Recce plane shot down over Romania August 1944

[Jochen Prien]

Gentlemen,
according to the information I got from former Lw. fighter pilot Johann Twietmeyer from 7./JG 77 he witnessed the shooting down of a twin engined recconnaissance a/c by Lt. Hans Riedel, which he took for a Mosquito then, over Romania in early August 1944, maybe around 3 August. The pair of Messerschmitts were on a transfer flight from Zilistea to Mizil when they were vectored to an enemy recconnaissance a/c on its way between Bukarest and Ploiesti. They spotted the a/c which however saw the two Bf 109s coming and tried to pull away with full throttle so that the German fighters could not close the gap. Lt. Riedel fired a long burst from a great distance, more from frustration than believing he would hit the enemy a/c, but to his and Twietmeyer's surprise he hit one engine which immediately started emitting dark smoke. The next moment the crew bailed out.

Since I have no further information concerning this incident I would be very grateful if someone from the community could give me some more details, in particular the exact date, the type of a/c, the names of the crew etc.

KR

Jochen Prien

[Horst Weber]

Originally Posted by Jochen Prien

Gentlemen,
according to the information I got from former Lw. fighter pilot Johann Twietmeyer from 7./JG 77 he witnessed the shooting down of a twin engined recconnaissance a/c by Lt. Hans Riedel, which he took for a Mosquito then, over Romania in early August 1944, maybe around 3 August. The pair of Messerschmitts were on a transfer flight from Zilistea to Mizil when they were vectored to an enemy recconnaissance a/c on its way between Bukarest and Ploiesti. They spotted the a/c which however saw te two Bf 109s coming and tried to pull away with full throttle so that the German fighters could not cloese the gap. Lt. Riedel fired a long burst from a great distance, more from frustration than believing he would hit the enemy a/c, but to his and Twietmeyer's surprise he hit one engine which immediately started emitting dark smoke. The next moment the crew bailed out.

Since I have no further information concerning this incident I would be very grateful if someone from the community could give me some more details, in particular the exact date, the type of a/c, the names of the crew etc.

KR

Jochen Prien

Dear Mr. Prien !

In my database of lost MOSQUITOES, compiled by the Air-Britain Publication, ordered in day-by-day files, no MOSQUITO a/c shows up in the area of request as shot up by Luftwaffe a/c's. The next day, August 4th, 1944, three P-38 LIGHTNING were shot down by ground-fire in Rumania. Could it be this case ?

Horst Weber

[kaki3152]

Going out on a limb, maybe a Pe-2?

[Rottler]

Hello Jochen,

please google the headwords "Mosquito 3 Aug 1944 Romania" and you will find the thread of this forum "Mosquito claim over Rumania on 3 August 1944" from 3 Aug 2007 (post #1) to 30 March 2014 (post #55).

Regards
Leo

[edwest2]

Here is a thread from 2013:

http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...?t=9657&page=2

[Jochen Prien]

Gentlemen,
many thanks for your answers. I must confess that I didn't see the thread that Leo and edwest pointed at back when this discussion took place. Unfortunately it didn't lead to a valid solution either.

So here are just a few more notes: As for the date: The incident took place between August 1st and 3rd, when pilots of III./JG77 were dispatched to Zilistea to collect new a/c after the crippling losses suffered on July 31st.

Since Johann Twietmeyer was a very trustworthy witness and had very precise memories I take it that he was convinced that the enemy a/c in trhis case was in fact a Mosquito, not a Pe 2. He went on in his letter that on another occasion some days later Riedel and he were tasked with the interception of another reconnaissance plane, this time a Pe 2, which they failed to engage. The fact that the enemy a/c was able to outpace the Messerschmitts at full throttle also seems to hint at a Mosquito rather than a Pe 2 which did not have that top speed.

The claims filed by III./JG 77 from mid July 1944 onwards are sadly incomplete in the RLM microfilms which may explain why there is no official document which refers to this incident and therefore we cannot know whether the claim was filed at all ( which is rather likely ) nor if it was confirmed, rejected or kept pending.

Anyway, thanks again for your time.

KR

Jochen Prien