Romanian IAR80s in flight

Romanian and German plane over the pertol fields of Ploiesti

Romanian and German plane over Ploiesti

Lt. av. Dumitru Baciu (left) and Lt. mechanic Grigore Dumitrescu(right). Popeşti-Leordeni.1944.   ***On 4 May 1945, Romanian and Soviet fighters were involved in a peculiar incident. Wile returning to their base after a routine combat sortie, two 1st Fighter Group, pilots,  av.Ioan Milu, the AAR’s third ranking ace(45 confirmed + 6 probable), and Lt. Av.Dumitru Baciu, an ace with 10 confirmed and 3 unconfirmed victories, encountered several P-51Ds over northern Hungary. The Romanians waggled their wings in greeting and the Americans responded. A few minutes later they met a formation of Il-2s, escorted by Yak-3s. Again, the Messerschmitt pilots waved, but the soviets did not respond and continued in the opposite direction. Suddenly, the last two Yaks in the formation broke off and opened fire on the two Romanians . The 43-year-old  av.Ioan Milu, credited with destroying more than 24 Soviet aircraft, decided to dive away. He was caught and forced to crash land in Austrian territory at Strashof an der Nordbahn.   The aggressive Lt. Av.Dumitru Baciu, however, accepted the challenge and began to dogfight with the Soviet pair. According to the (so far unconfirmed) memoirs of an AAR pilot, Lt. Av.Dumitru Baciu shot down one of the Soviet fighters, but his aircraft was damaged and he force-landed near Kromeriz (Kremsler), 19 miles south-east of Olomouc (Olmutz). After climbing from his battered Bf 109G (Red 3 Wk-Nr.166182), one wing of which was torn off , Lt. Av.Dumitru Baciu counted over a dozen holes from machine gun and cannon fire. If the report is authentic. Lt. Av.Dumitru Baciu was the last AAR pilot to score an aerial victory, albeit one officially ignored. Althrough Rumanian official documents mention crash landings by both av.Ioan Milu and Lt. Av.Dumitru Baciu, no further explanation is given. Lt. Av.Dumitru Baciu was ''killed''(assassinated) shortly after the war by an "armed thug"(NKVD) while delivering mail in his Po-2 biplane, so he cannot tell his side of the story.  source:Dénes Bernád.