked, because I was busy keeping the bomb bay open with my foot. The high speed caused them to close. After the bombs were launched, I went ot the 3rd machine-gun post, the one below. A Soviet plane, which had attacked downward from the left passed under me. I fired a burst of about 20 bullets. It then entered serg. Gheorghe Mitroi's sight, who fired about 25-30 rounds and then paused. He pulled my sleeve to draw my attention to the enemy fighter that going down in flames."
The other two S-79Bs (no. 1 and no. 17) were shot down by the enemy AA artillery.
The 72nd Squadron sent 5xS-79Bs to bomb the airfields at Bolgrad and Bulgãrica. They took off at 2:59. Because of the darkness and of the low altitude, the S-79B no. 13 hit a well sweeg (which in Romania are very long, even over 10 m high) with its left wing. It crash landed, but the plane was repairable and the crew unharmed. Only three of the four remaining bombers reached Bulgãrica, and , at 3:45, when they where heading towards Bolgrad, they were attacked by enemy fighters. The four escorts engaged them, but were outnumbered and two closed up on S-79B no.11. The crew consisted in adj. sef Dumitru Ciobanu (pilot), slt. av. (r) Eugen Tomescu (observer), smtr. Vasile Nichifor (mechanic), serg. Andrei Scutaºu (radio operator) and serg. Gheorghe Nistoreanu (gunner). The Soviets fired and hit a fuel tank, the cockpit, the bomb release mechanism and wounded Vasile Nichifor. They returned fire and shot down one of the attackers. The other one retreated. They returned home with two bombs still inside the airplane, because they couldn't launch them anymore, and of course this a major reason for concern. But they landed without problems. The raid was a success: 15 Soviet airplanes were claimed on the ground.
The fourth S-79B took off in good conditions, but was separated from the formation and flew alone. It reached the Bulgãrica airfield and bombed it. Immediately they were attacked by 6xI-16. Two IAR 80s engaged a part of the attackers, but the rest harassed the bomber until it passed over the front line into friendly territory. During this fierce fight one of the Ratas was shot down by the Romanian machine-gunners. After they landed, they counted 26 bullet holes.
The 5th Bomber Group was on the Ziliºtea airfield. The first raid was launched against the Soviet airbase near Chiºinãu (the main city in Bessarabia) by 17xHe 111. The He 111 no. 25 piloted by lt. av. Gheorghe Stroici had some mechanical problems and took off later. He used a "shortcut" with the intention to arrive near the target area in the same time with its colleagues and their escorts. But he was early (at 4:25). They launched their load on the airfield, but they were attacked by one I-16. The machine-gunners forced him to pull out and when he returned they concentrated their fire on him and soon he was going down with a trail of smoke behind them. In the meantime came the bomber formation and lt. av. Stroici joined them. A large formation of He 111 attacked the Basarabeasca railway station later that day, with good results.
The 4th Bomber Group, which was based on the Buzãu airfield, sent 9xPZL 37 to bomb Bulgãrica. Two airplanes (no. 206 and no. 214) from the last formation were shot down by Soviet AA artillery. The leader of this formation (no. 210, piloted by Ioan Culluri) was immediately attacked by 3 fighters. These came in close and fired and then pulled left or right, offering the rear gunner a perfect target. Serg. N. Lungu managed to shoot down one of them and the other two abandoned the fight.
The 2nd Bomber Group was the hardest hit that day. It launched its attacks from the Sihlele airfield. The slow and vulnerable Bloch 210s of the 82nd Bomber Squadron attacked the Soviet airbase at Cetatea Albã and 7xPotez 63 the one at Bolgrad. The Potez no. 29 piloted by cpt. av. Nocolae Balº and the one piloted by adj. av. Marin Timotin were shot down. No. 4 and no. 20 crash landed on Romanian territory due to the damage they received. The 18th Bomber Squadron sent 8xIAR 37 to raid the Ismail and these also claimed Soviet airplanes destroyed on the ground and a ship on the Danube. The IAR 37 flown by serg. av. Ion Constantinescu was shot down and no. 22 piloted by adj. av. Constantin Macri, who was wounded, crash landed.
In total the bombers claimed about 100 VVS airplanes destroyed on the ground. Reconnaissance photos taken later showed only 37. To this figure we can add the fighters shot down by the machine-gunners.
The Fighters
The Romanian fighter units used the German tactics and organization (the four airplane formation). The 8th Fighter Group equipped with IAR 80s was assigned a pure fighter role. The other two groups were employed primarily as fighter-bombers.
The 5th Fighter Group sent the 51st Squadron to attack Ismail. The formation of 10xHe 112 Bs that reached the target was commanded by cpt. Virgil Trandafirescu. He ordered an attack on the airfield from south to north. The last "celulã" (="cell"-two airplanes) of the formation was made up of slt. av. Teodor Moscu (leader) and adj. av. Pavel Constantin. They noticed several I-16s, which had already taken off and engaged them. But I'll let lt. Moscu take it from here:
"I dived towards an enemy fighter. I hit it and then he turned over and, in flames, it fell into the Danube. I turned and came face-to-face with another I-16. I managed to fire first and after the 20 mm shells hit its engine, the airplane simply exploded. I continued this mad race and soon I caught a third "ªobolan" (="Rat") in my sight and fired a long burst. It bent on one side and fell in the Danube, leaving a trail of black smoke behind it."
Lt. Moscu's Heinkel was also hit and was loosing fuel, so he had to leave the battle and return to the airfield. Two of its claims were confirmed and the third was left as a probable. One of its victims was lt. Grilyuk of the 67 IAP. He managed to escape from his burning I-16 in time.
At 10:50 the group sent 12 fighters to escort the Potez 63 bombers to Bolgrad.
