Romanian fighter pilot Dan Vizanty’s exploits were largely forgotten by his countrymen in the aftermath of World War II.
On August 24, 1944, a poignant radio exchange took place between two fighter aces who, until the previous day, had been allies, comrades in arms and close friends. One of them, Captain Dan Vizanty, commanded Fighter Group 6 of the Royal Romanian Air Force (RRAF). The other, Colonel Eduard Neumann, led the Luftwaffe’s Romanian Sector Fighter Command. As Vizanty re called it, Neumann informed him:
“‘Dear Vizanty, in half an hour I will launch a strike on Bucharest. What will you do?’
“Without hesitation, I answer: ‘I’ll order the planes to take off.’
“Neumann: ‘I understand, everybody has to do his duty.’
“I answer: ‘There is no alternative. Sad reality. If God helps us, we will meet again one day to remember only the good times spent together.’”
Remarkably, 35 years after this discussion took place, the two protagonists would indeed meet again, at the International Fighter Pilot Convention in Munich, Germany.
Born on February 9, 1910, in Botosani, Romania, to an old Moldavian family of Greek heritage, Dan Vizanty hoped to become an actor in his youth. Following two years of studying drama, however, his ambitions turned to flying, a decision destined to supply him with drama aplenty.
After graduating from the Military School of Aviation at Cotroceni in 1931, Vizanty was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant aviator (second lieutenant), subsequently earning his air traffic control license and, in 1932, his military pilot’s license. He went on to qualify as a fighter pilot in 1934, was promoted to lieutenant on October 16, 1936, and to captain on April 17, 1939. During this period he flew a mixed bag of aircraft, including the French Morane-Saulnier 35 and 230 trainers, Potez 25 two-seat fighter-bomber, Romanian-built SET-7 trainer, British de Havilland Tiger Moth trainer, Canadian Consolidated Fleet Model 1 trainer, Italian Nardi FN.305 fighter-trainer, Polish PZL P-11f fighter and German Heinkel He-112 fighter.
When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Romania joined in as its ally. Vizanty later wrote in a magazine article that World War II represented “an extraordinary and very difficult fight for any military, which during the same conflict, fought in the beginning against the USSR in the East, the Anglo-American alliance inside the country and in the end, in the West, against the Germans.”
From the beginning, Vizanty distinguished himself as commander of Fighter Squadron 43 during the campaign to regain possession of Bessarabia. The unit’s P-11fs were already obsolescent, but between June 1941 and August 1942, Vizanty displayed boldness and daring in the course of more than 50 missions.
From August 1942 to August 1943, Vizanty served as chief officer for SubSecretary of State of the Air Force General Gheorghe Jienescu. After the massive American bomb strike on the Ploesti oil refineries on August 1, 1943, Jienescu sought to upgrade Romania’s air defenses in anticipation of further attacks. Vizanty was given command of Fighter Group 6 and tasked with protecting Bucharest and the refineries in the Ploesti-Campina region. Initially based in Pipera and later in Popesti-Leordeni, the group flew IAR 80s and 81s designed and built by the Industria Aero nautica Romana at Brasov.
In spite of their technical and numerical inferiority, Fighter Group 6’s three squadrons (59, 61 and 62) were credited with shooting down more than 90 four-engine bombers and 45 fighters while defending their home territory. Vizanty became a triple ace, downing 12 B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators, as well as three P-38 Lightnings.
Due to the toll taken on its bombers by Romanian and German fighters, as well as by intense anti-aircraft artillery fire, on June 10, 1944, the Fifteenth Air Force sent more than 100 P-38s to dive-bomb Ploesti. The plan was to come in at low altitude at an early hour—0800—surprising the defenders and attacking the refineries and any Axis aircraft on nearby airfields. The colossal Lightning strike proved to be a colossal failure. Early radar warnings sent Romanian and German fighters scrambling up to intercept the Americans.
