Romanian Torpedo Bombing

Romanian Heinkel He111H-6 Torpedo Capable Aircraft.

On the outbreak of World War Two, Romania possessed only a handful of torpedo-carrying aircraft, a situation which remained more or less unchanged for the rest of the war.

Seven Savoia-MarchettiS.55 Italian flying boats were purchased by Romania in the 1930’s — Axworthy (see sources) indicates six were ordered and received in early 1931 and the seventh in the summer of 1936, while Bernad and Roba report their acquisition as being in 1933. Be that as it may, seven were in service as of September 1939, originally formed into the “Escadrila S.55″ but later designated as the 102nd Hydro Reconnaissance and Bomber Squadron [or Escadrila 102 Hidro-informatie si Bombardament, if you will] which in the summer of 1941 participated in the attack on Russia under the command of Capitan Aviatori [Flight Captain] Constantin Afenduli.

It’s unclear whether the S.55’s ever flew any torpedo missions during the war, as by 1941 their aging condition had severely restricted their operational capacity — as a rule their mechanical unreliability limited their patrols to no more than twenty-odd miles from the coast. In fact, the few instances I’ve found of their combat missions for this period show them carrying 50-kilo depth charge bombs for antisubmarine duty; when later in the year Soviet warships *did* bombard Constanta, which certainly would have been within the S.55’s modest patrol zone, there’s no evidence of the S.55’s making any torpedo attacks.

By August of 1941 several of the S.55 flying boats had been grounded for essentially irrevocable repairs, and by March of 1942 only three machines were still in service, dropping to zero as of January 1943 (some sources suggest that one machine may have remained airworthy into 1944, but if so it would have been limited to homeland training duties or the like as none were listed with any regular service units after the end of 1942).

In response to Romanian requests for a more useful torpedo-carrying bomber, the Germans delivered twelve Heinkel He 111H-6 bombers in the first months of 1942, these entering service as the Escadrila 78 Bombardament Maritim. Again, it’s unclear whether this squadron ever flew any operational torpedo missions, only that they were equipped to do so, though as the war progressed the number of potential targets tended to grow more elusive, with Soviet warships virtually abandoning the western Black Sea by the fall of 1943, by which time demands from the front in southern Russia saw the Heinkels of Escadrila 78 Bombardament Maritim being deployed inland (the formation would see much action in Bessarabia and Moldavia in the spring and summer of 1944, and later fly missions in Transylvania against Hungarian and German targets, although I suspect they were *not* dropping torpedoes by then…).

Romanian efforts to obtain additional torpedo bombers were, alas, unsuccessful — the Germans declined their requests for Heinkel He 115 floatplanes in 1943, as well as ignoring Romanian interest in a handful of Fieseler Fi 167A-0 biplane torpedo bombers originally built for the Kriegsmarine’s stillborn aircraft carrier GRAF ZEPPELIN. On the other hand, Germany offered Romania a batch of four dozen Latecoere 298 torpedo bombers which had been seized from Vichy French stocks at the end of 1942; while elderly, they were still viable torpedo bombers which might have proven useful if they had ever been delivered, but for one reason or another the promised shipment proved to be yet another “no-show.”

As for the Arado Ar 95 floatplanes which I alluded to in an earlier posting, further investigation suggests another, ahem, lapse in memory on my case. Several of these torpedo-carrying machines were delivered to Chile prior to the war, while others ordered by Turkey appear to have been appropriated by the Germans for their own use. Eight Ar 95’s were on the strength of the third Staffel [squadron] of SA Gr. [See-Aufklarungsgruppe] 125 which transferred from the Baltic to Constanta in the fall of 1941, but that formation appears to have re-equipped with Bv 138 flying boats in the process, so it would seem as though no Arado 95 floatplanes ever operated over Romanian skies or shores.

So, when was the *last* instance of torpedo bombers in Romanian service? Well, the S.55’s had disappeared by the beginning of 1943, and the He111H-6’s were relegated to conventional bombing duties as of the spring of 1944, though presumably they *could* have been sent on a torpedo mission (had the need for one arisen) at that time. Sources indicate that of the nearly sixty assorted Heinkel He 111 bombers supplied to Romania during the war (thirty-odd He 111H-3’s, a dozen He 111H-6 torpedo carriers and the rest an assortment of He 111E’s and other older models for training duties), less than a dozen were still airworthy by the spring of 1945. Several Heinkel’s were retained although converted as transports by May 1946 — whether any were originally He 111H-6’s is anyone’s guess — but even these had been withdrawn from service before 1950. This would be the absolute latest date that the Romanian Air Force (not the Royal Romanian Air Force, mind you, as that ended with King Mihai’s exile in December 1947) could have possibly mounted an airborne torpedo strike, *assuming* of course that one of those last Heinkels was the correct model *and* an aerial torpedo could have been rounded up from the Constanta Naval Arsenal. In reality, though I’d have to say late 1943 or early 1944 would be the latest for such an undertaking.

SOURCES CONSULTED

Axworthy, Mark (with Cornel Scafes and Cristan Craciunoiu). THIRD AXIS, FOURTH ALLY: ROMANIAN ARMED FORCES IN THE EUROPEAN WAR, 1941-1945. Arms & Armour Press, 1995.

Bernad, Denes. RUMANIAN AIR FORCE: THE PRIME DECADE, 1938-1947. Squadron/Signal Publishing, 1999.

Green, William. WARPLANES OF THE THIRD REICH. Doubleday & Co., 1973.

Roba, Jean-Louis & Craciunoiu, Cristan. SEAPLANES OVER THE BLACK SEA: GERMAN-ROMANIAN OPERATIONS, 1941-1944. Editura Modelism, 1995.