The 53rd Fighter Squadron escorted the PZL 37s to Bulgãrica. The Romanian formation was attacked by 20 Soviet fighters. The Hurricanes engaged the enemy despite their numerical superiority. The first kill belonged to adj. av. stg. Constantin Pomuþ. He hit a Soviet, which was following another Hurricane, in the engine and cockpit. It immediately started to fall and exploded when it reached the ground. He got the second one soon. His 8x7.7 mm Browning machine-guns quickly transformed the VVS fighter into Swiss cheese. Adj. av. Petre Cordescu also had two confirmed kills. He met an enemy face to face. His superior fire power decide the confrontation. He consumed about 1800 rounds. Ten minutes later, he got behind a Soviet who was following cpt. av. Lucian Toma. After 3 minutes of maneuvering he managed to shoot him down.
The 7th Fighter Group sent early in the morning 4xMe 109 Es to escort the He 111s to Chiºinãu. The leader was cpt. av. Alexandru Manoliu, 57th Squadron's commander. On their way back, he noticed an airfield near Ialoveni, with 14-15 airplanes on the ground. Followed by lt. av. Dan Scurtu and adj. stg. av. Nicolae Iolu, he dived towards the enemy base. After the first pass, two Soviet airplanes were on fire (one was set by him, the other by lt. Scurtu). Because the AA artillery fire was poor, they attacked again and another aircraft was burning. Then they hurried up to catch the bombers. Only after the liberation of Bessarabia, the real result was found out. The Romanian peasants that lived near the airfield told a different story. Two airplanes were destroyed and a third one had a fire at one engine, but it was put out by the mechanics. However, out of the 14 aircraft only 5-6 left the base flying, after a week of repairing. The others were so badly hit that they were dismantled and mounted on trucks and never returned.
From the 8th Fighter Group 16 airplanes took off at 3:45 to escort the 72nd Bomber Squadron. They engaged the waves of Ratas that were attacking the bombers. After a fierce dogfight the Soviets withdrew. Adj. maj. ªtefan Puscaº and his wingman Nicolae Tcaci were jumped by 5xI-16s. After an exchange of machine-gun fires, they fell back. Only one remained, who was pursuing adj. Puscaº. Seeing that he couldn't shake the Russian off, he dived to the ground and then stabilized the plane at tree-top height. Because of the dark, the Soviet crashed. The 8th Fighter Group had 3 damaged airplanes.
In total the fighters had 10 confirmed victories and a few probable ones, for the price of four damaged airplanes, all repairable. It was a good day.
The Recons
The recon-bomber squadrons sent their Blenheims early in the morning at 3:50. From the 1st Squadron took off four airplanes, but only two returned. The Blenheim no. 36 flown by lt. cmdr. Corneliu Bãtãcui (the squadrons commander) apparently engaged at 4:00 a Soviet twin-engine aircraft and shot it down near the Cubei village. It then was attacked by 6 VVS fighters. They went down with one engine in flames near Vaisal. The bombs exploded and they fell in a corn field. All three crew members died. The other Blenheim lost was no. 37 piloted by adj. av. Jenicã Boran.
The 3rd Squadron lost the no. 38 flown by lt. av. Ion Popescu. No. 21 blew up while landing, because of a bomb that fell from the launcher. The machine-gunner died, the pilot and the observer were wounded.
At 10:00, a Blenheim (from the 1st Squadron) discovered a Soviet tank and truck column near Vulcãneºti. Two fighters appeared and engaged it. While trying to keep the attackers at bay, they continued their mission and photographed the remaining targets and returned home.
The 4th Recon-Bomber Squadron made 8 sorties that day. They photographed the stations on the Tarnopol-Slobozia railway, the Stanislavov, Tarnopol, Procurov, Hotin and Bãlþi airfields and bombed the Ungheni airbase, a factory in Colondazanij and a troop column.
The severe casualties sustained by the Blenheims was due to the low altitude (300 m) they were ordered to fly their missions. So they were perfect targets for the Soviet light and medium AA artillery.
The 19th Recon Squadron was based on an airfield near Botoºani. At 3:40 it sent its IAR 39s over enemy territory. No. 6 flown by lt. av. Gheorghe Popescu-Ciocãnel with lt. av. C. Dragomirescu observer and serg. Gheorghe Grigoriu machine-gunner. After 3 hours they returned home with important information. The same evening they destroyed a heavy artillery battery near Hotin.
The 20th Recon Squadron flew 8 missions on 22 June 1941. At 3:30 took off three airplanes. The IAR 39 piloted by adj. av. Dumitru Epure with lt. av. Gheorghe Furnicã observer and serg. Ioan Lazãr machine-gunner. After they crossed the river Prut (the border between Romania and Bessarabia) they were "welcomed" by the Soviet AA artillery. After a while they were intercepted by 3 VVS fighters. Adj. Epure dived to tree-top height and managed to evade his pursuers. They found only two bullet holes in the airplane.
The 21st Recon Squadron flew 7 missions, out of which 3 scout flights. The others were bombing missions. They attacked a motorized column in the Ceremuºului Valley. Two airplanes were engaged by AA artillery and fighters, but they got away. The IAR 39 no. 84 from the 22nd Recon Squadron returned to base with 15 bullet holes and all the crew members wounded.
In total four recon airplanes were lost and others damaged, some even crippled.
This was one of the bloodiest days for the ARR, but also one of the most rewarding ones.
Bibliography: Vasile Tudor, "Constantin "Bâzu" Cantacuzino - Printul asilor", Editura MODELISM, 2000; Valeriu Avram, "Escadrilele româneºti pe cerul Basarabiei ºi Bucovinei de Nord - 22 iunie 1941", Top Gun Special, no. 3/99 and 4/99.
2001.11.10, © WW II Ace Stories.