For Vizanty and the IAR 81C pilots of Fighter Group 6, June 10 was their “Day of Glory,” but their opponents in the 1st and 82nd Fighter groups would call it the “Blackest Day.” The Romanians claimed 24 planes and lost just three—all apparently at the hands of the same pilot, 2nd Lt. Herbert Hatch of the 71st Squadron, 1st Fighter Group.
“Stub” Hatch, who was credited with five Focke-Wulf Fw-190s (the Americans often confused the IAR 80/81s with Fw-190s), would mention in his autobiography, An Ace and His Angel, the merits of Vizanty’s fighter group and the outstanding performance of the IAR 81C. For decades the Fifteenth Air Force believed the 50 percent casualties its Lightning units suffered that day were all at the hands of the Luftwaffe. It was not until the early 1980s that Hatch discovered who his adversaries had really been.
With the truce on August 23—a crucial moment in Romanian history—the country changed sides politically as well as militarily, thereafter fighting alongside the Allies. Captain Vizanty became commander of Fighter Group 1 but also retained command of Fighter Group 6. Both groups operated from Popesti-Leordeni, defending the Romanian capital from Luftwaffe attacks and adding 25 German aircraft to their joint tally.
Vizanty interceded when 1,590 American, British and Canadian airmen, “with my help, were released and sent to Foggia, Italy, after the truce of August 23, 1944, before the Soviet military invaded Bu – charest.” Eager to establish contact with the Americans, Vizanty entrusted the job of flying the highest-ranking American POW in Romania, Lt. Col. James Gunn III, to fellow ace Captain Constantin Cantacuzino, who squeezed Gunn into the radio compartment of an Me-109G and delivered him to Allied territory.
From September 8, 1944, until the end of the war, Vizanty led Fighter Group 1, which by then was using Me-109Gs— ironic, considering that his new enemies, the Germans, were flying the same models. Just after the German surrender, on May 10, 1945, the Romanian ace was promoted to lieutenant commander. By then he had accumulated more than 4,600 flying hours and racked up 16 air-to-air victories. According to the system used by the RRAF, which gave credit for shared kills and multi plied credits for multiengine bombers, his official score stood at 43. In recognition of his piloting skills, leadership and “outstanding heroism in the war,” Vizanty was awarded the highest military honors. Among them was the Order of Michael the Brave, 1st Class, Romania’s highest military decoration. According to Dénes Bernád’s book Rumanian Aces of World War 2, “He was one of only three surviving officers flying the Rumanian-designed aircraft to receive this award, and the only recipient to participate in the fighting against the Americans.”
When the Communist regime was installed in Romania after the war, Vizanty was forced to retire from the air force. In 1961 he was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for “plotting against social order,” but after two years was given an official pardon. Immediately upon his release, Vizanty sued the Communist government, demanding restoration of his civil rights and the goods seized from him during his incarceration. Although he actually won the lawsuit, the government subsequently relegated him to a number of jobs unconnected with his training—from salvaging war wrecks to planting medicinal plants and working as a technician, mechanic, crane operator and junior engineer.
Like most officers who had been commissioned in the Royal Romanian military, Vizanty was largely ignored by his countrymen in the war’s aftermath. His exploits received more acknowledgment in France, however, where in October 1976 he became an honorary member of the international aeronautical association Les Vieilles Tiges. After immigrating to Paris, in June 1977 Vizanty was given another award, the Silver Medal of Paris, presented to him by the mayor—and later president of France—Jacques Chirac. In exile, the ace became a journalist, but he still remained devoted to his homeland, often writing about Romanian aviation.
Vizanty died in Paris on November 12, 1992. In 2010, the centennial of his birth, Daniel Focsa published Dan Vizanty: The Destiny of a Fighter Pilot. The Museum of Aviation in Bucharest also developed a photo-documentary exposition exploring Vizanty’s many accomplishments. That exhibit—“The Rediscovered Ace…”— was presented at the Military Museum in Bucharest in November 2012.
Originally published in the September 2014 issue of Aviation History. To subscribe, click here.
