Air combat over Bulgaria on 11th June 1944

[Burdokva]

I've recently started a research that, to be honest, grew from a simple project to find a "Balkan Pony" scheme for a 1/72 P-51B model, to a long study on the aerial warfare over the Balkans, and Bulgaria in particular during 1943-44.
While in recent years many new, and excellent, volumes (predominately Bulgarian) dealing with the subject have appeared, there is always the issue of claims of aerial victories and actual planes lost on both sides. Cross-referencing the data from both the USAAF and VnVV is quite hard due to a variety of reasons, but I've already found a lot of info (currently I'm tracking down downed US Fighters.)

I'm particularly interested in the air combat on 11th June 1944 over central and western Bulgaria. A single plane was downed (by poruchik Ivan N Bonev with Bf 109 G6) over Sredna Gora Mountain (according to Bulgarian sources the fighter fell down engulfed in flames). This is almost certainly the P-51B-5 (ser.43-7024) of Joseph F Riley from 2FS, 52nd FG listed as "KIA" over Sofia, Bulgaria on 11th June 1944. Both the 2FS and 5FS were involved in the fighting over Sofia that day. Could anyone share any combat reports or memories of the fighter pilots of the 52nd FG?

Any chance they again fought the Bulgarians on 11 August 1944? I am looking for any clue on who shot down poruchik Bonev on that day, two months.

EDIT: Again, I forgot to mention - I'd be happy if anyone has a colour profile or a photo of Riley's Mustang!

[CENTURION]

Hello Burdokva,

regarding your second question, according to MTO of Frank Olynyk, on August 11, 1944, American pilots of the 15th Air Force claimed no planes.
Based on the detailed book "Spitfires and Yellow Tail Mustangs" by Tom Ivie, Ivan Bonev was shot down on June 11, 1944 by fighters of the 52nd FG.

In the same book there is a description of the fight that took place that day and a small photo of the P-51 of Joseph F Riley.

Here is a portion of the combat report of Lt James Empey, who shot down two Me-109 that day:
"I located a lone Me-109 and got on his tail. He made a straight dive at the ground, I followed, giving him short bursts at about 250 yards. I saw the pilot bail out and the E/A crash into the ground."
"About eight P-51s were at 15000 feet forming to return home when a pilot ahead of me called out E/A below at 3 o'clock. We started down to attack 3 Me-109s stacked to the right. Another P-51 took the middle one and I took the one on the right. I fired several bursts, observing hits on the wings and fuselage. The canopy came off and the pilot bailed out."

I will provide more combat reports in case I will find them.

Regards
Marco

[Burdokva]

CENTURION, thank you for the info!
There were some conflicting sources regarding the date of Bonev's death, either 11.6 or 11.8 (I guess the latter is misspelling). It's more probably that he fell in combat with the P-51's.
The aerial duel on 11th June one of the few combats between Bulgarian Bf 109's and US P-51's that can be somewhat easily cross-referenced and analyzed. Bonev was also an experienced pilot, and Riley's P-51B should have been his fourth victory (I'm still searching for the list of his "kills"). Lastly, his death is one of the less glorious examples of air combat - according to his fellow fighter pilots and ground witnesses he was shot mid-air by an enemy fighter after deploying his parachute.

[Leendert]

Burdokva,

Pilot Ivan Bonev is mentioned in this article http://odin.prohosting.com/~vstoyano/Stoyanov%20Me109.htm
where he's credited with a shared B-24 on 1 August 1943.

The article itself seems an interesting read, and not only for Bonev.

In the book "In the Skies of Europe" by Hans Werner Neulen a reference is made to what you wrote: "Once again, there was an unpleasant incident on 11 June (1944), when a Bulgarian pilot was deliberately killed by American fighters while hanging helpless beneath his parachute."

Would this have been Bonev?

Regards,

Leendert

[Burdokva]

Yes, that should have been Bonev. His death is described in Stoyanov's book "We defended you, Sofia". As far as I know it is undergoing preparation for a fourth publishing (this time not censored as was before) and I'll try to get a copy.
There are two other book with memoirs of Bulgarian fighter pilots which could provide info, Todor Rozev's "Memories of a pilot" and Mihail Grigorov's "Eagles of Bulgaria". Sadly, both are very old, censored and hard to find (they haven't been published since the 1960s).

Here's a few links with the victories of Bulgarian pilots, including Bonev.
http://hometown.aol.com/bogdanovasla...bats_1944.html (note: includes only those up to 11th June)
http://hometown.aol.com/bogdanovasla...ianPlanes.html
http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=14516

[Theodor]

Bonev died in June, not in August.

[Dénes Bernád]

I have two Bulgarian fighter losses for 11 June 1944, the one of Poruchik Bonev (capital loss) and another one, flown by an unidentified pilot, who was damaged during landing by Mustangs.