Romanian S.79 (2)

Inside view of the forward fuselage’s section of a Romanian Air Force’s S.79 twin engine bomber. Note the nose machine gun station, one of five 7.92 mm machine guns of the standard defensive armament. Victor Sierra

Within a Romanian bomber

JRS-79B (or JIS-79B or S.79-JR) bombers of the Royal Romanian Air Force (Forţele Aeriene Regale ale României) in action on the Eastern Front. The first Romanian unit equipped with this aircraft, an Junkers Jumo 211 engines version of the Savoia Marchetti S.79B (in turn the twin engines version of the three engines S.79), also built in Romania by IAR Brasov (IAR 79-JR for Jumo Român), was, from July 1941, the 75th Squadron of the 2nd Bomber Group which fought also in the battle of Odessa. In 1942 other two Romanian Air Force’s units, the 71st and 72nd Squadron, was equipped with the Italian-design twin engines. Afterwards the remaining JRS-79s were distributed to the newly formed 83rd and 84th Bomber Squadron. In Autumn 1942 the 1st Bomber Group supported the Romanian forces near Stalingrad. This was the last campaign in Russia of the Romanian S.79s replaced entirely with German-built bombers. When, on 1944, the front reached Romania. So in a desperate attempt to stop the Soviet advance all available resources were thrown into battle. All the remaining JIS/JRS-79B/B1s were massed in the 1st Bomber Group (71st and 72nd Squadron) and 2nd Bomber Squadron (82nd and 83rd Squadron). After Romania joined the Allies in August 1944, the JRS-79B/B1s were not initially engaged against the German and Hungarian forces. But since losses grew, the reorganized 1st Bomber Group (72nd and 82nd Squadron) was sent to the front in October 1944. This unit fought on until the end of the war in May 1945. The last Romanian JRS-79B lost in WWII fell on 21 April 1945. Victor Sierra